Uncle Sam!

Isabel laughed at Zac's surprised look and she wrapped her arms around his middle and hugged the little boy to her chest, causing his cheeks to turn red.

"What? After just a few days you don't recognize me anymore?"

Staring up at Isabel's teasing expression; Zac could only blink as he called out doubtfully.

"A- aunty?"

Being stared at by those innocent dark eyes and being called in such a way, Isabel almost melted into a puddle but she still held some reservations as she bent down to press a firm kiss on Zac's cheek.

"Sweetie remembers me, I'm so happy!"

Zac's cheeks blushed a furious red and he shrunk shyly in Isabel's arms, his mouth curved in a small smile.

Honestly, everything that happened before he fell asleep was nothing more than a blur in Zac's mind.

He remembered being very scared when all the doctors and nurses in their white uniforms started flooding his dad's room, running around and shouting with all those noisy alarms blaring loudly in the background-he had been so frightened by himself, he had wanted someone to hug and comfort him like his mummy used to whenever he got scared, but no one was paying attention to him.

At that moment he felt as though he had wanted to do something unreasonable, something to make them notice him like screaming or shouting, but he was a 'good boy'. Whenever he went to parties with his parent in the past and he was good, not causing trouble for the people around him unlike the other kids his mummy would always hug him when they back in the car and tell him he was a good boy. His mummy's hugs were always very warm and they were his favorite thing in the world.

However, mummy was gone now, but daddy was still here. Although he was asleep, but maybe, if he kept on being a 'good boy', the very best little boy there ever was, not crying or screaming whenever he felt sand, angry or upset, misbehaving and not causing absolutely any trouble for others, maybe daddy would wake up.

He had been so immersed in his thoughts of being 'good' that even Zac himself hadn't realized he ran away from the room until he bumped into someone. Falling hard on the ground had snapped him back to his senses then he heard someone call his name and when he saw that the person he had bumped into was the nice lady he had met once before at the Real Estate company, for some reason he thought that he was in a dream and directly jumped into her arms without a second thought.

The lady's arms were warm and gentle and she hugged him just like his mummy used to, it had made him so comfortable that he unknowingly fell asleep. However... he didn't think that all that had actually been real! How embarrassing!

Watching the two from the side, Samuel was stunned by their resemblance that he was now noticing for the first time. Their facial lines were really similar, especially around their nose and mouth, when they smiled it was like looking in a mirror. He couldn't help but stare at Isabel more.

Samuel had been the steward of the Ryan family ever since he was twenty-five years old, inheriting the position from his own father and had held it for the past thirty three years intending to pass it on to his own son if only the damned boy would finally settle down in life.

From childhood, he had been very good friends with the recently deceased master of the house, Steve Ryan and he had watched the two young masters, Trooper and Archer grow up.

He was there when Trooper took over as head of the house after Steve's death, he watched him marry his high school sweetheart, who was a daughter of an affluent and influential family and have a son together, so he was clear on Zac's identity, however, that resemblance could not be overlooked.

Although Trooper Ryan was indeed a very handsome man, other than his unruly head of curly hair and ancestral birthmark which proved he was indeed of Ryan blood, Zac had inherited nothing else from his father but at the same time, he also did not look like his mother who, although could have been considered a beauty was not exceptionally so. He was a little bit of a unique existence where he was considered to 'look like himself', not inheriting features of either mother or father yet, here was a woman who had no relations to him yet shared almost fifty percent similarity in appearance. It was baffling.

At that moment, the waiter finally returned with Isabel's glass of fruit juice. Although it seemed like they had talked for ages, it had hardly been a few minutes since she sat down to speak with Samuel but Isabel was suddenly reminded that she had left her own children behind at the hospital and she needed to return. Visiting hours were almost over for the morning and she still had to swing by the company for the day. She hadn't gone back to Sunshine since the day Kelvin fainted.

"Right, Uncle Sam, you said that Zac came to the hospital with his uncle, where is he? Would it be possible for me to meet him?"

Hearing Isabel call him 'Uncle Sam' made Samuel's heart jump slightly. For an old man in his fifties who always wanted a cute daughter to spoil but wasn't blessed to have one and had only raised rowdy boys in his life, having such a beautiful young woman call him 'Uncle' made Samuel delighted until he turned silly and he directly blurted out where his Second Young Master had gone.

"Since First Young Master's condition stabilized, Second Young Master returned to the company for the day."

"Returned to the company?" Isabel's eyes widened before her mood directly sank as her expression became a bit rigid. "Zac was still missing and he decided to return to work just like that without ensuring that he was okay first?"

Taking note of the heavy displeasure on Isabel's face, Samuel's own expression became a bit awkward and he rubbed his nose sheepishly. He knew that he had said something that would leave a lasting bad impression of Second Young Master in this young miss's mind but it was too late to change that.

Samuel made a bit of wry smile at Isabel while hanging his head slightly like he was ashamed for the sake of others. Anything he said now would only sound like an excuse-he would have to apologize to Second Young Master, but he would rather the 'bad first impression' become a 'misunderstanding' when the two meet in the future than make his own self seem bad in the eyes of the young woman before him.

Although it wasn't the same as 'Papa' or 'Daddy', he finally got a cute young girl to call him 'Uncle', he wasn't going to throw this chance away. Besides, he believed in his Second Young Master's charm once the young man put away his stick in the mud attitude, it shouldn't be too hard for him to bring this young woman home as an official niece in the future for him, right?

Just like that, Archer was tossed out by Samuel for the sake of a beauty's favor, but Samuel wasn't only thinking about that. Samuel was also thinking that his Second Young Master was already twenty-nine, he would be thirty this year, and even if not for the sake of the family or to pacify that old broad from the Vince family who came over harping about marriage and creating a stable environment for the Little Master every day, Second Young Master needed to take a wife. As his uncle, it was Samuel's job to look out for him like this and act as a match maker and he felt that this little girl was pretty good, though he would of course have to look into her background before making any official moves.

Isabel didn't know about what Samuel was thinking and it was unknown if she would spit blood if she did. She was very unhappy at the moment, thinking about what kind of person Zac's inconsiderate uncle was.

Up until a few minutes ago, she had been wrongfully blaming a comatose man for neglecting his son so she was feeling a bit guilty about that, now that she knew it was actually an uncle holding but not wanting responsibility, Isabel automatically transferred all her dissatisfaction and guilt unto his head and although she hadn't met the man in person yet, she had already shaped him into one of the worst people in her mind.

It was unknown if Samuel would choose to confess if he knew just how much of a 'misunderstanding' had occurred from his earlier inferring when he indirectly laid the blame on his Second Young Master's head to escape being disliked. He was the one who sent Second Young Master back to the company when today was supposed to be his day off ah.

At that moment, Isabel's cellphone suddenly rang and when she took it out she saw that the one calling her was Kim. She answered the call.

"Hello?"

"Izzy, how are things on your end? Are you almost done with Brycen?"

"I'm done, what's the matter?"

She heard Kim groan the sigh in exasperation and Isabel could almost picture the other woman ruffling her short blonde bob into a mess.

"Get back here as quickly as possible. I don't know what you've done to him in these past few days, but this side of Kelvin is not something I can handle."

"What happened to Kelvin?"

Hearing a familiar name, Zac who had been leisurely leaning against Isabel while staring at the tall glass of fruit juice just sitting there on the table suddenly looked up at her. He remembered Kelvin, although the boy who seemed to be the same age as him looked like he was hard to get along with, he was actually a very nice person; he said that he would share aunty with him. Zac also remembered Phoenix, who a very cute girl but was so overly enthusiastic that she was a bit scary, she was also nice. Were they here with aunty too? He couldn't help but wonder, he thought that he would like to meet them again.

"Nothing happened to him, but... it's just..." On the other end, Kim had indeed ruffled her short hair into a chicken's nest and she smiled wryly at the nurse standing next to her before she spoke into the phone again.

"Look, just get here, please. This isn't something I was trained for; this is your area of expertise. As much as I might have raised them for you, you're still their mummy; there are just somethings I can't do."

Hearing Kim talk about her like that, it made Isabel's chest feel slightly warm. She had always held a bit of guilt toward Kim for how she had pushed the twins onto her in favor of her work.

At an age when most young women would either be building a career or enjoying life and looking for love, Kim had been turned into a full time nanny, raising two kids that weren't even hers; but what Kim just said let Isabel know that her friend didn't hold it against her. It made her thankful to have such friends and even more determined to treasure them in this life.

"Okay, okay. I'll be there soon."

Isabel hung up then turned to Samuel.

"Uncle Sam, I'm sorry, I need to go."

"That's alright; I was the one who held you up in the first place." While saying so, Samuel reached into his jacket pocket and retrieved a small, white rectangular card and he passed it to Isabel. "Here's my number, you can call me anytime you want to speak with Little Master."

Isabel's eyes lit up as she took the card from Samuel. She didn't have her purse with her, she had left it at the hospital so she couldn't offer her own card in return so she simply wrote her number on a napkin then folded it and placed it directly in Zac's small hands.

"Aunty has to go now, but if you ever want to call me or want me to come see you, call this number, okay? I'll bring Kelvin and Phoenix over to play."

Zac was stunned at first, but them he immediately smiled while nodding his head.

Seeing those dark eyes squint and sparkle up at her, Isabel was once again struck with that sense of familiarity. Where had she seen such eyes before? She couldn't recall at the moment.

Placing one more kiss of Zac's forehead, Isabel stood up from her seat before placing the little bun in her place then she waved farewell and made her way to the hospital across the street, wondering what on earth had happened with Kelvin.