I spared her phone a cursory glance. \u201cGet to the point.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Daisy\u2019s face fell as she put away her phone. \u201cAt the park, someone tried to snatch Aria. In her panic, she spoke. I believe this is a positive sign that her selective mutism is improving, which is why I called you over so late.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did she say?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said, \u2018Mommy, help me.\u201d Daisy covered her lips, tears welling in her eyes. \u201cAria called me \u2018Mommy.\u2018 She was afraid of being taken away, and she finally spoke. Ridley, I\u2019m so happy\u2026\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
My brow furrowed deeply.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mommy?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Aria calling Daisy \u201cMommy\u201c?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Highly unlikely.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This felt like a fabricated story, but I needed to see for myself.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I walked past Daisy into the house without another word.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I headed straight for Aria\u2019s room. My daughter sat by the bay window, half\u2013hidden behind the curtains, holding a paintbrush to canvas. Aside from her dance training, Aria spent most of her time painting\u2014she showed considerable talent in this area.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I approached quietly, circling around to see what she was creating.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The painting depicted an amusement park scene. In the midst of a crowd, a slender woman held a six\u2013year\u2013old child. The child\u2019s expression was bewildered, with long eyelashes and a small mole on the right side of her chin.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This was clearly Aria\u2019s self\u2013portrait.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The woman wore casual clothes\u2013jeans and sneakers. Aria was nestled in her arms, looking completely at ease.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Who was this woman?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cRidley, look\u2013Aria painted me and her at the amusement park. If not for that incident, I think she would have had a wonderful time,\u201d Daisy said softly beside me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
My frown deepened.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t see Daisy often, but I knew she always dressed impeccably. Even in loungewear, her face was meticulously made up.\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\/3\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 70\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yet the woman in the painting was naturally elegant, with a completely different aura than Daisy\u2019s vibe.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Aria\u2019s paintings were always realistic. She wouldn\u2019t invent a person from imagination.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I bent down and spoke quietly. \u201cAr\u00eda, can you hear Daddy talking to you?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Aria\u2019s paintbrush paused momentarily before continuing, as if we weren\u2019t even in the room.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWho is this person you\u2019ve painted?\u201d I asked again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Daisy tensed beside me and quickly interjected, \u201cIt\u2019s obviously me, Ridley. Don\u2019t you recognize me anymore?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
1 ignored her, still studying the woman in the painting, trying to trace the source of that nagging familiarity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Daisy\u2019s sharp cry and the sudden splash of red paint across the canvas interrupted my thoughts. Most of the painting was ruined. I looked up, glaring at her panicked face.\u00a0<\/p>\n
My eyes cut to her instantly. \u201cWhat are you doing?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so sorry!\u201d she gasped, her hand flying to her mouth in what looked like feigned shock. \u201cIt was an accident!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
But I was studying her with growing suspicion. Something about her movements seemed too deliberate, too calculated. The way she\u2019d\u00a0<\/p>\n
positioned herself, the timing of her \u201cclumsiness\u201c-none of it felt natural.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can leave now. I\u2019d like some time alone with Aria,\u201d I said, fighting to keep my anger in check.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, I\u2019m sorry, I really didn\u2019t mean to\u2014I\u2019ll go right away.\u201d She backed away and quickly left the room.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I looked back at the ruined painting. The red paint had stained both figures, but somehow the woman\u2019s eyes remained untouched, staring\u00a0<\/p>\n
back at me through the mess.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That familiar feeling washed over me again. Those eyes\u2026 they looked just like Cedar\u2019s.\u00a0<\/p>\n
My gaze dropped to Aria\u2019s face, studying her features with new understanding.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Her eyes\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n
They were identical to Cedar\u2019s.\u00a0<\/p>\n
No wonder she\u2019d seemed so familiar all this time,\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland\u2019s breathtaking cold.<\/p>\n
The Sky Remembered the Touch of Our Unfinished Goodbyes by Lysa Orion Rehn 70 I spared her phone a cursory […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zero-stars-for-daddy-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30469\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}