Kelsie was immediately taken aback.
She paid attention to their discussion all these while and didn’t hear them make mention of a daddy.
Could it be she zoned out of them when they spoke about getting one?
She was still thinking of what to reply with when Jesse snorted loudly.
"Carried in bridal style by a man with a broad back and sturdy arms? Stop speaking such nonsense. Why would mommy need something as disgusting as that when she has me?" He suddenly stepped to her side and flicked a finger against Zade’s forehead.
Zade released his grip on Kelsie and hissed painfully, gently massaging the spot Jesse had just flicked.
While Zade was wincing from the sting on his forehead, Keira pointed a finger at Jesse and laughed out in disbelief.
"You? Don’t make me laugh. You barely have muscles talk more of sturdy arms. Don’t even get me started on that back of yours. Not only is it not broad, but you can barely carry yourself!"
Knowing fully well she was saying the truth, Jesse refused to back down. He threw his face to the side and huffed in contempt.
"What’s so special about having sturdy arms and a broad back? Give me a few years and I’ll be even better looking!"
It was at this moment that three tall and lanky men walked towards them.
The man in front of them, clasped his hands together and chuckled hearing Jesse’s words.
"Well, well, well! Look what we have. Did I just hear someone say he’ll have sturdy arms and a broad back in a few years?"
"No, he said he’ll be even better looking. What a mouth this kid has."
"I don’t doubt what the kid said about him being even better looking in a few years. I mean, look at that face. A lot of hearts will be broken in the future."
"His mama has an even better looking face. So good-looking we saw her from a distance and got attracted to her."
"I don’t see a ring on her finger. She must be one of those women who are so fixated on themselves they ignore men, but end up getting in bed with the irresponsible ones."
"He gave you three children and ran away, I promise you I’ll give you even better looking ones."
"But first of all, hand over your phone, bank cards and jewelries!"
The triplets’ dim eyes instantly lit up when they heard the last statement.
"What? You’re thieves?" Keira and Zade asked at once, barely able to contain their excitement.
Jesse clicked his tongue in disappointment, but the excitement he was feeling could still be heard in his voice, "If you wanted to steal, why waste everyone’s time by saying all those words?"
Keira looked them over. Not only were their jeans all washed out, they also dared to sag and show their white-turned-brown boxers.
The also had numerous piercings in their eyebrows, ears, nose and mouth with huge chains dangling from their necks and more than one ring on all ten fingers.
She tugged Kelsie by the arm gently and said in a pristine voice, "Mommy, give them a bit of money, they seem to need it."
The men couldn’t believe their ears. The one who seemed to be the leader of the three, stepped closer to them and snickered.
"Give us some money? Little girl, you have no idea what’s going on here, do you? Fine, I’ll tell you myself."
He straightened up and proudly pointed at the two men with him.
"These men with me will be robbing your mother of everything she has on her now including everything she has in her bank accounts."
"We will be taking it and leaving all four of you penniless. Even if you scream from now until tomorrow, no one passing will bother to help you. Do you know why?"
The man standing by his right stepped forward and moved up the side of his shirt to reveal a glistening kitchen knife.
Zade was even more disappointed seeing how blunt the knife was.
That was when it occurred to him these were petty thieves. How unfortunate their mother had to waste her precious time with these dimwits.
Seeing that none of them was saying anything, the men naturally assumed they had been scared speechless.
The leader straightened up and continued speaking arrogantly, "Now, my friend here doesn’t want to bring out his knife. He won’t have to do so if you just hand over everything I ask you to."
"If you don’t and he brings it out, one of you will be hurt. Woman, it’ll be one of your kids, not you."
A cold glint instantly flashed past Kelsie’s eyes and and calmly glanced at her children.
Keira’s shoulders immediately slouched backward as she walked to stand behind Kelsie and huddled together with her brothers.
The triplets covered their eyes with their hands. But the moment Kelsie turned away from them, they made big holes in-between their fingers to watch.
"What a stubborn woman. I really didn’t want to do this...argh!" The leader of the group was saying lazily, but his words instantly turned to a painful shriek when he stretched his hand to touch Kelsie’s shoulders, but got it twisted and his shoulders dislocated.
She held onto him as the second man without a knife rushed towards her and tried to punch her, but she sleekly evaded it and he ended up punching his friend.
She grabbed the man by the collar and swept his foot off the ground, sending him tumbling to the ground.
Seeing the state his friends were in, the third one with a knife gritted his teeth and took out the knife.
"Don’t think I’ll hold back because you’re a woman! I’ll slice off that pretty face from your...!"
As the words were rolling off his tongue, he suddenly screamed in pain and let go of the knife, supporting his wrist with his other hand after she picked up a stone and aimed it directly at his wrist.
She looked him dead in the eyes and reprimanded, "Don’t say such horrible things in front of children."
His eyes trembled when he realized he could no longer feel his hand and he turned around to run, but tripped on a stone in front of him.
The triplets couldn’t help applauding their mother seeing all three men rolling around on the ground.
"Mommy is so awesome!"
"See, she doesn’t need someone with all those disgusting back muscles!"
"I agree. She’s perfectly capable of taking care of herself!"
Keira suddenly saw a man in a familiar uniform strutting into the street.
Without thinking twice, she dropped to her knees and began bawling her eyes out.
"Officer, help, those bad men are robbing my mommy!"