Chapter 2: Dumber than Before

The posture Kostyantyn was in was quite uncomfortable.

Noticing the same, his wife ***** chewed on one side of her lower lip. She was hesitant to pull them apart. But seeing how her baby girl showed no desire to release her father, Irene finally took a step forward.

However, her husband lifted a hand in the air before she'd even taken her second step in their direction.

Irene halted. She subconsciously glanced at Dimitri.

The boy was staring at his baby sister emotionlessly.

Did his heart not hurt seeing her crying face?!

How much was the child suffering to cry like that?

Irene turned her head away with a pout.

There was no point looking for any comfort from that evil gremlin!

The people in the bedroom didn't speak a word. The only sound breaking the silence was the heart-piercing sobs coming from the little girl.

After crying for nearly ten minutes, Patricia finally lifted her face from her father's neck. She pulled back enough to look at his face. Then, she said through words interspersed by hiccups:

"Please don't be mad at me. No matter what others say, I swear I've never harmed anyone."

Kostyantyn tried to break free from her embrace. He wanted to take a seat beside her and have a proper conversation.

However, Patricia completely misunderstood the gesture. She thought her father was leaving her once again. She mistakenly believed he'd lost all trust in her character and refused to forgive her. So she quickly clung herself to him.

"I would never do something like that. Especially not to her. Please, believe me. You know me. You watched me grow up. You know me better than anyone else on this planet. I swear I didn't do any of the things others accused me of!"

"My baby, of course we believe you."

Irene's heart ached. Her daughter seemed genuinely frightened at the prospect of her parents possibly misunderstanding her.

Kostyantyn shared his wife's sentiment. Although he didn't love Patricia to the point of no longer being able to distinguish right from wrong, he had enough faith in his her to know she wouldn't have attempted at the life of another child. Patricia was only a child after all. He refused to believe she'd already been tainted by the evil of this world.

Behind them, Dimitri's face had darkened considerably. Unlike the adults in the room who were both worried for their daughter's emotional condition, Dimitri felt ridiculous that Patricia was making a scene to guilt trip his parents against holding her accountable for her own actions.

If a single frown from Patricia would normally be enough to get their mother fully wrapped around her fingers... What was it exactly that she'd done this time for her to resort to actual crying in order to save herself?

Dimitri was startled out of his thoughts when Patricia raised her voice out of the blue:

"You're the best father in the world! I don't want any other father! You're the only one I want! I don't want to lose you. Please, Mommy, Daddy, don't abandon me. I'll be good. I'll be obedient."

Patricia suddenly looked up. Her eyes immediately made contact with Dimitri's narrowed ones.

"Dimitri, I— I won't call you brother ever again! You don't have to love me or consider me your sister. I got it. I'm not your real sister. I'm a fake. I won't try to replace the real one. I'll even stay out of your sight if it makes you happy, but... don't be angry at me anymore. Please. I know you won't believe me, but I honestly have nothing to do with all that's happened to you."

She was hysterically pleading her own innocence in front of her family members. From the way she spoke, it would seem like she fully believed they would know what she was talking about. However, the people being asked for forgiveness suddenly felt like they hadn't been thinking of the same thing as Patricia from the beginning. The part addressed to Kostyantyn made sense considering the 'incident', but what in the world had she done to Dimitri to justify the desperate attempt at clearing her name?

The adults turned to Dimitri with a questioning expression on their faces.

However, Dimitri didn't spare them a glance. He didn't tear his gaze away from Patricia as closed the distance separating them from each other.

"You can even hit me if you want," Patricia said when he approached her. She even let go of his father, as if giving him full access to do whatever he pleased to her.

While Irene gasped and Kostyantyn looked back and forth between their children with a viable frown, Dimitri looked at Patricia's flushed face with chilly eyes.

The iciness in his gaze worsened when confronted with the expression on Patricia's face. She had never been a good actress. There was no way she could fake such a genuine expression. Her eyes even brightened up with an emotion Dimitri failed to describe into words. The closest he got to it was hope, but it didn't seem to be sufficient considering its intensity.

Did she seriously think he would hit her?

Casting a final look at her tear-soaked face, Dimitri exited the room.

Patricia's shoulders slumped.

Her mind replayed his darkening expression as he stared at her face, again and again.

That definitely meant he didn't believe her. Dimitri still thought the destruction of his career and reputation was all her doing.

Patricia wasn't lying, though. She wouldn't stop him from hitting her if it meant he'd believe in her. She even admitted to being a fake, what more could she do? They were all dead already.

And even if they were still alive, she had nothing to her name anymore. The only thing she could offer him was the plastic bag she used as blanket and the pieces of hand-stiched rags she had for clothes. She wouldn't mind handing over the tattered potato sack she inherited from Mia Granny to use as a jacket if it would help communicate her sincerity.

A sob escaped her lips.

Even in death, Dimitri couldn't bring himself to believe in her innocence. She was bound to be forever alone. Soon, even their mother would look down at her in disdain. That's why she'd refused to look at her face until now. She couldn't bare seeing disappointment and hatred targeted at her on the face of her most cherished person.

"Yes. Right. I suspect she might have hit her head during the fall. It seems rather severe, considering the amount of idiocy that's left her mouth since the moment she opened her eyes. Right now. Just do whatever it takes to get here within an hour. We will pay double if needed. I'm afraid Patricia may have become dumber than she originally was."

Kostyantyn and Irene stared at each other. The expression on the face of the wife reflected the one on the face of the husband.

The couple turned to the door simultaneously.

"Dr. Blooms is on the way."

Dimitri appeared before them. His demeanour was that of a person living through a normal day... as if those words hadn't just been uttered by his mouth.

The brat even dared return their incredulous gaze with an arched eyebrow, as if asking them whether something was wrong!

Had it not been for her precious baby who appeared to be at the brink of desperation with her face in her palms, Irene would have smacked that evil gremlin a couple times on the head. Then they'd see who the real dumb one was. Hmph!

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