For a moment there, Ashley had completely forgotten about the matter.
Walking towards the boy, she helped him fix his clothes. "How are you? Did you sleep well last night?" she asked.
The boy just looked at her cautiously, not uttering a single word.
Judging from what had happened the day before, Ashley didn't expect that the boy would want to talk to her now.
'That is fine, I guess, ' Ashley sighed in her mind, 'The important thing is that he understands what I'm saying to him.'
"Alright then. I'll take you to wash up a bit and then you can come back and have some breakfast, okay?" 'Then I'll finally be able to send you back.'
Thinking of this, Ashley couldn't help but feel better. She wanted to help the child but this wasn't a good time for her, with a baby on the way.
After Ashley finished cleaning up, they went to the door and were about to go out. However, upon opening the door, Ashley saw that Selma was standing outside. Peering over Ashley's shoulders, Selma saw the little boy behind her.
"Ashley...Who's he?" Selma asked in surprise, "I don't remember you having a child this big already!"
Feeling helpless, Ashley had no choice but to explain. "Truthfully, I don't know who he is," Ashley said, "Yesterday, when I went out to buy something, I saw him being surrounded by several other children. They were bullying him. I felt so sorry for him that I just had to protect him. But...Oh, I don't know!"
From the way Ashley explained the event that had happened to her, she sounded very frustrated that there was now a strange boy in her home.
She definitely didn't expect that she would suddenly get tangled up with a little boy like this.
Glancing back at the him, Selma sighed as she, too, did not know what to do with Ashley's situation.
"So what do you plan to do now? What are you going to do with the boy?" Selma asked.
"I don't know. Send him back home maybe. I can't keep him here forever."
Selma nodded, "Tha
he boy, Ashley and Selma looked at each other worriedly.
"Oh, no, isn't this Richard? Take a closer look! Is it really him?"
one of the children cried out.
"Oh, you're right. It really is him."
"But why did he come back? Didn't he say that he wouldn't come back? Bad luck! Looks like his plans were cut short!"
"Wasn't he lying there and could barely move last night? Why and how did he come back?"
It was obvious that the boy named Richard wasn't welcome here. Even the children didn't like him. They were disappointed when they saw that he was indeed back.
Hearing all the children's comments about Richard made Ashley sad.
Although she knew that she had been an orphan as well, she couldn't be certain if she had ever stayed at an orphanage.
Her memories from that time were all muddled. Sometimes, she would remember fragments of the past, but even then they were still very unclear to her.
Seeing how the children treated Richard so harshly, Ashley instinctively put her arm around the boy to protect him.
'They're just kids, ' Ashley thought, feeling helpless, 'They probably don't even know what they're talking about or how their words could affect other people. Even so, they will regret it once they get older and they still remember all the bad things they've said and done.'