Chapter 251 His Daughter
The children were playing in the woods when Emma started chasing after a small butterfly and soon ran out of sight.
Ethan and Sam became anxious. The woods were vast, and they knew Emma could easily get lost in there.
"Go back first. There aren't any dangerous birds around, and Emma shouldn't be in any danger," Betty said to the two children, who were about to rush off to seek help. She quickly stopped them in their tracks.
"I don't want to," protested Sam. "I want to go find Emma."
Though Emma usually wasn't scared of much, being alone terrified her, especially in such a large forest where every tree looked nearly identical, and there might be snakes or bugs.
While Emma wasn't afraid of bugs, she was afraid of squishy snakes and the chilling green spiders.
Ethan, determined like a little lion, tried to dash into the woods, but the servant held him back tightly.
At that moment, Sam regained his composure and soothed Ethan.
"This is our home and nothing will happen to Emma. I'll go find Grandmother right now and ask the bodyguards to search for her."
Ethan nodded reluctantly. He trusted Sam and believed in the safety systems of this house. Besides, the forest was part of the Lancaster family property, it might look big, but there were ways to get out no matter which direction one walked in. What he feared was that Emma would start crying from fright.
The servants had already informed Madam, who immediately dispatched more people to the woods. She even had her wheelchair prepared to go there herself.
Sophia was pushing her.
"Grandmother, where are you headed?" Gabriel asked, descending the stairs with documents in his hands.
Her heart racing with anxiety, Sophia saw Gabriel as a lifeline. After all, it was the Lancaster family's estate, and Gabriel would surely have a way to find Emma––Emma was his daughter, and Gabriel would never leave her in peril.
In her haste, Sophia was about to spill everything, but Madam swiftly grabbed her hand, silencing her intended revelation.
"We are just going out to stroll in the garden," Madam said with authority.
"Isn't it time for dinner?" he asked.
"I'm not hungry and we'll eat later."
Gabriel stepped forward with concern: "Are you feeling unwell?"
Madam rolled her eyes. "I simply do not have an appetite. You have the family doctor examine me every day. Aren't you reassured by that?"
Gabriel frowned and seemed about to speak further.
Madam dismissed him with impatience: "Don't you have urgent matters to attend to? Best be off."
Gabriel looked at Sophia and said, "Please take good care of Grandmother."
Sophia hummed in agreement. She treasured her Grandmother's kindness and would look after her without needing to be told.
Gabriel didn't notice anything unusual as he left, and Sophia, in a state of high anxiety, hurriedly pushed her grandmother towards the woods.
Having regained her composure, Sophia realized she had almost acted rashly. She was at the Lancaster family estate, and grandma surely could help find Emma.
Sophia was grateful that her grandmother had stopped her; otherwise, she would have recklessly exposed the existence of Ethan and Emma.
She knew she wasn't yet strong enough to fight Gabriel for custody of all three children.
As Gabriel drove away, about thirty feet from the estate's main gate, something in the woods caught his eye.
He stopped the car to take a closer look.
Emma had been wandering in the woods for twenty minutes. She had failed to catch the butterfly and now was lost.
As she walked on, her feet ached, and the more anxious she became, the harder it was to find her way.
Feeling scared and on the verge of tears, she wondered why Ethan and Sam hadn’t come looking for her.
The sighting of a revolting green spider had nearly scared her to death.
"Ethan, Sam, hurry up, it's so cold here," Emma whispered, holding back her tears.
Ethan had always said to stay calm, as calmness leads to finding solutions.
She had tried to navigate by the sun, but still couldn't find her way out.
"Ethan, Sam, I'll count to ten, and if you don't show up, I'll never talk to you again!"
Emma closed her eyes and began counting.
"One."
"Two."
...
"Eight."
A snake slithered silently towards Emma, its tongue flicking, its color almost blending perfectly with the damp forest floor, making it nearly imperceptible.
"What are you doing here?"
Suddenly, a voice came from behind her, sending a shiver through Emma's body, and it was—bad guy daddy's voice!
Emma's first thought was of panic and her second was to pull out her mask and put it on.
"Don't move!"
"Ahh..." Emma screamed when bad guy daddy scooped her up wholly.
Because of Emma's movement, the snake, startled, moved rapidly towards her. Gabriel also noticed the snake attacking Emma and swiftly picked her up with one hand while seizing the snake with precision by its neck with the other.
"Ah, a snake!" Emma realized what was happening and turned to see a snake with gleaming fangs inches away, feeling as if it had bitten her.
"Wow, waaah, I've been bitten by a snake, I've been bitten, I'm going to die…"
Gabriel tossed the harmless snake far away and hugged the little girl tightly, his deep voice softening a touch.
"No, you haven't been bitten."
"But, sob, my, sob, hand really hurts, sob…" Emma cried, gasping for air between sobs.
Gabriel picked up her hand to take a look and saw there was a small cut on the back of her hand.
"It's not a bite, I scared the snake away already. It's just a little scratch. I'll take you to get it cleaned up, and it will stop hurting soon."
He seemed to give all his tenderness to Emma at that moment, comforting her patiently and gently as she cried her little heart out. He wanted to help her wipe away her tears by taking off her mask.
The little girl suddenly clutched her mask tightly, her muffled voice coming through.
"Don't take off my mask."
Did this little girl really think he was some kind of bad guy planning to kidnap her? If he were to kidnap someone, he wouldn't care whether they were cute or not.
When the little one wasn't willing, he didn't insist and carried her out of the woods instead.
Emma, now knowing she hadn't been bitten, finally stopped crying. However, she was still very scared, so she didn't refuse being carried by "bad guy daddy." She even felt secure enough to wrap her arms around his neck and lean on his broad shoulders.
It was also his strong hands that had lifted her high up into the air last time.
Emma felt wronged again.
Why was "bad guy daddy" mean to Mommy?
If "bad guy daddy" had been nice to Mommy, she could have had an amazing dad.
When they got to where the car was parked, Gabriel intended to take her back to the villa to treat the cut. But seeing her shivering and still in pain, he sighed internally.
Little girls are so delicate.
Such a small wound would scab over in no time.
If she were his daughter... well, he'd probably be fussier than the girl herself—out of pure affection!
Gabriel rummaged in the trunk of the car for a first aid kit, found some iodine, and band-aids, then shut the trunk and set the little girl on top to sit down comfortably.
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