Arthur's POV
Catherine had spent all her time shopping for Mia. She had even made me take the day off just so I could go with her. As we opened the door of the house, Mia who was seated on the couch alone while being watched by the maids and guards and once she took notice of us she ran away as usual.
"Arthur" Catherine stared at me with such watery and sad eyes.
"She will come around okay. Go and show her all the things you bought for her" I urged Catherine so she wouldn't get more upset.
"But what if she doesn't like it?" Catherine was more discouraged at this point.
"She will love it, trust me, just go and give it to her" I brought out a teddy bear from one of the bags and handed it over to her.
I slowly walked behind her to see how Mia would react.
"Mia darling I got you something" Catherine brought out the teddy she was hiding behind her.
As usual Mia didn't respond to her, she sat on the floor leaning on the bed.
Catherine soon joined her to sit on the floor.
"Look it's a light red teddy bear, do you like it?" Catherine showed it to Mia in the hopes that she would respond to her but Mia didn't even utter a word. She tried her best to move away from Catherine as much as possible. Catherine kept trying to get closer to her and that scared Mia a lot.
"I don't want it. Please leave me alone… go away… go away.." Mia kept on repeating.
Poor Catherine just dropped the teddy on the floor and ran away. I tried to call out to her but she didn't respond.
She went into out room locked herself in the room.
"Catherine, please open the door. It's okay,you can show her the other things you bought. Maybe she doesn't like teddy bears" I kept on banging on the door, pleading with Catherine to open the door for me.
"Arthur didn't you see? Didn't you hear? My own daughter asked me to go away. She doesn't like me, she doesn't want anything to do with me" Catherine kept on crying out from inside the room.
"That's not true Catherine, she just.." I was talking before Catherine interrupted.
"Just stop Arthur. Stop trying to give me false hope. Just leave me alone" Catherine thundered. Catherine had never been a cool headed person, she always reacted to the littlest things.
I just couldn't take it anymore, I stormed into Mia's room and grabbed her.
"What is your problem? What do you really want? Why can't you just reciprocate the love we are giving you? We have given you everything. We gave you a comfortable life, you have so many maids at your beck and call. What else do you want?" I kept on shouting at her angrily as I squeezed her elbow.
I looked at Mia and she looked so terrified, she had begun to cry and I realized myself. Seeing her so sad broke my heart into a thousand pieces.
I carried her and made her sit on the bed and knelt before her.
"Mia, please forgive me but I really don't know what you want. Look, you have made your mum cry so much all because she bought you gifts" I tried to sound as calm and gentle as I could then I went to the sitting room and brought out the other things we had bought for her.
"Look we bought all this for you and you just make us sad everyday. We are your parents and we love you more than anything in this world. Please tell us what we are doing wrong" I kept on pleading with my 4 year old daughter who had now stopped crying but was still very speechless. She didn't say anything to me, she just stared at me and I got tired at some point and left the room for her. I went to my room but the door was still locked, I cannot believe Catherine had locked me outside our room.
I was so tired and it was late already, no one had dinner that night. Neither me nor Catherine had the appetite. I passed by Mia's room and noticed that the door was half closed. She was sleeping and looked so peaceful and innocent but what amazed me more was the fact that she was putting on the pyjamas that Catherine had bought earlier that day for her, not just that but she was hugging the teddy she had rejected earlier. I rushed towards our room and knocked on the door.
"Please go away. Leave me alone Arthur" Catherine knew that I was the one.
"Catherine just come out I want to show you something. It is really amazing please just come out please" I kept on insisting over and over until Catherine finally gave in.
"What is it?" She opened the door roughly and almost slammed it at my face.
"Damn you could be more careful you know" I was rubbing my nose which she hit with the door.
"Are you showing me or I should go back inside?" She rolled her eyes.
I nodded my head as a yes and asked her to follow me to Mia's room, more like I dragged her since she refused to come with me.
"Arthur, please let me go. I really don't want to see her now" Catherine kept trying to free her tiny wrist which I grabbed and kept dragging her to Mia's room.
"Take a look for yourself" I pointed to sleeping Mia.
Catherine's eyes widened in amazement and she looked so happy.
"I bought that for her. See Arthur she is hugging the teddy" Catherine was so excited and began to act like a child herself.
"I can see that. I brought you here to remember" I was feeling on top of the world at this point.
"I can't believe this. She..she" at this point Catherine was just speechless and maybe her heart couldn't contain the joy and she began to cry.
"It's just one step at a time and we will get there soon" I encouraged Catherine who went to sit on the bed beside Mia and began to make backwards strokes on Mia's hair. Mia opened her eyes and was waking up, Catherine was frightened and stood up but Mia pulled her back and continued her sleep.
Catherine gasped in amazement.
"Did you see that?" Catherine was so surprised.
"Yes but we have to leave her so she can sleep now. She is going to school tomorrow" I reminded Catherine who wanted to sleep in Mia's room which she ended up doing.
The next morning Mia ate her breakfast at the dining table with us for the first time. She allowed Catherine to feed her and clothe her, normally she would just run away from us.
"Mia do you want more?" Catherine asked Mia who had finished what was on her plate.
"Yes please" Mia responded really quickly. I couldn't eat, I was still shocked like I kept blinking my eyes and pinching myself to check if I was dreaming or something.
"Bye daddy,bye mummy" Mia picked up her school bag and left the house with her driver.
"Hello Earth to Arthur,Earth to Arthur" Catherine kept waving her hands in front of my face.
I looked so dumbfounded she just had to do it.
"Are you okay Arthur? You haven't even touched your food and do you realize you are running late for work?" Catherine began to arrange her bag. She was putting on a horse blood two piece pant lady slim suit which went for about 20 to 30 thousand dollars. She kept on tapping me.
"When did you buy that?" I found myself asking
"When we went shopping, why? Don't you like it?" She lowered her eyebrows and I just kept on staring at her.
I mean what is happening I was so confused about everything happening around me.
"Eat your food quickly, we have a meeting to attend" she reminded me and that was all I needed to hear.
Reality dawned on me that I had only 20 minutes left before the meeting.
The meeting went well thankfully but I couldn't stop myself from thinking about Mia's sudden change of attitude.
"Are you thinking about Mia?" Catherine walked into my office without my notice.
"It's quite difficult not to considering her sudden change in behavior" I told her not looking away from my laptop that was infront of you.
"I know, I am also concerned but more than being concerned I am happy. This is what we have been looking for all this while so why should we start worrying over it" Catherine tried to explain.
"Although you are right Catherine, the speed at which she changed is my concern. People just don't change overnight" I tried my best to make her see things from my perspective
"I know but let's just see how far we can go with this" Catherine suggested.
I was so confused and I felt like I was left helpless. No one would want a daughter who will love you today and run away from you the next day. I wanted to know what was going on but there was no one who had answers to my questions.
A year went by so quickly and Mia changed completely. I was indeed a very happy father. Mia had started talking and being friendly, she began to play with other kids and things seemed to have fallen into place until one unfortunate day we were ripped off everything. Everything was taken from us just like that in the blink of an eye.
Catherine's POVMy family was having dinner like every other day until Mia began to cough."What's wrong with you Mia. Are you okay?" I gave her a glass of water to help her clear her throat."I'm okay mummy" she smiled and continued with her food. She soon excused herself from the dining and went to the room.Just then 8 men dressed all dressed in black, well armed and wearing masks flung my door open. I tried to run but they pointed a gun at Arthur, stopping us from making any move."Where is your daughter?" One of the men wrapped his hand around my neck and held me at gunpoint "What do you want? We will give you anything, just take anything you want and leave us alone" I pleaded with them ."Shut up and get us your daughter. She is what we need" another one ordered and I began to shiverI looked at Arthur and he gave me a disapproving look, I'm not sure that the men had noticed the gesture."I don't know where she is" I tried to sound as convincing as I could."Are you playing som
At Arthur's and Catherine's home. As expected a lot of police officers had surrounded the place already, doing their investigations but yet not a single evidence was found. Due to the fame and wealth of Mr and Mrs Arthur, the media were also there, taking pictures and videos. No one even bothered about the 5 year old who just saw a blood bath in front of her, the police kept on dragging as many corpses as they could out of the house, about 100 workers had lost their lives. A pretty blonde putting on glasses walked into the place with the sounds of her shoe echoing as everywhere had become quiet. It was very difficult not to notice the lady dressed in a red blazer jacket. She was the only one who walked towards Mia that was seated on the floor,crying her eyes out. She went and tapped the little girl in the shoulder. "You know this is all your fault" the lady whispered in Mia's ear. Those words alone were enough to send cold shivers down Mia's spine. Mia looked up to the blonde who
The days, the weeks and the months all went by so quickly and Lilian had kept Mia in her custody in the hopes that she would be able to get some kind of support since Mia was to be the next of kin of both of her parents.She was right actually as things began to work in her favor. She finally got custody of Mia and now Mia is being mistreated by her. Mia's autism makes it difficult for Lilian to leave her all by herself without keeping an eye on her or having someone do it for her. Mia got so many nannies and babysitters but none of them could go a full month without quitting their job. At one point Lilian almost murdered Mia. Mia on the other hand was doing well in school, her autism makes it very easy for her to understand things, a normal human being won't understand too quickly.But having good grades wasn't enough, everyone in class tried their best to avoid Mia as she was tagged the "weirdo ''. She was always bullied and no one wanted to be around her. Mia faced rejection at its
Lilian was not ready to stop her search, she did everything in her power to find Mia but she just couldn't. She finally gave in and decided to report the issue to the police."And how long has she been missing?" A police officer began to question Lilian who was seated in his office to file a missing child case."I just noticed her disappearance this afternoon" Lilian was lying."And what did you do about it?" The officer began to question Lilian because he doubted her words. Lilian looked so terrified it was easy for anyone to tell that she was lying and she was terrible at it."I searched for her in the house and neighborhood. I thought she just went out to play but now I'm thinking it was more than that. Please officer, you have to help me find my niece, she is all I have left of my sister" Lilian burst into fake tears as a way of hiding her fear and also confusing the officer. Her tricked finally worked.He lowered his eyebrows and looked at her then ordered his fellow officers to
Twenty four hours had passed already and Lilian was supposed to be waking up from her induced coma. The corps were too impatient to wait until the next morning before they began to question her. They were already at the hospital, there was doubt about how terrified Lilian looked when she saw them approaching her room.Suddenly, there was an unexpected power outage in the hospital and everywhere was dark, they could hardly see even with their phone torches on. The outage went on for 30 minutes with the corps trying to figure out what went wrong. Power was restored but Lilian was nowhere to be found. Immediately, they placed a call to all stations ordering for her search, the supposed doctor who attended to her wasn't even in the hospital.The hospital staff even claimed that they didn't have such a doctor working there. The corps were more than confused as to where she had gone. A stop and search was immediately conducted on every moving vehicle in the street.Lilians's sudden disappea
The police siren could be heard by everyone driving round the area as the car seemed to have no speed limit, it was ready to crush and get rid of anything that would stand in its way. It was a clear pursuit. They were so close to catching the lady, whose car was now clearly in sight.The lady looked at her rear view mirror and found out that the corps were after her.Lilians's POVOh shit! How could they have caught up with me so easily? What to do? What to do?. I was panicking and that really made me very confused. If I stop the car now and pretend as if I know nothing then they might not arrest me but if I keep going then surely they will arrest me."We are asking you to stop your car now. We know you are Miss Lilian and you have been declared wanted, it is better you surrender now or face the consequences of your actions" the Corp said in a megaphone installed in their car.So that means they already know that I am Lilian, damn I thought this disguise would work. I had to make a ru
At the airportLilians's POVMy heart beat increased its pace and I could feel that any moment, my heart would just jump out from my chest. So many security measures had been put in place in the airport, my Visa and passport had also been banned so I could only leave the country with my fake visa and passport. I was in the queue and it was my turn to check my thumbprint.It was a new means used to verify if the individual in the passport is actually the person traveling and the security in the airport was enough evidence for me to know that they actually came for me. They were checking mostly the women."Okay ma'am you are clear to go" the lady that was attending to me told me and gave me a big smile as she handed me my passport all thanks to this fake thumb.I was so relieved but the game wasn't over yet, so I submitted my luggage and it was checked. We were informed that the plane would take off in the next 5 minutes."The flight going to UAE, Dubai has been delayed" someone suddenl
Mia bent behind a car parked on the street to pick the ball when she heard some voices and perceived some cigarettes."We have to be really careful when we go in there to get Miss Melinda tonight, she is very precious and we cannot afford to hurt her if not we won't get any money as ransom" a man smoking cigarettes was explaining to two other guys who stood in front of him.Mia refused to get up at that point, she stayed there to listen to their entire conversation and they didn't even notice the little child that bent down behind their car when they got in and drove away. According to what Mia heard, they had come to survey the place and find out how far a police station was from the location. They were to come at 9pm."They are coming, we should be ready" Mia kept on repeating to a very confused Melinda."Mia calm down and tell me who is coming" Melinda bent down and held Mia's shoulder."You have to leave, they want you," Mia replied.Mia just couldn't explain everything she heard