Becoming Alpha’s Personal Caretaker
Chapter 116

Lauren's POV "Well, come on in."

I gently pushed open the door of the tree house, where no one had been for a long time. Dust slowly fell down to the ground as I opened the door. Victor blocked those cobwebs that were about to fall on my head with his hand, bending down and walking into the tree house with me. This tree house was not even half as big as a bedroom in Victor's estate and we could see everything here at one glance.

There was a round dark green carpet in the middle of the tree house and I brought Victor over there. Although it looked kind of dirty because no one had cleaned this place for a really long time, Victor still sat down with me and asked, "Is this the tree house you built when you were little?"

"Yeah...I used to love this place but I wasn't the one who built it. I was just a little kid back then," I leaned on Victor's shoulder and tried to keep my cool, "Manuel found this tree when he ran through the forest with me on his shoulders and he built this tree house for me and said this would be my secret base. When I was too naughty and got scolded by my mother or when I threw a tantrum, I would hide in this place and bring something over there each time. And then I gradually filled this place with my stuff." I picked up a small wooden boat and those images started playing in my head like a movie.

Manuel and my mother built this tree house for me. Back then, he still loved me and cherished me. He would run in the woods with me on his shoulders, buy me those little cupcakes in the shops and call me his sweetheart.

In this little house of childhood memories, I couldn't help gabbling about the past in front of Victor and he just listened to me carefully, "I guess he once was a good father but time changes everything. I'm not his precious baby girl anymore and he's even forgotten about this tree house. He built a garden for Lola and Janice." "What has changed isn't his love for you. He's a selfish person from the beginning," Victor said.

"Yeah, maybe I was still too naïve at that time and thought he was still my father," I chuckled. Manuel was indeed a self-centered alpha who wanted others to rely on him. So he would definitely play favorites once Lola showered him with compliments and lies. I glanced at the wooden sword and laughed sarcastically, "Back when I still had faith in him, I did something really dumb. I once tried to hide away and see if Manuel would notice me and find me in this tree house. But no one knew where I was when it got dark. When I went back, Manuel just kept questioning me about where I was. And then, my grandma came and took me to their tribe to live with them for a while."

When Manuel questioned me at that time, I felt like a part of me died inside and I knew he wasn't my father anymore. Father Manuel was gone and all I got was alpha Manuel, Janice's father.

But it was already water under the bridge now. So when I spoke of these things, I felt like I was telling other people's stories.

However, I saw sadness in Victor's eyes.

"Oh, I'm not saying this to make you feel bad for me," I laughed, "I don't feel sad for them anymore so there's no need to comfort me. I'm being honest."

Victor picked that wooden sword up and the little sword looked like a mini toy in his big hand. I looked down and said, "You don't care about this anymore but I still feel bad for you and the young Lauren. How upset and disappointed was it for her to be in this tree house all alone?"

My heart melted when I heard him say that. I put my head on his shoulder and looked down, smiling.

In a trance, I saw the little girl hugging her knees at the door of the tree house, waiting for someone to find her. It was raining outside and the sky kept getting darker. But now, the dark clouds were all gone and sunlight shone in. The sky became clear and blue again.

The lonely little girl had finally found someone that would always be by her side.

"Enough about this," I changed the subject and tried to lighten up the mood, "there are a lot of little secrets I kept in here."

"Oh?" Victor didn't continue the earlier subject and asked curiously as he raised his eyebrows, "what's this?"

I bent over and took out a little box from the corner, which was filled with all kinds of stuff like my doodles, my handicrafts that were made with play-doh, and...

"Oh, there's even a gemstone," I was a bit surprised, "I was really extravagant back then. I can't believe I threw things like gemstones away like toys. If Mila finds out about this, she will definitely teach me a lesson."

"You didn't throw it away. You just put it in a more special place," Victor wasn't interested in the gemstone at all and was actually intrigued by the handicraft made from play-doh. He looked at it in his hand for a long time before he put it down gently. Then he picked up my doodle and looked at it like he was reading the files of his tribe.

I went to take a closer look and was amazed at how awful my drawing skills were when I was little.

Victor looked at it for a while and said, "This bird is quite interesting. You're a really imaginative person, indeed."

I stopped smiling and explained to him with a straight face, "This is a wolf that is howling at the edge of a cliff, calling its pack."

Hadn't he seen the intimidating aura of the wolf in the painting?

Victor froze and then asked, "This is a cliff?"

"What else do you think it is?" I said with a polite smile.

"... The ocean at night," Victor continued after being silent for a while, "maybe it's the colors."

I defiantly took another doodle and asked, "What do you think this painting is about?"

Victor thought for a while and finally decided to trust his instinct and said, "...A dinosaur."

"It's an elephant!" I said in disbelief, "these are the ears of an elephant!"

"A green elephant?"

"Don't you have any imagination?" I vaguely remembered that I chose to use this color because the grey crayon was missing so I used green to replace it. But I still thought this was clearly an elephant. "Maybe it's just because you don't have any talents in painting, just like you with cooking," Victor said. He was snarky as always even though he was good at comforting people now.

I glared at him.

He instantly pursed his lips and turned to look at that little thingy that was made of play-doh in the box, "But you're indeed good at making things. I'm pretty sure this is a pony and this is a wolf." This time he was right and I wasn't so tensed up anymore.

"No wonder you're such a good doctor now. You've had great practicing ability ever since you were little."

Victor stopped being so snarky and started b**tering me up. I couldn't help laughing when I saw him being so awkward and adorable. We locked eyes and laughed about how childish we were when we argued just then.

"If only I could've met you earlier," Victor suddenly sighed, holding the pony, "then you would've been able to tell me all about the green elephant and colorful birds."

I thought of what Mrs. Katrina of the orphanage said about Victor and started picturing how Victor was when he was little. He must be even more lonely than I was. I said, "I wouldn't be able to teach you how to draw but I can teach you how to make a pony and a wolf."

"Then I would've definitely cherished them. I'm sad that I missed your childhood. Can I have this, Lauren?"

He was talking about the wolf made out of play-doh and it had already cracked a little after all these years. Both its color and shape had changed and looked like it would crumble with a single touch. But Victor seemed to cherish this very much.

I nodded and made a decision in my head that I wanted to give him a better gift.

"Of course you can," I said.

Just as Victor wanted to say something, he suddenly became quiet and so did I. Because we heard some footsteps.

We looked at each other in silence and listened carefully.