SPILT MILK

"Come here, my son, come to daddy's bedroom," Vine kissed the little one as lady Pinkerton handed the child over to him. He went into his bedroom and sat on the bed, making faces, trying his best to make the little one smile. The little one did smile a little, but generally he was just staring at his father with eyes full of curiosity.

"Do you want to run the Pinkerton businesses when you grow up? Do you think you will enjoy it?" he asked his son.

"I wish I could spend the entire night with you. It's a pity I don't have any breast milk with me," he laughed, cuddling his little one in his arms.

Vine lifted the little baby and started singing for him. After a single stanza, the young father suddenly stopped and chuckled.

"I'm not good at singing, am I? Your mum sings way better than me. Let me just stop now before I make you cry from my poor singing." He kissed the little one.

"I should have named you Vine Lucas Junior. I don't know why I waited for grandma to name you." he smiled at the boy.

With his hands balled up into tiny fists, Vincent Lisandro made little punches in the air. Vine continued talking to his son, laughing and having good quality time with him.

After close to two hours, the little boy started crying. Vine quickly checked his diaper and sure enough, it needed a change.

"Let me change you and then I will warm up your milk and feed you," he told his son and walked to the lounge to get the baby bag that Kiara had left. To his disappointment, Vine saw that when lady Pinkerton gave him the bottle of milk, he must have mistakenly placed it on the edge of the table, and it fell down. It fell facing down, thus all the milk had sipped out, and it was empty.

"Oh oh, my son. We don't have any more milk," he updated his son.

He changed the diaper and the child was still crying and sucking his finger. Although he was not an expert of babies, the young father was able to tell that his son was hungry. With an empty milk bottle, he didn't know what to do. He quickly dialed the kitchen number.

"Hello, young master Pinkerton. How may I help you today?" the head chef responded.

"Tell Tessa to come here urgently."

"Tessa has taken a day of, sir." The head chef responded politely.

"OK", Vine put the phone in his pocket.

Not wanting to disturb Kiara, he carried his son in his arms and headed to his grandparents chambers. He knocked softly before pushing the door open.

"Vine! You should wait until I say come in. See, I am almost naked and here you are, just pushing the door open." Lady Pinkerton scolded, but still in her admonishing, there was still a lot of love in her voice.

"Sorry," Vine retreated two steps, closed the door and waited until he heard his grandmother calling for him to come in.

"Vine," his grandfather sat up in bed and greeted his grandson. "Give me the little one," he stretched out his hands with a smile.

"Grandma, the milk spilled by mistake, and he is hungry. Is there anything else that we can give him? I really don't want to disturb Kiara, she has a headache and she wants to sleep."

"That's a problem because Vincent has never taken formula. He's on exclusive breastfeeding. By the way, she left only one bottle, didn't she? Is there any more expressed milk?" lady Pinkerton bent forward and stroked Vincent's cheeks.

"I don't think so. She left just one bottle," Vine spoke as he sat down on a chair

"Umm, in that case we have no option but to wake her up. We don't have any milk substitutes for the little one. Go wake her up."

Vine immediately stood up and went to Kiara's room. He knocked on the door several times but there was no response.

"She must be really exhausted to sleep like this," he spoke to himself before pushing the door open.

He walked inside and checked, only to see that the bed was neatly spread with no sign of there ever being someone in it. Where was she? Could she have been in the bathroom? Even so, the bed wouldn't have looked that neat. Who makes up their bed when they wake up to go and use the bathroom?

He checked the bathrooms and the other rooms, but Kiara was not there. Vine went back to his grandparents' bedroom and announced that the mother of the child was nowhere to be found.

"Where is she? Was she not using the bathroom?"

"All empty. I checked her whole suite." Vine explained.

"Well then, call Gareth. Tell him to come here now," lady Pinkerton climbed off the bed and threw her morning gown on top of her night dress.

Within a short while, Gareth came in and he was updated.

"OK, I will personally look for her in the whole mansion. We're not letting the staff know anything, but I will be back soon."

"Won't it take too much time to comb through the entire mansion?" lady Pinkerton asked in worry.

"I have my ways, just give me three minutes maximum." Gareth assured them.

And off he went. Sure enough, in slightly less than three minutes he was back with a laptop in his hands. He set it and played a short CCTV footage showing the events of the night. In it, they all saw a glimpse of a lady dressed like a maid, sneaking out using the fire escape route. The person was undoubtedly very much aware of where the CCTV cameras were placed, for she managed to dodge them all except for one, where the camera only caught a glimpse of the person's back.

"Pause it!" lady Pinkerton said, and Gareth did so.

"Zoom in, let's see," she looked closely.

"Isn't that Kiara?"

"It's her," Gareth confirmed.

"Why was she in the maid's uniform?"

"To make it easier to leave the place," Garth responded.

Vine replayed the video and saw the image of the lady that he had once sought after. The lady in the maid's uniform; the lady that he had secretly fallen for. Oh; so it was her all along? How on earth had he not been able to pick that? It must have been because while at home, Kiara always wore trousers and long lose shirts which made it difficult for someone to see her real body structure. But in the video; he saw her. He saw the real Kiara; the same one who he saw at the Two-Sons Hotel, and was smitten by her. Yes, it was that body; that very lovely body which the owner hardly ever displayed for any to admire. The maid uniform did it all. The maid uniform was what attracted him to her since the first day. It fit her too well. It heightened her beauty, making her appear like a mini goddess.

Lady Pinkerton thought about it for a while without saying anything. Vine pulled his chair closer to the table, and he was replaying the footage over and over again.

"Call the driver on duty, and make sure the phone is on speaker" lady Pinkerton ordered.

Gareth made the call.

"Yes, sir Gareth, Driver 0024 speaking, how may I help you tonight?" the driver's sleepy voice came through.

"Its lady Pinkerton here,"

"Oh, good evening ma'am. Am I in any trouble, ma'am? How may I be of help? You're talking to me, Driver 0024", the man responded, sitting up in his bead and starting to sweat profusely. Never in the entirety of his profession at the Pinkertons, which was a total of twelve years, had he ever received a call from the lady herself.

"You will be in trouble if you dare lie to me. Did you drive Tessa out tonight?" the lady's teeth were gritted; her breathing heavy.

"I…yes I did. I was under the impression that Tessa officially took some time off. Was I not supposed to drive her out? I'm sorry lady…."

"Ok, I only have a few questions."

"Yes lady Pinkerton." At that moment, if it were possible, Driver 0024's heart would have leapt out of his body, for he was seriously terrified. He was not scared of losing his job as such; but more of what the Pinkertons were going to do to him should they find out that he had made a mistake of any kind.

"How many people did you drive out today?" the lady's voice was full of wrath.

"Two, ma'am; ah, I mean, lady Pinkerton. Two ladies. It was Tessa and the other maid."

"Which maid was it?"

"I did not ask what her name was. She wasn't speaking much, and Tessa said she also was taking the day off today."

"Where did you leave her?"

"She also got off the car when Tessa got off. I thought they were going together." The driver did his best to control his breathing.

"Ok." The lady ended the call.

The three of them, except Vine, were appalled. Who would have ever thought that Kiara was capable of doing such? The little one, probably tired of wailing, was already starting to fall asleep.

"I wonder if this is the first time she has done this. And from what the driver said, I have every reason to believe that Tessa was involved in all this." Lady Pinkerton said.

"Call her, let's hear where she is" Vine's grandfather said.

"No. No, don't call her unless if you want her forewarned. Let me track her phone. She doesn't know that her phone has a tracker." Gareth said.

"Well before you track it, check and see if she made any calls?"

"She wouldn't," Vine said. "She knows all her calls and messages are recorded, so she calls only her mother using that phone. She doesn't even call her dad."

"Ok, Gareth, get on it."

Gareth pulled the laptop and his fingers danced frantically on the keyboard. Before anyone expected it, he yelled, "bingo!"

"Where is she?" Lady Pinkerton leaned in closer to Gareth.

"You won't like this, believe me lady Pinkerton." Gareth sighed, doing his best to suppress his joy. He loved it a lot when he played the role of detective for the Pinkertons.

"Where on earth is she?" the lady asked angrily.

"At Jeremy Rain's house."

"Jeeeeesus Christ!" the lady hissed.