Chapter 191 Crawling Through a Doggy Door, Insisting on Visiting
On Saturday morning, after Scarlett and her daughter finished breakfast and got dressed up, they happily headed out to visit Orion's home at his invitation.
Yara was bouncing along as she walked out of the elevator, looking absolutely delighted. Suddenly, she stopped in her tracks when she spotted someone sitting on a flower bed in the neighborhood.
It was Hayden.
Yara was surprised. Her little legs immediately ran over. "Hayden, what are you doing here?"
Hayden, wearing a small backpack, stood up. Seeing Yara in her pretty little dress, his eyes lit up. Guessing she was going to visit someone, he made up an excuse.
"I came to play with you!"
Yara pressed her lips together and twisted her little body awkwardly. "I'm going to visit someone. I can't play with you."
Just as he thought, she was going visiting. Hayden's eyes, scheming with his little plan, looked behind her to see Scarlett, also dressed beautifully. She looked really nice.
"What are you doing here?" Scarlett walked up and looked at Hayden.
Although Hayden hadn't been very friendly to her since that last time, she couldn't just ignore him.
Hayden stared with wide eyes but didn't say anything. Yara said, "He said he came to play with me."
Scarlett looked around but didn't see anyone accompanying Hayden. Just as she was about to ask, she heard Hayden say, "I came by myself."
Scarlett looked thoughtful, her gaze falling on Hayden. His hair was messy, his little face was as dirty as a little tabby cat, his white pants were stained with mud, and he was dirty all over.
She'd never seen him like this. Her heart softened, and she bent down to ask, "Did you sneak out?"
Hayden nodded.
For some reason, seeing him like this, Scarlett guessed he might have run away after being wronged.
She asked, "Why did you sneak out?"
Hayden pressed his lips together. "I wanted to play with Yara."
Seeing he wouldn't say more, Scarlett didn't press further. She told him, "Yara has to go out today." After a two-second pause, she added, "I'll call your dad to take you back."
Hayden immediately hugged her legs. "No, I don't want to go back. If I go back, I'll get beaten to death."
Scarlett frowned. "Who's hitting you?"
"That woman. She hits me when no one's looking." Hayden said.
Without guessing, Scarlett knew he meant Octavia. Recalling Octavia's expression that day, she was silent for two seconds before saying, "Tell your dad, he'll handle it."
"She's really good at lying. My dad doesn't believe me either."
If she hadn't seen Octavia's expression that day, she wouldn't have believed a mother would hit her own child. After thinking for a few seconds, she said, "You should call the police."
"I'll call the police next time. Today I don't want to go back. I want to go with you guys." Hayden decided to be stubborn, he was determined to go visiting with them.
Scarlett was in a difficult position. She was going visiting and couldn't take him along. After thinking it over, she decided to call Ambrose to pick up Hayden. Just as she was about to pull out her phone, Hayden started crying loudly.
"I don't want to go back. You can't leave me behind."
Hayden cried and shouted. Passersby looked over, especially some older people who liked to meddle. One came forward to lecture her.
"Such a cute child, how can you bear to make him cry?"
"You're such a biased mother, your daughter is all dressed up pretty, but your son is filthy."
Hearing this, Hayden immediately hugged her legs and cried even harder. Scarlett rubbed her forehead, feeling a headache coming on. She tried to explain to the approaching elderly person.
"He's not my child."
"These two kids look so much like you. You say he's not your child, who's going to believe that? Hurry up and take him home to comfort him. Look how pitiful he is crying." The old person advised.
Scarlett didn't want to be watched by a crowd here, so she had no choice but to take Hayden home first. Whatever needed to be dealt with could be dealt with at home.
At Silver Oak Heights, because Hayden had disappeared, everyone had searched the entire villa without finding him.
Ambrose was in the living room, checking the security footage. He discovered that Hayden had crawled through a dog hole to escape the security's watch. His brow furrowed as he picked up his phone to call the bodyguards to search for him, when Scarlett's call came through.
He pressed the answer button. "What's wrong?"
"Hayden ran to Lakeside Garden," Scarlett said emotionlessly.
"Come pick him up!"
After his bath, Hayden changed into clean clothes and ran out, only to see Scarlett on the phone. He was immediately on guard.
"You're calling my dad again. Even so, I'm not going back today." Hayden pouted, determined not to go back no matter what.
"I want to go with you guys."
"We're not going to play. We're going visiting." Scarlett explained helplessly.
"Then I'll go visiting too." Hayden tugged at Scarlett's hand.
Scarlett looked at his tears and couldn't bring herself to say anything harsh. On the other end of the phone, Ambrose said.
"Even if I bring him back, he'll just sneak out again. You watch him for the day, and I'll pick him up tonight."
Hayden heard Ambrose's words and nodded repeatedly. "Just let me go, please? I'll go back with my dad tonight, okay?"
Scarlett looked at Hayden's tearful face and his pleading attitude. She couldn't harden her heart. After confirming multiple times that he would go back in the evening, she finally nodded.
Thirty minutes later, Scarlett drove the two children to visit Orion's home. The little ones sitting in the back seat were extremely excited.
"Hayden, when you get to someone else's house, you need to be polite." Yara reminded him from the side.
Hayden nodded. "You've been saying that the whole way."
Yara fell silent too.
Scarlett looked at Hayden's happy face and felt a bit worried. Not only had Octavia failed to comfort him, but she'd even hit him. This wasn't acceptable. And Ambrose didn't even believe Hayden, had he lost his mind?
Last night, he said there was no arranged marriage, who would believe that?
No, she still needed to find Cody.
Half an hour later, Scarlett led the two children and knocked on Orion's door.
"Scarlett's here! And this is Yara! She looks just like you when you were little. You looked exactly like this when you were small." Orion stared at Yara, absolutely delighted.
Scarlett looked down at Yara. "Say hello to Mr. Philip."
"Mr. Philip." Yara's crisp voice was especially sweet and adorable, enough to melt anyone's heart.
Orion kept responding, "Good!" He reached out to pull Yara inside. After Yara entered, Hayden caught Orion's eye.
"Who's this?"
"Mr. Philip, this is Yara's classmate. He often plays with Yara. His parents asked me to watch him today, so I brought him along." Scarlett explained, then had Hayden greet him.
"Mr. Philip." Hayden called out.
Orion happily responded and quickly ushered them all into the house. Once inside, Orion's wife, Elowen Murphy, exchanged pleasantries and was especially fond of the two children.
"Scarlett, these two children look so alike. People who don't know might think they're twins!"
Scarlett smiled, her gaze sweeping over the two little ones sitting quietly and prettily on the sofa. Her heart felt warm.
Suddenly, she also had a thought: it would be great if they were twins. Hayden was likable.