The three waiters had already retreated when Seraphina made her wish upon the candle, so Oliver Shaw no longer needed to hide anything. The smile on his face paused, he turned his gaze toward Vanessa Armstrong, his smile disappeared, and if one looked closely, it was replaced by a trace of coldness. He stared into Vanessa’s eyes and asked.
"Did you teach her that?"
"What?"
Vanessa Armstrong was watching her daughter cut the cake and was puzzled when she heard Oliver Shaw’s words, turning her gaze back to him.
"I mean, did you teach the child to say this?" He visited them every year on business trips and each time he left, although his daughter was reluctant, she had never said such a thing before.
"Honey, I’m innocent, why would I teach our daughter these things!" Vanessa Armstrong protested with a look of grievance, "I understand our mother-daughter status. You come back to spend time with us every year; I’m already so content, why would I teach the child such things."
"Daddy, it wasn’t mommy who taught Seraphina to say that, Seraphina came up with it herself." Seraphina placed the cut cake on the table, then picked up a piece with a small fork and brought it to Oliver Shaw’s lips, "My deskmate Alexis Quest gets picked up and dropped off by her parents every day, and I wish both mommy and daddy could come pick up Seraphina from school too."
The little girl fed the piece of cake into Oliver Shaw’s mouth, then pouted her lips with a pitiful look and asked, "Is it possible? Daddy."
Seeing Oliver Shaw looking at her without speaking, the little girl’s tears began to fall. She put down the small fork, took off the sports watch from her wrist and the latest model mobile phone from the pocket of her little windbreaker, placed them in front of Oliver Shaw, and said while crying, "Mommy said daddy is busy working, to buy Seraphina fun toys, to buy pretty new clothes, but Seraphina doesn’t want these, Seraphina just wants daddy to stay by her side, like Alexis’s daddy, to go to the school’s parent meeting, to take her to the amusement park, Seraphina doesn’t want tasty food, Seraphina just wants daddy to stay with her... Seraphina misses daddy..."
Seraphina cried in front of Oliver Shaw, and Vanessa Armstrong also silently wiped away tears, looking at her daughter who had cried herself into a tearful mess. Oliver Shaw’s eyebrows were deeply furrowed as he grasped his daughter’s wrist and patiently soothed her.
"Seraphina don’t cry, daddy will come back and stay with Seraphina once he gets through this busy period."
"I won’t, daddy is lying, I know daddy is deceiving Seraphina..."
The little girl didn’t accept this, and for the first time showed her little temper in front of her daddy; she tried to shake off Oliver Shaw’s hand while jumping up and down with tears, "Daddy is too busy with work, he really can’t leave, daddy is lying to Seraphina, Seraphina won’t go to school anymore, Seraphina wants to live with daddy..."
Seeing her daughter throwing a tantrum nonstop, Vanessa Armstrong stood up to coax her daughter, "Seraphina be good, daddy is busy, when daddy is not busy, he will come home to be with Seraphina..."
"You all lie to me, daddy is not that busy at all, daddy just doesn’t like Seraphina, doesn’t want to see Seraphina..."
Seeing her daughter so disobedient, Vanessa Armstrong immediately reprimanded her harshly, "Seraphina Shaw, stop making a fuss! How does mommy usually teach you! Why aren’t you listening at all? Come, go with me, we’re going home now, and if you throw another tantrum, I won’t bring you to see daddy again!"
Vanessa Armstrong, truly angered, grabbed both mother and daughter’s clothes and pulled Seraphina toward the restaurant’s door. Seraphina Shaw turned her head back, looking at her father and reaching out her little hand, "Daddy, Seraphina doesn’t want to go back, Seraphina wants to stay with daddy..."
Oliver Shaw sat in his place, frowning as he watched the two of them.
Seeing that her father did not come to help her, Seraphina Shaw bit her mother’s hand in panic, took advantage of her mother’s cry of surprise, ran back, and threw herself into Oliver Shaw’s arms, looking up with a tear-stained face, "Daddy, Seraphina won’t go back with mommy, won’t go back..."