◤𝕊𝕙𝕒𝕕𝕒𝕞𝕪◢ - It Started With Vomit!

Chapter 27| Outsider

"You didn't think?" Seriously, how can a person just assume a disorder magically disappears without medical confirmation? "When a child deals with something this dangerous, a responsible adult should at least contact their guardian, don't you think?" Amy snarled, picking up Kayden to lift him onto the couch as Maria watched, dumbfounded (and affronted).

Why was blame falling on her for something neither she, Shadow, nor the people who have actually lived around Kayden longer than Amy didn't see coming? 

"Mary!"

Irked, she folded her arms, bothered by the exasperated undercurrent simmering beneath her tone; and Maria Lion never spoke with displeasure. 

She was always prettily acquitted, humble, and well-spoken. Close ones gladly attested to her perfection. The public crowned her the nation's paragon of virtue. Strangers even promulgated about how she, the "nation's princess", was always the bigger person in every situation. Therefore, upon noticing this behavioural change, Mary Lamb—who raced in, adding her portion of cacophonic panic into the tense situation—pressed on with mindful trepidation. 

"Madam, has the young master broken anything else?" The senior staff hobbled to Maria's side, perspiring all over from exertion unhealthy for someone of sixty-seven.

"No," Maria hastened to say, recovering her dainty disposition. "No, dear, do not panic just yet," she maintained, smiling gently as she said it, fretting that Mary would blow the situation out of proportion if her manners served as more reason to exacerbate matters.

"B-but—"

"Mary, please," Maria exhaled, knowing fully that the plea wouldn't assuage the woman's concern.

Common knowledge dictated that she isn't the type to partake in gossip because of how profoundly she esteems her masters, so Maria never suspected ill-will about the matron's intention—however much she might have taken self-indulgent jabs at the extent Mary might go in the name of protecting the Hedgehog family because, for as long as time itself, her service forged a strange attachment that bounds her eternally under their roof.

The matron rejected such implications—that if she weren't doddering, more nimble and bursting with youthful exuberance, laying down her life to ensure the Hedgehog family's protection was always a discussion open to debate.

Taking up a job as a private spy to kill on their behalf, for instance, was Maria's personal favourite theory. And in everybody's mind, there was no doubt Mary would do anything—especially for little Kayden with who she shared a special connection, past the standard cliches of rich parents abandoning their parental responsibility for nannies to supersede.

Maria imagined it was reason enough for Shadow's hesitation to dismiss the old woman, despite her diminishing performance. Coupled with Mary's dubious origins, having been orphaned and forced to earn the little she possesses currently, it was understandable. That and the fact Mary had a special knack for handling Kayden's sort of people,—brats—similarly to how she managed his step-father, who she had also taken under her wing to nurture some transient years ago.

"Would you be a dear and go fetch K's medication, please?" Maria requested, moving to finger Kayden's trembling fingers, crouched into her hunches beside Amy as the matron fled conscientiously.

Staring thoughtfully at the boy, Maria's words, although directed squarely at Kayden, afflicted Amy with a stinging sense of guilt. The purposeful verbatim of her earlier statement made a nasty jab at how duplicitous she sounded. "You don't have to apologize anymore, K, okay. It isn't necessary."

Maria strengthened her grip on the boy's hand, coaxing him with superfluous, soothing and angelic pleas that Kayden almost fainted from merriment. "K, you need to talk to me, or else we won't be able to help you get better, alright."