Darryl turned his head back and forth to Dannah and the girl who seemed to have been lost in the middle of adults. Even with the age difference, there"s no denying that they both look like each other—both their ivory skin were of the same tone, their hair was almost the same and their eyes, it seemed that one could looked into two identical pairs."Tell me that you aren"t seeing what I"m seeing," Dannah told Darryl, her eyes fixated into the girl as if she had seen her own ghost.
"Dannah did you give birth to a daughter?" Darryl whispered to her.
"I"m not anymore sure of the answer," Dannah admitted, very much confused to see a younger version of her own self in the meeting hall.
"Hi, We"ve finally met President D" Said the girl with big wide smile, "I"m so thrilled, aren"t you uncle?"
The girl then turned to the person who was sitting beside her. It was a fine young man with broad shoulders and a s.h.i.+nny bald head. He was wearing a suit like everyone else in the table and to accommodate the girl"s call, he t.i.tled his head toward her to nod carefully.
Darryl looked at the man and squinted as if trying to recall where he had seen him. He was very sure he had met the man before but he could not particularly tell where and when.
"So this is the botanist we are all waiting for," It was one of Darryl"s uncles who broke the chain of shock that had run around the room. "A child,"
"Excuse me I"m not a child, I"m a girl," The little botanist told, "And just so you know I"m very good at planting strawberries, my uncle can attest to that,"
"This little girl surely didn"t know what"s going out here," It was Samson Lagdameo who expressed his frustration this time, "Darryl are you going to put L Empire"s future in this girl?"
"Cough.cough.cough." It was the girl"s uncle who cut in to get everyone"s attention. When all heads turned to his side, he fixed his himself and stood, then walked all the way to Darryl.
"President D, I am this girl"s representative. We have talked several times over the phone as you may have recalled," He started and extended a hand for a handshake.
Darryl greatly accepted his hand and acknowledged him, "Mr. Barb right?"
"Yes, Mr. Angus Barb Jr," He confirmed. "This Little Miss is Willow, she"s the botanist you have requested,"
"Well I"m sorry for the not so warm welcome, we quiet didn"t expect that Miss Willow is a child," Darryl looked at Willow whose brow arched at his words, so he corrected himself immediately, "A girl I mean,"
"Well you never asked," Mr. Barb replied, "As I could recall you just wanted the girl who can grew strawberries perfectly in this country and so here she is,"
"Well I hope we will not have a problem with that," Dannah moved to intervene, not feeling good will all these surprises. She too looked at the child whose face grimaced because of the adult"s hesitations and who was now sitting with crossed arms.
"You all invited me here just to treat me this way? Why are you all being doubtful just because I"m a girl?" Willow nagged, surely not pleased about the situation.
"I"m sorry my dear," Dannah went toward the girl to console her, "Your name is Willow Barb I supposed?"
"No," She said flatly, eyeing Dannah with a hard look.
"Well then…why don"t you introduce yourself to us first and then we can start sorting this whole thing out," Dannah encouraged her, oblivious as to the revelations that was about to come.
"My name is Willow," The girl told everyone twitching her lips in annoyance, "Willow Montreal,"
"Montreal?" Her last name made Dannah nervous as if she was about to uncover something huge. "You are a Montreal?"
"I am, is there something wrong with that?" Willow asked raising another brow.
"Well as you can see I"ve spoken to a Montreal recently who claimed he tried to buy you out but you rejected his offer I supposed," Dannah carefully threated her words for the girl to understand, "So if you are Montreal then why did you rejected another Montreal"s offer?"
"It"s none of your business," The girl said and her answer only made everyone in the room chuckled. One thing was sure about this little botanist, like Dannah, she"s a bit bossy and looking at them having a conversation was like seeing a mother being tricked by her own daughter. "However if it"s really important for you to know then I"ll spare you some information. Zhanglou Montreal is not in good terms with my father and so to avoid big conflicts, I rejected his offer,"
"So you know Director Zhanglou?" Dannah was intrigued.
"Of course, I know him. How could I not?" The girl replied. "I might be small but I sure know a lot,"
"Interesting," Dannah commented almost giving up with the girl"s bossy att.i.tude. She then dragged her eyes to Mr. Barb who was a little upset about Willow"s ill manners, then asked, "How old is this girl?"
"Six Miss," He answered, "I"m sorry about that, she"s always turn upset when things don"t go as planned, but she"s a good talented child,"
"She sure is," Dannah said looking Darryl with a complicated look as if trying to convey that they were in a great mess, especially that big L Empire personalities were there. If only she knew that they will be meeting a child today, she should have held the introduction on a playground.
"You are not her father?" Darryl asked Mr. Barb, trying to gather few information to make sure he can attend to every loopholes and mishaps in case there are any. Darryl himself don"t have prejudices on working with a child but then the government and rules of the country may not agree with him so he had to know how big the trouble they were in to handle the situation well.
"Apparently no, I"m her legal representative as I"ve told you," Mr. Barb replied.
"You see Mr. Barb the rules in this country provides—"
"The rules in this country provide that a child can be hired so long as the working hours can be adjusted to cater the child"s needs and that the working environment is not bad for the child"s health. I know rules and I sure know we hadn"t broke one," Willow intervened upon seeing that Darryl was concern with the country"s law about children, "Also, my father is away for a medical mission and left me with Uncle Ang, so technically he is my legal representative and he can validly sign papers in my behalf,"
"On a medical mission?" Dannah sure caught the information easily, "Your father is a medical pract.i.tioner,"
***
-Chapter ends here-
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