A corner of Henry’s mouth quirked up. It took him a while to utter a word. “Okay…”
“Mr. Henry…” Ellie said in between sobs, “I won’t make you piggyback me anymore, Mr. Henry. Please get well soon. I want to buy hot cross bunnies for you to eat.”
“Don’t cry, Ellie,” Jamie said, but even he himself could not stop his tears from rolling down his cheeks. “Sorry, Mr. Henry, I shouldn’t have forced you to play with us. You must be really tired.”
“What’s wrong with you two?” As the older brother, Robbie raised his voice and expressed his dismay. “I thought we agreed not to cry?”
“No, I didn’t cry.” Jamie took in a deep breath and wiped tears off his face with his tiny hands.
Ellie pouted, but she also tried resisting the urge to cry.
Spencer came up to the children and consoled them. “All right, all right. Let’s not disturb Mr. Henry anymore, shall we? Let’s go out.”
“Okay.” They nodded.
“Say goodbye to Mr. Henry,” Spencer reminded.
“Bye, Mr. Henry. When we come to visit you the next time, I’ll bring hot cross bunnies for you, okay?” Ellie said.
“Get well soon, Mr. Henry. Let’s play soccer together soon,” Jamie added.
“See you soon, Mr. Henry…”
Spencer brought the children out and said, “Wait for me at the lounge, okay? I’ll bring you home soon.”
“Okay, Mr. Spencer.” All three of them nodded.
At the lounge, the medical staff took good care of the children. They even prepared snacks and fruit juice for them.
Spencer walked to the office as he wanted to know more about Henry’s condition. All of a sudden, Zachary opened the door and left in a hurry. He almost knocked Spencer down.
Spencer shouted in pain while clenching his chest. “Mr. Zachary, I’m old, so please be more kind to me…”
Zachary did not even look at Spencer. He kept pressing the button outside the elevator as if he was in a hurry to go somewhere.
“Where are you going?” Spencer caught up with him and asked, “I need to discuss with you…”
“Do not allow any visitors to come in without my permission. You hear me?” Zachary instructed and went into the elevator.
He then stepped forward, prevented the elevator’s door from closing, and asked, “Where are the kids?”
“They’re in the lounge. I’ll be sending them home soon…”
“No.” Zachary interrupted and instructed, “They’ll stay with you.”
Spencer was dumbfounded. “But why? What happened?”
Zachary did not answer him. He took a few steps back, allowing the elevator’s door to close.
A line formed between Spencer’s brows as he could feel something had must have happened. At this point, he could only do what Zachary told him to.
“Mr. Spencer, the car’s ready. Shall we send them back to Happy Avenue?”
“No,” Spencer said, “We’ll take them back to our place. Get people to prepare the daily essentials for the kids.”
“All right.”
Spencer walked to the lounge and noticed how upset Robbie, Jamie, and Ellie were. They sat quietly on the couch and did not touch the snacks and fruit juice at all.
“Can we go home now, Mr. Spencer?” Robbie asked when he saw Spencer coming in.
“There’s something I need to discuss with all of you.” Spencer squatted down and continued, “I need you to stay at Mr. Henry’s house, okay? I’m sure Mr. Henry will be glad to see all of you when he returns home.”
Jamie and Ellie exchanged glances and then looked at Robbie, who was the ultimate decision maker of them all.
“I need to ask Mommy first,” Robbie said, “We need to get her approval.”
“All right.” Spencer gently tapped on Robbie’s shoulder, “Let’s go outside and call your Mommy, okay?”
“Okay.”
