Parental Instincts

Chapter 23

My minutes of work came to a temporary end once the mysterious woman had arrived and stepped inside my office. I followed her with my eyes as she walks closer to me until she takes a seat across from my desk. There was an awkward staredown between us until I decided to speak.

"Now if I can recall, you were going to sue me. Right?" Leaning back on my chair, I asked.

"I said that out of rage yesterday, but I won't. I apologize for acting so crude. I came here to confirm something instead." She responded almost immediately.

"And confirm what exactly?" I look at her suspiciously.

"It's about one of your children. If it's alright, is one of them a 2 year old girl named Ruby?"

"If I told you yes, what would you do?" I asked, I'm getting more wary of this.

"Hold on. She is?" Her expression lit up.

"Yeah, I adopted her about a year ago. If you ever think of getting her back from me then I won't allow it." I gave her a stern gaze.

"Oh, no, no, no. I'm not going to do that at all, don't worry. The reason I wanted to know is because her real mother is a friend of mine." She said.

"Mother? By that, do you mean her actual mother?" I asked.

"Yeah. A year ago, she had just found out that her daughter went missing. Nobody knew who took her away until I found you with her about a few days ago." She explained.

"Wait a moment. If you found out I was the one who has the kid, why did you also accused me of taking away your child yesterday." I questioned.

"Since you have my friend's daughter, I may have assumed my child was also taken away by you. I really hate it when I get out of control because of my anger." She sighs.

"You also lost your child..?"

"Yeah, and she's still missing. She's been gone for months now, I don't know how she is or what she's doing. All I could hope for is she's all right and will be found soon." Her expression became a sad one.

"I'm... sorry to hear that."

"It's alright, I'm sure all will be fine. What makes me question the situation though is the fact that many other children went missing during the past year too." She said.

"Other children had gone missing as well? I may have read a couple of news about those incidents in the past. It confuses me though, what's the culprits objective that they're taking kids away..?" I mumbled.

"That's probably a mystery we'll never know unless we find it out ourselves." She sighs. "Looks like I've said what I needed to say to you, so I better get going." The woman proceeds to stand up from her seat and was about to leave my office.

"By the way, I didn't catch your name ma'am. Would you mind if you tell me at least? And perhaps could you also tell Ruby's mother's name?" I asked.

"Name's Alice. And as for her mother, her name is Summer. In case you wanted to talk to her about your child, you can visit her at the police station in the next town. She often goes for work and also to find clues about her child." She stated, about to leave the room.

"Noted. Thank you, Alice. Take care." I give out a small smile.

As she closed the door behind when she left, I immediately let out a tired sigh. I was wrong, I'd thought it would end well from here but there's more. Questions about the cases of children disappearing all of a sudden both worried and bothered me.

"Summer, was it..? Hmm.." I leaned back and closed my eyes.

Come to think of it, back when I was about to adopt the girls, I found out there were no signs of their birth records or anything related to them at all. It's as if they had just appeared out of nowhere. Could it possibly be also the culprit's doing or something else. Either way, this matter should be solved by the authorities immediately.

"All right, back to work." I leaned forward and grabbed one of the paperworks.

...

"Yay! Recess!" One of the kids shouted as each of them sprinted out of the classroom.

"Hey, hey, slow down or you lot might trip and fall." I reminded them.

"Blake, come on! Let's play outside, no time for reading!" The kid named Weiss begin to pull the faunus one out.

"I don't wanna, let me finish this first." She whined.

"Aww, but it's no fun if you're not there! Let's go, Nora and Ren are waiting for us!" The blondey pushed her forward.

"Noooo."

"Don't put too much force on the cat, kid." I chuckled.

"But, teacher! We just want Blake to play with us." Weiss responded.

"You can't force someone if they don't want to, how about you let her be right now and play together when you all feel like it?" I suggested.

"Fiiiine, we'll let Blakey read now. Anyways, Weiss let's go out!" Yang exclaimed.

"Okay! Bye-bye Blake." Weiss ran off to the playground while as for Blake she went back to her seat to continue her reading.

"Better go along now, recess doesn't last forever." I said.

"Bye Blakey, we'll play after school!" Yang waves at her and was about to run out of the classroom.

Though before she gets out, I quickly called for her and she looks back at me.

"Hey kid, wait." I stopped for a moment.

"What is it, teacher?" She gives me a confused look.

"I wanna ask you something." I stood up from my chair and walked closer to her then knelt down in front of her.

"Huh?"

"... Do you perhaps know who your mother is?" I was hesitant for asking this.

"My mom? Well..." She begins to think.

"I know who! Her name is Sylvia, she's our babysitter but we want her to be our mom! Papa just won't marry her yet." She beams.

"That was unexpected." I was dumbfounded by her statement.

"She's the best mom! Isn't that right, Blakey?" Yang called for her.

"Hm, hm." The faunus nodded as her eyes were still glued on the book she's reading.

"Heh. That's good to hear, you're doing great with that family of yours." I rubbed her head.

"Teacher, not my hair!"

"Haha. Get going now, kid. Your friends are waiting for you at the playground." I stand up.

"See you after recess, teacher!" She waves at me then ran out of the classroom about to head outside.

Once she's out of sight, I walked out of the classroom and through the corridors, slowly taking out my flask and opening it.

"What the hell has gone in your mind to do that, Raven..." I mumbled as I took a drink from my flask.