Rabbit

The door to the dining room was opened and Sasha strut in. "I'm back home.", came from him with a smile on his face.

It was a while ago that he saw his family, so he decided to surprise them with a spontaneous visit, but in the end he was the one who was more surprised.

Mr.Evans put down his cutlery next to his half eaten breakfast and spoke to Sasha to distract him from the awkward scene in the dining hall.

"cough..you're back my son. Why did you not tell us? We would have waited for you to dine with us together."

Hearing his father, Sasha answered with a smile showing his pearly teeth, he really was happy to finally be back home, so he did not realize immediately that something was wrong.

"Yes father, I'm back, my mission ended earlier then planed so I had some free time to spare. I thought of visiting my family... since I hadn't much time lately for you guys.", the smile on his face didn't stay long.

Sasha's eyes went to his children when he talked about his family, so he saw Emilié standing a bit apart from the dining table, with a dazed look staring into the air.

Valentin was sitting with her head looking down on her plate of fear her mother's anger would spring onto her and Leevi who hide in the bosom of Mrs.Evans weeping softly.

"What is wrong? Why is Leevi crying?"

He immediately walked over to his mother to take his son in his arms.

Leevi now by his father sobbed louder, he wished to tell Sasha that his mother scolded him, but he couldn't bring an understandable sound out his throat and wetted his father's tight sitting shirt with his falling tears.

"Mo..m..'sob' m..mom..'sob' 'sob' sco..sc.. 'hic'"

Sasha could not make out anything, so he turned his head away from his son and asked the adults on the table.

"What happend? Is someone going to tell me, or what? Mom, why is Leevi a crying mess and the girls so absent? "

Mrs.Evans had no desire to have a fallout with his son, only because of a trouble making granddaughter.

She shoved the whole fault to her daughter-in-law and kept a passive position in this matter. "My son, don't ask us old bones, we can not keep up with your youngsters energy. Go ask your wife why she has scolded her son, not me!"

"Scold? Why did you scold our child, Bethea?" His eyebrows furrowed, this was the first time he heard his child being scolded to the point of tears by Bethea.

They both opted for a leisure upbringing, since both of them were brought up in strict and traditional family houses. Sasha himself has sworn he would not do what his father did to him, to his own children.

And since all three weren't the mischievous type or did any other bad things, he knew they were well behaved children. So what made Bethea freak out so much?

Not shying away from her husband's question, Bethea stared into his eyes and said word for word, for him clear to understand, why she did, what she did.

"I did scold him. And you know why? Because he sugested Emilié should not only choose how the birthday parties theme should be, but let her attend too!" She raised up from her seat to be on the same eye level as Sasha.

She was so heated up, heaving loudly her chest was going up and down from anger. "Do you have any idea, what kind of embarrassment she is to me? Being mocked by my friends to have born an imbecile, they're gossipping everytime they see me. And now I should bring her to the celebration to parade her around for everyone to see!! As if I would do that!"

That was the last straw for Emilié, she had really liked Bethea, not how she liked her past mother, but in a way she had the feeling of being able to depend on her. But knowing how Bethea felt for her, another dark feeling raised up her heart, dislike and a bit hate.

She lived in this house for years now and was humiliated multiple times, either by her sister or by the employees, yet her mother never did something to her. Ignoring, yes! But not hurting.

Emilié was stuck by this little warmth she received from her and now, that it vanished, only hate was left.

And finally she got a crack in her psychological barrier, which could help her get away from this speech problem, but in the negative way, her scars were still there and these will keep hurting her in the long run.

"So this matter was only about letting Emilié attend her own birthday party.", Sasha stared deep into Bethea's eyes to make his point clear to her, what he thought.

"Say Bethea, aren't you a little bit to much worked up about what others might think about you, than what I think. Listen carefully, children are god's send blessings, now if they are healthy, mentally challenged or physically impaired, it doesn't matter! All of them deserve to be treated the same, with love. And you as their mother have disappointed them!"

Hearing this, Emilié felt as if those words were directed to her, she already experienced a big set back and now with those compassionate words from her father, she could no longer keep herself together.

Tears rolled down her cheek and she missed Claudia so much. A loud sob came out from her and she turned herself into a ball clinging to her legs.

Sasha immediately went to her and scooped her up with his other free arm. "Emilié everything is ok, no need to cry anymore."

He slowly caressed her head to calm her down and Leevi shuffled to Emilié to give her younger sister a hug, even through he still was hiccuping from the earlier drama.

"You like rabbits, don't you Emilié?", came the spontaneous question from Sasha to Emilié.

"You like them? I saw you with a stuffed rabbit once, so you like them, don't you?"

Emilié a bit more calmed down, but still sniffing nodded her head. She did like rabbits, they were fluffy, had long ears and were super cute.

"Then this year we will celebrate with a bunch of rabbits, just for you!"