Scared Shitless

The time of reckoning has come.

Bearing gifts in the form of cupcakes, Henry came knocking on the door of Christine and Shy Shy's apartment in the Mahalina Residential Area.

"Who's there?" Christine's soft voice wafted over from inside the apartment.

Henry could see her peeking through the peephole.

"S-S-Sir Henry!" Christine was immediately embarrassed the moment she saw Henry standing behind the door.

W-W-What should I do?!

Christine looked at herself and found that she was wearing nothing but a chemise dress with nothing underneath.

She wasn't even wearing her bra!

Although she was wearing her panties, she knew that panties weren't powerful enough to solve everything.

"It's me, Christine."

Henry's somewhat nervous voice resounded from behind the door.

"S-S-Sir Henry! I'm sorry but can you wait out there for a while? Give me three—no, five! No, ten minutes!" Christine didn't even wait for Henry's reply as she turned around and made a mad dash towards her bedroom.

Christine's apartment was a two-bedroom apartment, so when Shy Shy heard the commotion, she came out of the living room in curiosity.

Approaching the door, she opened it slightly, and there she saw Henry standing before her.

"Uncle!" Shy Shy immediately bounced up and down.

Her hair that had been tied up into two pigtails swayed up and down as if it was exuding the same excitement that Shy Shy felt at this moment.

"Hello, Shy Shy! I'm back. I brought with me some cupcakes."

"Cupcakes?!" Shy Shy exclaimed in joy, "Yehey! I always wanted to eat cupcakes again. I only eat them once a month, since Mommy doesn't have a lot of money. Thank you, Uncle!"

"Yeah, go ahead and take it." Henry handed over the box of cupcakes to Shy Shy, and the young lass received it with smiles all over her face.

"Uncle, come in. Mommy told me that people should not stay outside for long or they will get a cold!" Shy Shy warned in concern.

Henry felt warm in his heart hearing the words of concern from her daughter's mouth.

But as soon as he stepped inside, he was suddenly reminded of an issue that baffled him the most. Before he left for the battlefield back then, he made sure to leave all of his savings and his card that contained monthly pensions from the military to Christine's mother.

Of course, Henry didn't actually give it directly to Christine's mother since he was afraid that the latter might ostracize him for leaving. Instead, he gave the job to a member of the God of Destruction Squad who then reported to him that the mission was a success.

His military pension going into that card might not be that huge, but it sure was enough for a family of two—or even three to pay their rent and eat whatever they wanted.

Yet, what was going on? Henry asked Patrick to open an investigation and then he discovered that the card where his pension was going had a monthly scheduled withdrawal scheme to a bank account that belonged to Christine's mother.

So, what was going on now?

Did Christine's mother deceive her?

Henry inwardly frowned.

The investigation also revealed that the God of Destruction Squad member that Henry tasked to do all of these things had been killed in action after getting into a fight with the city's gangsters.

But the most infuriating information that Henry got from Patrick was the fact that all of these hadn't been reported to the former.

It was as if someone was deliberately making sure that he wouldn't receive any information about his wife and daughter till five years later.

Henry had always hated this feeling—the feeling of not being in control of a situation.

However, since he was also never someone that often dwelled in the past.

He only took note of this information before putting it into the backburner of his mind.

Right now, the most important thing was to take care of his daughter.

Shy Shy carried with her the box of cupcakes and placed it on the small table in front of the couch sitting right before the television.

Henry sat on the couch and observed the two-bedroom apartment.

It wasn't that bad, to be honest...

It had a balcony for laundry and it also had its own bathroom and submeter for electricity.

It was spacious enough for a mother and daughter to live.

But for Henry, this wasn't enough.

It was too small of a world for his daughter that was slowly growing up.

Speaking of his daughter, Henry turned to look in Shy Shy's direction and noticed that she had pushed a chair on her own.

The chair was pushed until it was close to the refrigerator and with one fell swoop and under Henry's nervous gaze...

She took a carton of milk from the refrigerator and poured it into a glass above a nearby table.

Then, she returned the carton of milk back into the refrigerator, took the glass of milk with her down onto the floor, before returning the chair back into its previous location.

Henry didn't even have the time to react.

It was only until Shy Shy was standing in front of him did he manage to return to his senses.

S-S-She poured milk for herself?

Was that even something that a child so small could do on her own?

Thinking about this, Henry's heart hurt and he felt as if it was being squeezed.

The reason why Shy Shy was able to do such things was probably that she had no other choice.

With her mother busy at work, Shy Shy had no choice but to eat and drink on her own.

Fortunately, she was smart—just like her mother and resilient—just like her father.

But this didn't make it less tragic for Henry who was trying his best to fight his self-blame.

"Uncle... Are you okay?"

Just as he was wallowing in self-deprecation, the small girl's soft and adorable voice rang out in his ears.

In an instant, he returned to his senses.

But before he could even raise his head to look at her and respond—Shy Shy had stretched her tiny arms and enveloped his head.

"Uncle, I don't know why you're sad, but Mommy always told me that sadness disappears with a hug!"

"Hehehe. Hug. Hug. Hug!" Shy Shy playfully said.

At this moment, Henry's heart thoroughly melted.

A frozen look was on his face as his heart became filled with familial love that it had never felt for a long time.

'This is... this is my daughter?' Henry absentmindedly stared at Shy Shy.

The young lass still had that innocent smirk on her face as she with that same adorable voice, "Are you okay now, Uncle?"

"Yes, I'm okay now. Thank you, Shy Shy. Your hugs are effective. But don't do it to random people next time, okay? You've got to be careful!"

"I know!" Shy Shy placed both of her hands on the sides of her waist and proudly raised her chin up. "I only give hugs hugs to people that I like, and I like you, Uncle! You protected Mommy from a bad person, so I like you!"

Henry's heart once again melted as a sour sensation seemed to rise up from the depths of his stomach towards his throat.

He felt like he wanted to cry.

'This was his daughter? She's too good!'

'All of this is too good to be true! Is she not mad at her? Was he dreaming?'

Henry felt the urge to slap himself twice in order to know if he was dreaming or not.

But inside, he knew that this was not a dream.

His daughter had indeed told him that she liked him.

Just as Henry was about to say something, the doors to Christine's room opened as she said.

"Shy Shy did you know where I placed that pink underwear? Did you misplace them again? Mommy told you that she's going to wear pink today, and not beige... I'm sure that you already know your colors, right? Just where did you place it—"

Christine was unable to complete her sentence.

Her pupils constricted in shock when she saw Henry sitting on the couch with Shy Shy standing in front of him.

Christine had always been a person that only wore the bare minimum of clothing while she was in the confines of her home. Usually, she would always have a chemise dress on her body, but at this moment, she was in the middle of changing inside her bedroom.

When she couldn't find what she was looking for, she strode out naked with not even a towel on her body.

Under normal circumstances, she would always have at least a towel when she was naked outside her bedroom. But right now, she was in a panic since she couldn't let Henry wait for too long outside of the door.

This was why she had forgotten to carry a towel with her when she came out of the room.

She thought that she would be safe since Henry was still waiting for her outside.

But little did she knew that he was already inside—and was sitting on her couch.

At that exact moment, time itself seemed to have come to a halt.

Henry's brain went into overdrive. It spun even faster than it had when his cover as an undercover agent was about to be blown off.

Thousands of simulations, thousands of if-else, all resulted in one course of action.

And that was...

"Oh, pink underwear? I saw them in that cabinet."

Henry pointed on a cabinet below the television.

It was where some of Shy Shy's clothes were stored.

Instead of bringing her mother's underwear into her mother's bedroom, the young lass must've stuffed all the clothes into that one cabinet that she was using to store her own clothes.

...to act dumb and casual.

When the ice was finally broken, Christine went dumb.

She obediently walked over to the cabinet below the television and carried with her the entire drawer into her bedroom.

When the door to her bedroom was finally closed...

Henry seemed to have heard the scream of a banshee resound throughout the entire apartment.

This was his cue to make his escape.

"Shy Shy, enjoy the cupcakes, all right? I don't think I'll be able to stay for dinner tonight. But no worries, I'll be back here tomorrow at the same time. Let's have dinner together when I come back, okay?" Henry ruffled the hair of the young lass.

Fortunately, Shy Shy didn't create a fuss as she was focused on devouring the cupcakes that Henry had given to her.

Without even looking back, Henry slowly exited the apartment and he didn't even use the stairs as he directly leaped over the railings, softened his landing with a roll, and made a break for it towards the Toyota Corolla parked at the end of the parking lot.

"Run!" Henry's desperate scream rang out.

Patrick who was half-asleep awakened to the desperate cry of the God of Destruction, Vajrada Shivada himself.

Needless to say, he was scared shitless.

What could possibly elicit such a distressed cry from the God of Destruction himself?