"You heard her. Zera wanted to help. I didn’t force her." She then turned to Zera and added in a soft but unsettling voice, "Right, sis?"
That "sis" lingered in the air, syrupy and false.
It sounded harmless to me, but I noticed Zera turned pale.
Floyd's POV
"Yes, sis," Zera whispered.
Seeing her so meek broke my heart and stoked my anger. Zera was supposed to be the cherished princess of this house — when did she start tiptoeing around an outsider?
"Astrid, take your workbook and do your own assignments. Don’t push your responsibilities onto others," I ordered.
Astrid didn’t argue. She grabbed her workbook and slipped back into her room.
Afterward, I turned back to Zera. But I noticed the dark circles under her eyes. She looked exhausted, and her face had lost its color. She was a shadow of the bright girl I remembered before my business trip.
Suddenly, she clung to my hand like I might vanish. "Daddy, you’re staying this time, right? You’re not leaving again?"
Her pleading tone pierced my heart.
"I’m staying, sweetie. Daddy’s not going anywhere."