Ch 8: A New Family Member

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Felix's POV

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With Dad in the lead, the whole Hudson family maneuvered around the hospital and finally reached Melena's ward.

When we entered, we saw her in a patient's gown, surrounded by nurses. At the side, there were two officers talking to each other.

Dad came up to the officers and asked how she was doing.

"Those bastards were worse than animals. The reports just came in. Besides her being malnourished and having bruises all over her body, she even has fractures in two of her ribs. The psychological report is also not looking good, though further assessment is needed on that."

The other officer just shook her head in anger.

My Mom was looking over at Melena as she was being interviewed by the doctors. She had a frown on her face as the answers Melena was giving were anything but pretty.

Some time passed and the questioning and examination ended.

Melena could be seen with multiple IV drips attached to her. She looked over at us and her eyes shone.

My Mom became emotional. With tears in her eyes, she came over to Melena's side and patted her head. In response, she just squinted her eyes, fully enjoying it.

"It's okay, Melena, everything will be fine. Now you just need to pick up on your health. Look over at my son. He's supposed to be 2 years younger than you, yet you look even smaller than him. Now we can't have that, can we? Your end goal should be to beat him up!"

My mouth hung agape.

'Huh?.... How did an emotional union turn into the goal to beat me up?! Who's mother are you?!'

Dad and the officers giggled from behind.

Melena looked at us and her lips formed a small smile.

'It's a small price to pay, I guess… '

"Melena, honey, say, do you want to come over with us?"

Dad and I both were taken aback.

'Aren't you moving too fast, Mom?! Give her some time to recuperate at least.'

Surprisingly enough, Melena instantly nodded her head.

"Hmmm, I don't think there will be any problems in that regard. We've checked her family's public record and even in her extended family, none are decent enough to give guardianship over her."

One of the officers told us.

"That's great! Richard! Now go and manage the paperwork. I'll be getting a daughter now, hehe. Melena honey, you can just call me 'Aunty Jenna' or if you are comfortable with it, then you call me 'Mom' as well!"

Dad gave up and shook his head. In the end, Dad knew of Mom's want for more children and if he was being honest, then he wanted them too.

"Alright, I'll deal with it, but for now, just let her rest and recuperate. Little Melena, just go to sleep. Don't worry, we'll visit you every day until you are discharged."

"Yeah, take care, honey! I'll do a lot of shopping for you!"

I also gave her a smile and a nod.

Like that, we left, the officers going out of the room along with us.

We were all dressed up, so we went to the mall to do some shopping. Or should I say, both Dad and I were dragged to the mall by Mom? The shopping was mostly for Melena and occasionally for us.

We had dinner at a restaurant and went back to the hotel after that. Mom was quite excited to take in Malena and forced us all to sleep early so we could visit her as soon as possible.

Dad and I had a talk, and we agreed that I needed to compel all the surrogates into loyalty before the raids started. Our anonymity was very important to us. If we could defect someone close to the Mayor through my 'Compel', then that would be an icing to the cake.

The next day we visited Melena again. She looked a lot better than before, color started to appear on her skin. She seemed far more active today, although she still had trouble speaking much. Her answers had more power to them than yesterday.

She smiled faintly when Mom showed her the clothes and accessories she bought for her.

In the end, I became the sacrificial lamb and had to try the clothes for her. I had to pose with the clothes and accessories awkwardly, which led her to giggle quietly at me, astonishing the whole Hudson family.

Indeed, soldiers become martyrs just for these moments.

Like this, 3 days passed. We visited her each day, and she was slowly opening up to us. My parents did most of the talking as I felt that it would be more awkward if a ten-year-old starts to converse maturely to a child who was supposed to be older than him.

The guardianship documents finally got the approval after handling it through some contacts.

Her parents' case was still proceeding in the court, but it was clear that they would be fucked in the end.

Dad was directing his company remotely through the Internet. He was also setting up a meetup with those surrogates for when we go back home. In those days, Senator Fyodor was assassinated, leaving Dad's forehead and back sweaty.

Finally the doctor discharged Melena. She could go back home with us. The doctors strictly prohibited Melena from any physical exertion, as her ribs were still healing. But other than that, she was fine. Her bruises were healing too and her skin had started to become rosy.

The psychological part was still quite off, especially to me. I could feel a deep obsession in her eyes towards my family. She was still quite unstable and lacked quite a bit of common sense, but Mom was handling that front like a champ.

In the end, it would take time to heal such psychological wounds. If treated haphazardly, they might even leave behind permanent scars. That's why I avoided using 'compel' on her.

Who am I kidding? I've taken quite a liking to her as well. She was such a sweet little girl. She was slowly relearning how to talk and when we visit her, she always asked for our well being first before anything else. How could I use 'compel' on her when she's like this? Only a heartless fiend could do that. I don't wanna risk it by applying such a forceful method.

After her discharge, we immediately booked a flight home. In the end, we opted for a private jet, even though it was expensive, as Melena might be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of people in a normal flight.

It was quite funny to see Melena's astonishment during the flight. In the end, she slept within Mom's arms after getting tired of gazing out of the window. Fortunately, she was a hardy girl and didn't feel sick during the flight.

After we landed, our driver picked us up from the airport and we finally arrived home.

It was late in the evening, and people were probably preparing dinner, so no one disturbed us on our arrival. We quietly went inside and introduced Melena into her new home. She was given one of the guest rooms adjacent to mine as her personal room. Mom and Dad promised to help her customize it, however she liked when she fully recovered from her injuries.

We had already taken supper during the flight and the jet-lag was taking a toll on everyone, so we all just slept without eating dinner. Though Melena was forced to take all her dietary supplements and painkillers before sleeping.

I woke up quite early in the morning. It was Sunday, so it was the day off. After getting fresh, I came out of my room and saw Melena standing right in front of my door.

I was creeped out, but I forced myself to smile.

"Good morning, Melena. How was your sleep?"

"I-It was g-good… you?"

She replied in a barely audible murmur.

"Mine was good too. Now let's go eat some breakfast."

She nodded, and we went downstairs. Although the fractures on her rib were quite small, we still took precautions, and I supported her by offering my shoulder when going down the stairs.

"Good morning Mel and Fel!!!"

'She has already made a nickname for her?!'

"Good morning Mom"

"G-good morning"

Mom came over, lightly hugged Melena, and ruffled my hair.

Dad came over as well, and we all had a hearty breakfast. Melena wanted to help Mom in the clean up but all three of us swiftly rejected the notion.

In the end, I helped Dad out with the clean up while Mom talked with Melena.

Dad made the decision to get a pet for the house, and Mom wholeheartedly agreed to it. It aligned with my purpose for training, too. Melena also needed it, as having a pet would help her self-esteem and social skills. A pet could relieve her loneliness without interacting with people. It was paramount for her at this stage. We used to have a pet dog, "Luffy" but he died of old age a year earlier. A pet was long due for the Hudson household.

It was decided that Melena gets to decide the pet, and we took off for the pet store.

It was morning, so there wasn't much customer traffic in the store and Melena could take her time to decide on the pet.

There was a wide variety of animals there, even exotic ones, like owls and snakes. We ventured to every aisle and finally Melena's eyes gleamed in one of the aisle. It was an aisle for dogs and puppies. We could see Melena staring at one of the puppies with her green eyes shining brightly.

It was a black labrador puppy, he looked very active and when I analyzed him with my talent, he seemed quite intelligent as well.

The pet was selected. Now what was left were the accessories and food. We took some time to do that and bought a truck full of toys, beds and snacks for him.

The puppy was already vaccinated and was due for another shot after 3 months, so we could just bring him home directly from the shop.

Melena was very happy with the puppy and hugged him during the whole drive home. During the drive, we helped her with the naming and his name was decided to be Rolo.

When we came home, Rolo ran in circles in the front yard and in the end I had to use a bit of 'compel' to catch him.

Rolo was tired from all the running, so we set up his little bed while he ate some food. Finally, he fell asleep directly beside the food bowl. Melena carefully picked him up and put him on his bed.

After that, we had some impromptu lunch, earlier than usual. I was famished after using 'Compel' and had to restore some of my energy.

Dad made some calls to get some private tutors homeschool Melena. It just wasn't suitable for her to directly go to a normal school right now. Her education was not up to the standards for her age and my parents weren't convinced that she could handle such a crowded, unknown environment. Besides, kids can be very fucking mean, like really mean.

I told them that I could also be homeschooled together with her. I really didn't want to interact with kids at school anymore. Dad knew my intentions very well and agreed to it, but Mom was not so easy to convince, so the idea was put on hold.

Vacations were very close anyway, and schooling would be off, homeschooled or not.

In the evening, Melena and I were watching tv when the doorbell rang. I ran towards the door and peeked through the peephole. It was Aunty Martha…

(A/N: What do you think of this pace? Was it too fast?

Don't get me wrong. I don't regret going at a slow pace at the start, as the MC and his family needed to be fleshed out. I wasn't gonna skimp on their character development. I might be a bit biased, but I think they feel more living-breathing this way.

Let me know your thoughts about it.

Thank You all for reading this chapter!!!)