Chapter 411 What a Clever Girl!
The ‘bad man’ was undoubtedly Arthur.
One step ahead, Oliver bent down and hugged the small child.
Tina clung to his neck before turning her gaze toward Arthur, whom she regarded as a bad man.
"You..."
Arthur, sensing the child's resistance, maintained a distance of one meter, not daring to come closer. However, his gaze was fixed on Tina, his eyes not leaving her for even a second.
"This is Tina. We found her at the Windsor Group today," Natalie explained. Her attitude toward Arthur softened slightly due to Tina’s presence.
"She... is really..." Arthur struggled to find the words, as if his ability to speak had diminished, "... her mother..."
He was overcome with emotion. The image of the child before him blurring with memories of Flora. Although Tina bore only a slight resemblance to Flora, it was enough to stir Arthur's yearning.
Oliver, having listened to his brother's fragmented words for long enough, said slowly, "We don’t know who her mother is. I’ve arranged for a paternity test between you and her, but we won’t have the results until midnight."
"Daddy, he’s not a bad man?” Tina, picking up on the nuances of the adults' conversation, began to understand that Arthur was not a ‘bad man’.
Arthur, who was likely Tina’s daughter, felt a sharp twinge in his heart.
Now adept at handling the child, Oliver held Tina with one arm while playfully pinching her cheek with the other, reassuring her, "No, he’s not."
"Then why does he look the same as you?" Tina asked with the innocence of a child, pointing at Arthur and then poking Oliver's face lightly.
Arthur's eyes widened, a tumult of emotions inside him as he watched, envious of the connection between Oliver and Tina.
‘Why is it that Tina only touched Oliver's face and not mine?’
Natalie sensed the need to clarify Tina’s confusion and patiently explained, "Tina, they don’t look alike."
She gestured toward Oliver and continued, "He is the older brother…"
Then, she pointed at Arthur and added, “And he’s the younger brother.”
Tina, her head tilted in thought, looked at Arthur several times, processing this new information before she obediently called out, "Uncle!"
Arthur looked at Oliver with a questioning gaze.
‘Why is my daughter calling Oliver ‘Daddy’ and calling me ‘Uncle’?’
Oliver naturally understood Arthur’s thoughts. However, he only smiled and said, “What a clever girl!”
Tina, basking in the glow of the praise, responded with an even brighter smile.
Natalie, witnessing this exchange, felt a little sympathetic. Initially, she was angry at Arthur because of Flora. However, she pitied him after his exchange with Oliver. In the end, she stopped this nonsense, carrying Tina back to the high chair as she said, “Tina, you haven’t finished your meal.”
Arthur, meanwhile, took a seat nearby. His eyes were glued to Tina as she struggled with her spoon and food with a serious expression on her face. His eyes were filled with praise and pride.
"Tina, can I feed you?" Arthur ventured, his tone gentle, hesitant. He refrained from calling himself ‘Daddy’. Perhaps it was out of fear that Tina was not his and Flora’s child.
"No!" Tina refused adamantly, moving her bowl away from Arthur. She was clearly resistant to Arthur.
Oliver could not help but chuckle, amused by his brother. Then, he turned his attention to Natalie, urging, "Eat. You hardly touched your food."
"Tina, eat properly,” Natalie said before she turned to Oliver and added, “You should eat as well.”
Arthur's gaze lingered on Tina, filled with a mixture of hope and longing, but the child, who was possibly his daughter, did not return even a fleeting glance in his direction. Each moment of disregard felt like a fresh wound to his heart.
‘Is this some form of retribution for the way I had treated Flora in the past?’
As dinner time wound down, Liam said, “It’s almost bedtime.”
Liam had taken care to prepare a clean bed complete with fresh blankets for Tina earlier that day.
Upon hearing that it was almost time for bed, Tina clung to Natalie. With tears brimming in her eyes, she insisted on sleeping with Natalie.
Natalie, unable to bear the thought of causing the child any distress, especially considering the possibility that Tina might be Flora's daughter, relented with little resistance. Moreover, it seemed like Tina would cry as soon as she said no.
"Honey, you shouldn't sleep with us tonight. I’m worried you might accidentally hurt her,” Natalie said meaningfully before going upstairs.
To this, Oliver said jokingly, “I guess we should really hold off on having a child of our own. It might just disturb our married life."
…
The master bedroom was Oliver’s private domain. As such, Natalie brought Tina to her own room, gently placing the child in the center of the bed before lying down beside the child to help soothe her into sleep.
Yet, sleep seemed elusive for Tina, who lay in Natalie's embrace, clutching at her hand, her eyes wide and curious in the dim light.
Curious about the child's past, Natalie ventured, "Tina, what's your mommy's name?"
"I don't know," Tina replied.
"Then how do you know my name?” Natalie pressed gently. Due to her suspicion that Tina might indeed be Flora's child, she no longer thought Tina mistook her for another person.
“Photo! There’s also beautiful mama!” Tina said.
Natalie felt her heart leap, a mix of surprise and anticipation in her voice as she asked, "Jane?"
Tina's confusion was apparent, looking as though she did not know who Jane was.
…
Meanwhile, in the living room, Oliver received information about Tina from his subordinates. The details were scant. They had managed to determine that Tina had only been seen in Paykston within the last two or three days. Prior to that, there seemed to be no record of her presence in the country.
Given Tina's proficiency in both English and French, Oliver had directed his men to check the list of passengers of international flights and cruises. However, their efforts yielded no matches to Tina's profile, leaving the mystery of her arrival and her caretaker unsolved.
The clues they did have pointed to a child of privilege; Tina was dressed in high-end children's apparel and exhibited manners unmatched by her peers, suggesting she might have traveled by private jet.
Outside of his interactions with Natalie, Oliver was typically a man of few words, a trait that extended to his dealings with Arthur.
With the atmosphere heavy with anticipation and unspoken thoughts, Arthur found himself caught in a tumult of emotions. He naturally did not feel like talking at all at this moment.
The two men sat in a tacit pact of silence on the couch, waiting through the night until Jamie arrived, delivering the results of the paternity test in person.
"STR loci polymorphism, confirming the father-daughter relationship. Paternity index exceeds 100,000."
Oliver, after a brief glance at the document, passed the paternity test results to Arthur.
Arthur’s eyes widened. He sat motionless on the sofa for an hour as he clutched the document in his hands.
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