Snap.
Ann Vaughn frowned at the paper in front of her, gripping the paintbrush in her left hand, yet unable to draw even a stable line. She was genuinely frustrated.
When she was little, her grandfather taught her traditional Chinese painting, but after so many years without practice, she had beco rusty.
The thought of submitting a painting to Ron Warren the day after tomorrow nearly suffocated Ann Vaughn.
She regretted ever buying those few cacti; they were more like prickly blades...
"Ah—"
Losing concentration, Ann Vaughn seed to hear soone scream outside the door.
She froze, imdiately put down her paintbrush, and left the room.
The screaming ca from the children’s room, which was in complete chaos.
"Quick, call Mr. Vaughn, and get the private doctor over here, hurry—"
Ann Vaughn hurriedly entered the room and saw a pile of robot parts scattered on the snow-white carpet. On the edge without parts, a few drops of blood had fallen, stark and glaring.
Little Dumpling was sitting on the sofa with his head up, surrounded by servants treating his wound, as blood-soaked cotton balls were thrown away one after another.
Ann Vaughn’s heart clenched, and she rushed forward to check on Kenny’s injury.
"Mommy." Little Dumpling was about to lower his head, but a servant imdiately stopped him.
"Young Master mustn’t move, we need to stop the bleeding."
Little Dumpling had a large cut on his tender neck, with blood gurgling out, the sight was horrifying.
Ann Vaughn’s eyes reddened instantly, barely suppressing the anger and worry surging in her heart. She gently massaged Kenny’s pressure points for faster bleeding control.
In less than a minute, the bleeding finally stopped.
anwhile, Breeze arrived.
Ann Vaughn quickly stepped aside to give him space to examine Kenny.
"How did the injury happen? It nearly severed an artery." Breeze frowned, then took out antiseptic and dicine from the dical kit.
Ann Vaughn instinctively looked at the servants.
One servant pointed to the pile of robot parts on the floor, saying, "When I ca in to clean the room, Young Master was dismantling those parts boxes. Who knew that just as he opened a box, a part flew out and grazed his neck..."
The spurting blood had scared the servants at the ti.
Ann Vaughn’s eyes contracted slightly, looking at the familiar packaging boxes lying among the parts, the color drained from her face as it turned deathly pale.
The assembly robot was a birthday gift she had given Kenny.
The one who caused Kenny’s severe injury... was her!
Ann Vaughn’s body swayed lightly, legs feeling weak, almost unable to stand.
A pair of strong hands caught her shoulders in ti, followed by a familiar voice in her ear:
"How’s Kenny?"
It was Cyrus Hawthorne.
Ann Vaughn bit her lower lip tightly, her eyes faintly trembling, "Badly hurt."
As soon as she spoke, Breeze, who was applying dicine to Kenny, said, "It’s just a flesh wound, doesn’t even need stitches, not serious at all."
Cyrus Hawthorne walked steadily to Little Dumpling’s side, squinting at the wound on his neck, then asked in a soft voice, "Does it hurt?"
"Real n aren’t afraid of pain." Kenny’s face was pale, his lips slightly dry, yet not a single tear fell.
"You can say it hurts, Daddy won’t laugh at you."
"... I want Mommy!"
Ann Vaughn went over and held Kenny’s chubby little hand, her eyes filled with guilt, not even daring to hold him tight, fearing it would hurt him.
"Mommy’s not afraid! We n will have scars on our bodies which are called the dals of a man, isn’t that cool?"
Little Dumpling couldn’t move his head easily, so his eyes swiveled around to look at Ann Vaughn, his soft voice a bit hoarse.
Ann Vaughn nearly burst into tears because of this little dumpling.
Kenny, despite his own pain, didn’t forget to comfort her, the real culprit.
She truly felt like an incompetent mommy.
"Alright." After bandaging Little Dumpling’s wound, Breeze stood up and reminded Cyrus Hawthorne and Ann Vaughn, "During this ti, be sure to keep his wound dry, avoid spicy food, and those inflammatory foods can’t be eaten."
"If the wound becos inflad again, be sure to notify promptly."
Ann Vaughn morized Breeze’s instructions, then thanked him, "Thank you, doctor."
Breeze felt a strange sensation well up inside him.
It was hard for him to separate Ann Vaughn from the identity of Princess Gothasen, so he felt a bit odd.
After Breeze left, Ann Vaughn looked at Cyrus Hawthorne, "Mr. Vaughn, I have sothing I want to say to you and Kenny."
Cyrus Hawthorne nodded understandingly, then instructed the servants to leave.
Little Dumpling couldn’t turn his head easily, so he had to turn his little body around and said before Ann Vaughn could speak, "Mommy, you don’t know, but Kenny was really scared just now. The smart robot Daddy gave suddenly broke."
"Is it this one?" Cyrus Hawthorne picked up a small robot from the pile of parts, though the small robot’s head was damaged.
Ann Vaughn was stunned, the words stuck in her throat.
... What’s going on?
"It’s this wretched thing!" Little Dumpling humphs, looking puffed up with annoyance, "I was trying to assemble the robot Mommy gave , using it as a guide. But out of nowhere, its head just exploded, and I got hurt because of that!"
Ann Vaughn was even more bewildered, "But the servants clearly said..."
"The space inside the box is limited, making it nearly impossible for a chanism to launch parts out." Cyrus Hawthorne’s expression was inscrutable, his manner of speaking flawless.
"It was when the robot’s head exploded that Kenny was opening the box, the servants must have been mistaken." Little Dumpling chid in.
With father and son backing each other up, even if Ann Vaughn had doubts, their perfectly seamless explanation made her believe them.
The suffocating feeling pressing on Ann Vaughn’s chest eased sowhat, finally not finding it hard to breathe anymore.
Recalling Breeze’s words earlier, Ann Vaughn asked Cyrus Hawthorne if she could use the kitchen, then headed downstairs.
As soon as she left, Cyrus Hawthorne and Little Dumpling exchanged a glance, then picked up the box that had fallen on the ground.
"The chanism is cleverly set up, once the part ejects, the remaining parts get ssed up, making it nearly impossible to detect any tampering inside." Cyrus Hawthorne’s voice was deep.
If Kenny hadn’t been lucky this ti, the consequences would’ve been unimaginable.
Little Dumpling frowned in frustration, "There’s plenty of ti to tamper with the gift before it reaches Mommy. The only issue is not knowing who did it... Mommy was almost heartbroken."
"No matter who it is, they dared to target you and your mommy, I won’t let it slide." With that, Cyrus Hawthorne’s eyes turned icy, intimidating to the extre.
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