For some reason, the atmosphere in the room immediately turned cold when Danrique sat down.


    Suddenly, the joyfulughter had vanished as the children became tense, and Francesca appeared to be somewhat


    uneasy.


    To remedy the awkwardness, Charlotte quickly lifted her ss. “It’s not every day that we get to have dinner


    together like this, so I’d like to propose a toast!”


    Zachary then lifted his ss as well to join in. Naturally, he had a non-alcoholic beverage in it.


    After Francesca and the children, too, lifted their sses and cups, they turned to look at Danrique, who had no


    choice but to follow suit.


    “This is just wonderful! How I wish we could gather like this more often! Cheers, guys!” eximed Charlotte.


    “Cheers!”


    After clinking their sses and cups, everybody dly took a sip of their drink, except for Danrique, who nobody


    wanted to clink their drinkware with.


    Zachary was about to start eating when he noticed how disappointed Danrique seemed, so he hurriedly extended


    his ss to the man.


    At first, Danrique was a little reluctant, but he eventually responded in kind anyway.


    The two then quietly took a sip of their drink.


    “Okay. Let the feast begin!” announced Charlotte excitedly.


    Zachary started chatting with the children while they ate. “So what did you guys y just now? The swing? The


    slide?”


    “The swing!” answered Alpha with her hand raised. “Jamie pushed me so high up that I could touch the sky! It was


    really fun!”


    “I yed the slide, but I was a little scared because you weren’t there to catch me,” uttered Beta in her childish


    voice.


    “I’ll catch you next time, okay?” responded Zachary gently before suggesting, “Or you can always have your daddy


    catch you.”


    The man then nced at Danrique, who had already lifted his head to look at Beta.


    In response, the child meekly shook her head. “No, I don’t want Daddy to catch me.”


    Surprised, Zachary raised an eyebrow curiously. “Why not? Your father is even taller than I am. I’m sure he’s more


    This belongs ? N?velDra/ma.Org.


    than capable of catching you, Beta.”


    “I’m scared.” Beta quickly curled up in her mother’s arms after ncing at Danrique’s hands.


    “What’s the matter? Did Daddy do something?” questioned Francesca.


    “Daddy told us a ghost story just now. It was terrifying!” chimed in Alpha.


    “He even stretched out his hands to scare us,” Suddenly, Beta’s eyes began to tear up.


    “I swear that story was horrifying! Even Robbie, Jamie, and Ellie were scared,” added Gamma indignantly.


    After hearing all that, Zachary was stunned and did not know how to respond. Did Danrique really tell the kids a


    ghost story?


    “Alpha, Beta, Gamma, I’m sure your father was just fooling around. He wasn’t really trying to scare you,” exined


    Charlotte, trying to smooth things out.


    “Yeah. He’s probably just messing with you guys,” chimed in Zachary since he would rather not have Francesca


    fighting with her husband right then and there.


    “So what story was it anyway?” Francesca questioned Danrique with an eyebrow raised.


    Swirling his wine, Danrique answered without looking at his wife, “What do you think? I only ever know one story.”


    “You mean the one about the victim of a car ident losing his hands?” Suddenly, Francescaughed out loud.


    “What’s so scary about it? It was a ridiculous story!”


    Puzzled by Francesca’s unusual response, Zachary and Charlotte exchanged looks. “So you’ve heard of it?”


    “Heard of it? I’m the one who told him that story! He was terrified too the first time he heard it,” replied Francesca


    before continuing tough.


    Zachary and Charlotte had no idea what else to say next. However, they were convinced that Francesca and


    Danrique were made for each other. And here we thought she was going to go berserk on Danrique for what the


    man did. It turned out that she was the one to me.q