“Robbie…”
“Jamie…”
“Ellie…”
When they spotted them, the crowd of students started calling out the children’s names. The cacophony made Zachary’s head throb with pain.
Instinctively, he narrowed his eyes, which made him seem more aggressive and annoyed than he actually felt.
Instantly, the students stepped away, too frightened to approach the kids.
A girl in a ponytail was so alarmed that she burst into noisy tears at the sight of Zachary’s face.
“Blossom, don’t be scared! He isn’t a bad person.” Ellie kicked her little legs, signaling to Zachary that he should put her down. Running over to the crying girl, she explained hurriedly, “He’s my…”
“I’m their father!” Zachary interrupted hastily.
He thought it would sound rather scandalous if he introduced himself as their mother’s boyfriend. Besides, the students were too young to know about this sort of thing.
He thought it would be best if he stepped forward bravely and announced his true identity to the world.
Anyway, he was their father now, and he would remain their father for the rest of their lives—this was an irreversible fact.
The three children turned to look at him, stunned. They could hardly believe what they had just heard.
Sure, they had already accepted Zachary as their Mommy’s boyfriend. They even took quite a liking to him and were willing to let him join in their fun. However…wasn’t he moving too fast?
Were they really supposed to call him Daddy now?
This was all too sudden for them!
Robbie gazed in horror at Zachary, his mind running at a mile an hour. He wasn’t a stupid kid by any means, and he was quickly analyzing Zachary’s words to find any semblance of truth in them.
Jamie was looking at Zachary, too. His expression looked rather dazed. Had he heard wrongly? Or was Uncle Zack merely saying this in front of the other kids so they would stop bullying the triplets for not having a father?
Ellie’s mouth was wide open in shock. Her eyes were as big as strawberries as she gazed open-mouthed at Zachary, scarcely believing what she had just heard…
All the students in the class, too, were looking at Zachary with a mixture of shock and confusion. Since the triplets started coming to school, they had never seen their father. Even the triplets themselves didn’t seem to know who their own father was!
And yet this man had appeared out of nowhere and claimed himself to be their father!
Besides, he was tall and had a brutal look on his face. How—how frightening!
Even the teachers and the medical staff were gazing at Zachary in shock.
This was the third piece of startling news they had received from Zachary this morning, and it wasn’t even noon yet.
Firstly, he had decided to send the triplets to school by himself.
Secondly, they found out that he was, in fact, Charlotte’s boyfriend.
And lastly, he had gone from being Charlotte’s boyfriend to being the father of her children!
Thank goodness the paparazzi weren’t hovering around right then. Otherwise, this shocking piece of news would have spread across the globe like wildfire and caused a huge storm.
“Daddy, Daddy, burp—”
Fifi was so drunk that she was barely awake. She gave a loud, sudden squawk from Jamie’s arms.
This quickly snapped the triplets out of their daze.
Robbie quickly wiped the shock off his face and replied politely, “Uncle Zack, please put me down.”
Zachary set him down on the ground hastily. As they met each other’s eyes for a fleeting moment, both of them registered the flustered look on each other’s faces.
Robbie looked up uncertainly at Zachary. He then bowed courteously and said, “Thanks for sending us to school, Uncle Zack.”
“Yes, thank you!”
Jamie and Ellie quickly chimed in.
In their hearts, Robbie was the most important voice of authority after their Mommy and Mrs. Berry. Thus, it was only right that they followed in his footsteps.
“And thank you for preparing these gifts for my friends and my teachers,” Robbie continued politely. “You must be busy at work. We won’t trouble you anymore, then!”
Looking at Robbie’s stiff, indifferent manner, Zachary couldn’t help but feel a little guilty. He shouldn’t have said something so shocking before thinking it through.
Instead, he should’ve discussed this seriously with Charlotte first before deciding on an appropriate way to tell the kids. It would have come as less of a shock then…
However, the words had already left his mouth. There was no use crying over spilled milk.
“Alright, I’ll get going first then.”
Zachary bent down to give the triplets a hug, but all three of them moved backward instinctively, as though they were afraid to get close to him…
