Flowers//Elavan

~27~

"Papa, stay," Mia whispers hoarsely, tugging on her father's fingers.

Avan sighed as he combed through his hair with his fingers for the millionth time that morning. He was already two hours late for work but he couldn't leave because his daughter just wouldn't let him. It was understandable  why she was being so needy and clingy. However, Avan didn't want to stay even if he could. If he stayed home from work, his mind would be fixated on Liz and what happened last night and he didn't want that.

"Bear," he sighs, gentling prying her hand off of him. "I have to go to work."

The poor child had just been left by her mother at the threshold of their house a couple of hours ago. Her eyes were puffy and her nose was pink from all her thrashing and crying. Mia felt like she was being abandoned again like she was last night.

"You and Mommy don't love me anymore," she sadly mutters to herself, fiddling with the hem of her shirt.

"Baby," Avan coos, getting down to her level and brushing the stray hair out of her face. "Of course, we still love you."

"No, you don't," Mia shakes her head from side to side unbelievingly, refusing to look in her father's eyes. "Mommy left and so will you! You don't love me!"

"Mia, I'm only going to work. Just like before, remember? Papa goes to work and you stay with auntie or uncle until I come back later in the day," he tries to explain to the hysterical child in front of him.

"I don't want just like before!" she snaps uncharacteristically, stomping her feet.

Avan internally groans at his daughter's behavior. It was very unusual for her to throw fits like this because usually, her moods would be very easy to dismiss because she apprehended easily. Mia is a smart child, she understood things. She couldn't, however, understand why her mother just left her like that after all her screaming and calling.

"Then what exactly do you want, hm?" he gently asks albeit slightly irritated. "Tell Papa what you want, lovie."

"I want Mommy to love me again," she hiccuped as tears sprung from her eyes once more.

For the past few hours, Mia just seemed to have been an endless fountain of salty tears. It was worrying the hell out of Avan and it would worry Liz too if she had bothered to stay.

Avan hugs Mia close to him before lifting her up into his arms, shushing and rocking.

"Mi, hey, listen to Papa real quick," he pulled away, wiping the child's tears away as new ones came to replace them. "Mommy loves you so, so much. You know that."

"Why-why did she leave?" she hiccuped, a sob with every word. "She doesn't want me, Papa?"

Avan presses his lips against Mia's sweaty forehead as he swallowed a lump that was starting to form in his throat. He blinks back the tears in his eyes.

This is what Avan was so afraid of. Out of all the people that would be involved with what was happening between him and Liz, Mia was who he wanted to protect at all cost. He would gladly double up in more lies and get ignored everyday if that meant keeping Mia's fragile heart unhurt.

"I'm sure Mommy didn't want to leave, bear," he tries to reason out with Mia and with himself. "Maybe she just wanted time to herself."

"When is she-she coming back?" Mia's small body shook with each sob she let out and her breathing was becoming more ragged by the second.

"Soon," he shortly replies, lying in behalf of the both of them.

"No, I want now!"

"I know, baby. I know," he nods as Mia burrows herself in her father's chest, pulling hard at the collar of his shirt. "Don't cry anymore, Mia-bear. You're breathing so hard."