My Beloved Uncle (Baskerville #1)
(S3): Hiding
"Master Roberts" call Valentina.
Erika could not believe her vision seeing Valentina in front of her now.
"Valentina."
Valentina immediately ran towards Erika and hugged her very tightly. He was crying in Erika's arms.
" I'm glad to see the teacher again."
Erika unraveled her embrace and wiped Valentina's tears. He is relieved and happy, Valentina is fine.
" What exactly happened to you? And all this time you've been going to just go where? I've been looking for you everywhere."
" Mom and Dad took me to an orphanage."
" The orphanage?"
" yes. Dad didn't want me anymore after he found out that I wasn't his son. And I love you so much" Valentina said in her sobs.
Erika's heart became sad and bitter. He was upset with Jerome. He didn't expect Jerome to throw Valentina into an orphanage.
" What happened then?"
" For the past few days, I've been living in an orphanage. All the kids in there were nice to me, but Miss Cooke, she was mean to me. I was locked up in a dark room alone in the basement to punish me, because I did not obey his orders. He also told me to clean all the floors in the orphanage."
" Who is Miss Cooke?"
" One of the caretakers of the Sunflower orphanage. He'll lock me in the basement again, because he's so mad at me. I've foiled his plan."
"Again what plan?"
" He put sleeping pills in the coffee and the coffee was given to Uncle Fabian?"
" Who's Uncle Fabian?"
" A nice guy who helped me, he even gave me a big Teddy Bear."
" What else then?"
" I ran away from the orphanage night after night, because I wanted to be locked up in the basement again. I was afraid to be there alone, so I ran away, then I fainted and was helped by the owner of the mini market at the gas station."
" How did you get here?"
" I was escorted by the owner of the mini market here. I don't know where else to go. I wanted to go to Uncle Fabian's house, but I didn't know where it was, and then I remembered Teacher Roberts, so I came here. I don't want to go back to the orphanage anymore."
Erika hugged Valentina again. He felt sorry for her being left alone outside. Erika again wiped Valentina's tears with her fingers.
" You don't have to be afraid anymore. You can stay with me."
Valentina's face looks happy. " Really?"
" Yes." Yeah."
" Thank you. I promise I'll be a good boy. Once I find my real parents, I'll leave the teacher's house."
" You still have real parents?"
" yes. My mother told me."
" Did your mother tell you where your parents really are?"
" No, because my mom's not where they are either."
" You don't have to be sad, we're looking for your parents."
" Thank you."
" Have you eaten?"
" I've had breakfast, but lunch hasn't."
"Let's have lunch together."
"Yes." Yeah."
🧸🧸🧸
Arya and Ms. Harper have arrived at the Hunt family home they were given when Valentina left at the orphanage. Several times they pressed the bell no one answered.
" This house looks lonely. There seems to be no occupants."
"You're right."
" We already know Valentina's not here."
" We'd better go back to the orphanage" said Mistress Harper with a sad face.
Actually Arya is happy, Valentina is gone. From the beginning he did not like the boy, but after Valentina left, he had no reason to meet with Fabian.
They finally arrived at the orphanage and Lady Harper walked into her room. There were already waiting for some policemen who were waiting for him.
" Good day!"greet Mrs Harper.
" Good day!"
" Can I help you?"
" It's about Miss Nancy Gibson."
Arya's feelings become agitated, panicked, and afraid that her actions will be known by the police. He doesn't want to be in jail now before he can marry Fabian.
" Is there any news from him?"
The cops look grim. "It is with regret that we have to tell you, that Nancy Gibson was found dead."
Mistress Harper was very surprised and her body felt very limp.
" Why did Nancy die?"
" Someone killed him."
" What?"
"His body is now in the hospital."
" Where was Nancy's body found?"
" In the woods near here. We traced his tracks from various CCTV footage on the street. On the day of the incident, a car broke into the orphanage near midnight. We've also checked the CCTV cameras in front of the orphanage, Nancy never came out of the orphanage. Just a car."
" then?"
"We traced the car and it went into the woods, and we found Nancy's body."
Madame Harper was stunned in her chair. "Who killed him? Nancy's a good woman."
"From the car number we checked, it's on behalf of Spencer Harlods."
Arya tries not to be surprised if she knows Spencer, her lover. He tried to put on a calm face.
" Has this guy named Spencer been arrested?"ask Arya.
" Sadly not yet. We went to his apartment, but he wasn't there. We're looking for her whereabouts."
Arya can breathe a sigh of relief, because the police have not found the whereabouts of her lover's body. He buried his girlfriend's body in the yard around his apartment. He was lucky, because the CCTV camera in his apartment was damaged and also minimal guard.
"Can I see Nancy's body?"ask Mrs Harper.
"Of course."
"I want to see it too" said Arya.
"You can come with us now."
"All right," said Mrs Harper.
Arya and Ms. Harper went with the cops to the hospital.
🧸🧸🧸
Valentina is very happy to be at Erika's house. He sat on the sofa waiting for Erika to bring him a drink.
" It's drink!"
Valentina drank her orange juice with one gulp. " Thank you. The orange juice is delicious."
" What do you want to do again?"
"Later on."
Logan went downstairs looking for his mother.
" Mom."
"Are you awake?"
Logan nodded his head, and Erika introduced him to Valentina.
" Hey, I'm Valentina."
Logan looks shy.
"I'm Logan."
They then shake hands.
" From now on Valentina will stay with us."
" Hooray. I have a friend playing at home."
" You're glad Valentina's here."
" yes. I'm happy."
" You guys just play first yeah, I want to open first."
" Good teacher."
"From now on don't call the teacher anymore."
" How about Aunt Erika?"
"Good Aunt Erika."
Erika went to the kitchen. Valentina plays with Logan in the living room, when Gilbert comes home. He was surprised to see a little girl in his house.
" Who are you?"ask Gilbert.
" I'm Valentina."
" Valentina?"
" yes. I just came here."
Valentina smiled broadly. Gilbert immediately searched for his wife and found Erika in the kitchen cooking.
" You're home."
"I just got home and who's that little girl?"
"Oh, that's Valentina."
"I already know his name. He told me."
"Valentina's the kid I've been looking for all this time."
"So you mean Valentina Jerome's adopted son
?"
"true."
"How did you find him?"
Erika tells Gilbert what happened to Valentina during this time including the mistreatment of one of the orphanage administrators.
"Women are evil" commented Gilbert.
"Right and Valentina was terrified. That's why he ran away from the orphanage. Good thing there's a nice guy who wants to help her and take her to school to see me."
" What are your plans for Valentina?"
" For a while Valentina will be staying with us. Do you agree?"
"I agree. I feel sorry for him and how I might let him get lost in the streets."
" I'm sure you would agree. That's why I brought him here to live with us. Logan was also pleased with Valentina's presence."
" You're right."
"You better clean yourself and change your clothes. Dinner's gonna be ready soon."
Gilbert went to his room. Before going up the stairs, he saw Valentina who was playing with Logan. In the view from the side of Valentina's face is similar to Miya. Gilbert thought that Valentina was Caliope.
" This is impossible" he muttered, then Gilbert went up to the second floor to his room.
After finishing dinner, Valentina immediately went to the room to get ready to sleep, because Erika did not have a daughter's shirt, Valentina wore Logan's nightgown even though it was a bit small.
"Tomorrow I'll buy you a dress. For tonight you wear this shirt first."
"Yes." Yeah."
"Are you in school again?"
" I want to, but I don't want to go to school."
"Why?"
"I'm afraid they'll find me there. I want to hide from them."
"Then what about your school?"
"School at home."
Erika could clearly see the fear on Valentina's face. I don't know what happened there so Valentina freaked out like that. Erika's feeling said, something else had happened there.
"Valentina, you can trust me, if you want to tell a story, I'll listen to it and try to help you."
"Good."
"Now sleep!"
Erika covers Valentina and gives a kiss good night.
🧸🧸🧸
Miya and Fabian escort Isabella and Sebastian home. Once again Miya hugged Isabella. I don't know when they'll meet again. It's getting late at night.
"Thank you for everything. We will not forget our brief encounter" Isabella said.
"me too. Hopefully one day we can meet again."
Isabella nodded her head. "Take care of yourself."
"You too."
"See you soon!"
"Bye bye!"
After the car that brought them did not look again Fabian and Miya went inside.
" I will definitely miss them" said Miya.
Arriving at the room, Miya and Fabian change clothes. Before going to bed, Fabian checked the incoming messages. So many messages came in, especially from his clients, then he saw the name Arya in one of the messages that have not been read.
The message read :
Valentina ran away from the orphanage
The content of the message certainly made Fabian surprised. He had doubts whether Arya was telling the truth or lying, because he remembered Valentina's words that had forced the boy to lie.
Fabian intended to call Mrs Harper, but she abandoned her intentions, because it was night and it was possible that Mrs Harper was asleep.
" What's up?"
" Arya told me that Valentina ran away from the orphanage."
"What's? But how did Valentina escape?"
" I don't know. What's the reason Valentina ran away."
"Would we go there tomorrow?"ask Miya.
"alright. Tomorrow we go there. I'm worried about Valentina. It's possible that the boy is hanging around outside right now."
"I hope Valentina is in the hands of a good person now, if someone else finds her."
"Hopefully."
🧸🧸🧸
Valentina woke up in the middle of the night. Cold sweat filled his forehead. He just had a bad dream. Arya found it and put it in the basement again. Valentina got out of bed and got some water.
Valentina tried to go back to sleep. His hand took out the daei necklace pendant behind his clothes and felt the coldness of the necklace in his hand.
"Dad, Mother. Where are you guys? I want to meet you guys."
Valentina closed her eyes and fell asleep again.
The next morning Valentina woke up feeling better, though she had nightmares last night. He quickly went to the bathroom and cleaned himself, after which he changed clothes that had been rained by Erika at the table
Valentina's down. Everyone gathered at the dinner table
"Good morning!"greet Gilbert.
"Good morning!"
Valebtina sat down next to Logan. Erika gave him a big pancake. Valentina ate it up.
"This is the best pancake I've ever eaten."
"You turned out to be smart to praise," said Erika.
Valentina is wide. It didn't take long, Valentina had finished her meal, then she helped Erika wash the dishes and clean the dinner table.
"In a moment, we'll go buy clothes for you. You get ready."
"Yes Aunt Erika."
After helping Erika, Valentina returned to her room to tidy up again, then she came back down after hearing Erika's call from below.
Valentina got in the car. Gilbert was driving the car. Arriving at the mall Logan and Valentina out of the car followed by Erika. Valentina and Logan are so happy to be able to take another walk. He can't remember the last time Valentina and her foster parents went for a walk together.
Inside the mall, Erika chooses some clothes for Valentina and Logan. After that they bought shoes and sandals.
"Aunt Erika, thank you for buying all this for me."
"Together, baby."
After they finished shopping, they had lunch together, then went to the toy store and after that they returned home. Logan and Valentina fell asleep and looked very tired.
Gilbert had to carry Valentina and Logan alternately to their respective rooms. Erika and Gilbert are very satisfied to have spent time together. The presence of Valentina in their midst makes their home more crowded and cheerful. Erika and Gilbert have a desire to adopt Valentina as their child.
"What if Valentina's parents suddenly show up?"
"We have to give it back to them. We don't know why Valentina got separated from her parents."
"You're right. Should we ask Grandma for help again?"
"It's up to you, though I doubt it'll work."
"You are this."
Gilbert and Erika hugged each other on the sofa. [ ]
