I smiled, “Do youe to HL Area to work?”


    “To visit you.” His eyes were honest. “Link said you were in HL Area, so I came here.”Text property ? N?vel(D)ra/ma.Org.


    I nodded and said no more.


    On second thought, he was in his thirties. How time flied!


    “When do you n to return to City P?” He said, without much preparation.


    I paused and smiled. “I’m not going back.”


    He frowned, “What about riana’s future? She could have ess to better educational resources. Why wouldn’t you?”


    It was somewhat dry and hot. I raised my hand and pinched my eyebrows, a little irritated. “Leo, can’t we just eat?”


    We could talk about itter. The future was so long. If we said all this now, what would we sayter?


    He was silent. Instead of eating, he watched me eat. It was a strange habit.


    When they did note to HL Area, I didn’t want to eat in a better restaurant because it was quite expensive. My monthly sry was limited and I couldn’t afford it.


    Coming out of the restaurant, I looked up at the hot sun in the sky. To be honest, summer in HL Area was so hot that it could make people irritable.


    “Can I take you home?”


    He spoke, as if asking my advice. I looked sideways at him. “Want to meet riana?”


    He paused, somewhat surprised. “May I?”


    “You’re her uncle. Why not?”


    He smiled with a faint joy.


    In the school.


    riana hadn’t seen Leo in her four years at HL Area. But she didn’t seem to feel strange anymore because of the strangers who appeared in the past few days.


    When we got in the car, riana and I sat in the back. She looked up at me, then at the driver’s seat, her lips pressed together. “Mom, is this sir your friend, too?”


    I nodded. “He’s your uncle, riana. Uncle, not sir.”


    “Uncle?” riana was stunned.


    Leo thought she was calling him and looked back. His face was full of unexined emotion and joy.


    “Be careful!” I broke out in cold sweat when I saw a car approaching in front of us.


    Fortunately, Leo was quick and turned the steering wheel to avoid a collision.


    Pulling over to the side of the road, he looked back at riana and me. He looked at riana with a handsome, expectant face. “Call me uncle again, riana,” he said.


    I…


    riana was stunned for a moment, but she still said softly, “Uncle!”


    His handsome face lit up with joy. He looked at me with extraordinary excitement and said, “ra, do you hear that? She called me uncle!”


    I nodded, in fact, I quite understood him. Like me, he was a lonely man, probably looking for a ce to belong all his life.


    riana calling him uncle made him very happy and warm.


    He was happy, but his emotions were mixed. It was not for me and riana, it was for someone else.


    He drove me and riana back into the yard, his eyes seemingly fixed on her, deep and distant.


    Something was going on with him!


    riana liked to pick fruits in the backyard when she got home. As soon as riana left, I looked at him and said, “How can I help you?”


    He heard me and was stunned, “ra, if you were pregnant and the father wanted to abort the baby, what would you do?”


    Looking at him, I narrowed my eyes slightly. “Since it is your child, you have no reason to give it up. Leo, don’t disappoint people who put you in their hearts.”


    He was startled, then he looked at me with embarrassment. “I didn’t say the baby was mine.”


    I smiled. “When you looked at riana, you’re probably thinking if that baby is born, it’s gonna be as cute as riana, aren’t you?”


    He pursed his lips, tutted, and sat down irritably in the cane chair.


    He put his head in his hands and seemed extraordinarily confused.


    “At any rate,” I said, squatting beside him, “since it is your child, since it is your child, you have no reason to abandon it, let alone abandon it. Don’t let yourself regret it, Leo.”


    He suddenly rose from his seat, looked at me with a faint stare, and said, “I’m going back to City P and I’lle to see you in a few days.”


    Then he went out of the yard in a few steps.


    I smiled at the pace at which he walked away. People would always be healed, maybe it was a normal life, or maybe it was a child.


    riana came out, struggling to hold the watermelon. When she saw Leo wasn’t there, she looked around and said, “Mom, where’s my uncle?”


    I took the watermelon from her hand and set it aside. “He went back.” I sighed as I looked at the watermelon she had brought back. “riana, this watermelon will spoil if you don’t eat it.”


    She lowered her eyes. “I thought my uncle would be here. That’s why I picked it.”


    I sat her down in the wicker chair, stroked her hair and said, “riana, do you want to live in the city where grandpa and uncle live?”


    She tilted her head, thought about it for a while, then looked at me and said, “Is Joeying, too?”


    Well!


    I didn’t know what to say. After thinking about it, I said, “No, he’s living with his father.”


    “Oh, I see!” she was a little disappointed, “If I leave, Joey won’t have any friends.”


    After thinking about it, she said, looking at me, “Mom, am I going to have a dad if we go to live with grandpa and uncle Leo?”


    I was stunned for a moment, with an indescribable feeling in my heart. Yeah, after all, kids wanted a dad.


    Looking at her, I felt guilty. “riana, do you really want a daddy?”


    She gritted her lips and thought seriously. “Well, if I had a dad, I could go out with him on weekends, like I do with Uncle Dennis. Dad would buy me food like Uncle Dennis does, he will also tell me stories and lift me up.”


    I nodded, not sure how to say it to her.


    I didn’t want her to know about Diana, and I certainly didn’t want Mario to know about her.


    For four years, this child and I were one. I can’t let her live with Mario. I don’t trust him.


    But I did owe her a father.


    Holding her, I said with a lump in my throat, “Then I will take you to City P to find your dad, so that you can be with you daddy every day like other children, ok?”


    She said, with her big, round eyes, “Really? Mom, you can’t lie to me.”


    I smiled. “When did Mom ever lie to you? Huh?”


    “So, can we bring Joey along?” She said, looking at me with her lovely ck eyes.


    I was stunned, “riana, Joey needs to live with his dad. If he goes to City P with us, then he and his dad will be are separated. Do you want him to be separated from his daddy?”


    She shook her head, “No!”