AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Suddenly, the blanket was shoved off and Pia was looking up at him with big eyes.
“I found it,” Pia said.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“I saw it in the moving boxes,” she said. “It’s the hat from the picture of you and Mama. The one where she looks so pretty.”
“Our wedding picture,” he said, realizing. The holo from their wedding had hung on the living room wall in the old house. He’d never had the heart to take it down, even though it half-killed him every time he looked at it.
“I rescued it,” Pia said. “I put it in my closet so I can visit Mama.”
“Where in your closet?” he asked.
She pointed to the empty shelf.
“This was right up there?” he asked, holding up the headpiece.
She nodded enthusiastically.
So, the nanny hadn’t been nosing through his possessions. That was encouraging.
“But that still doesn’t explain why she wore it,” he thought out loud.
“It’s all my fault,” Pia sobbed suddenly.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“I lost my hat,” she said. “My good hat, with the flowers on top. And I was sad, because I didn’t want the kids to see my circlet. But Yasmine said she would wear a hat, too, so no one would pay attention to my circlet.”
“And she saw the headpiece in your closet,” he realized out loud.
“I was getting my muffin, and when I came back, she was wearing it,” Pia said. “She looked very pretty, too.”
“Did you tell her it belonged to your mother?” Ba’sh asked carefully.
Pia shook her head, her eyes wide.
“What about Jax, did he tell her?” he asked.
“No,” Pia said quietly. “He said wow.”
That sounded about right.
“And the guards and driver, no one said anything?” he asked, feeling hopeless now.
Pia shook her head.
“She really didn’t know,” he said to himself. “I think I screwed this up. Why would she know? She’s just a poor Terran, and she had no idea.”
“Is that a stereotype?” Pia asked.
“What?” he asked.
“A stereotype,” she repeated. “Where you think certain things about someone because of where they’re from?”
“Where did you learn that?” he asked.
“Yasmine,” she said. “Yasmine said that people who think Thyphians are creepy are wrong, because that’s a stereotype. She said no one should be scared of my circlet.”
“Pia, you’re a good girl and super smart,” Ba’sh said, hopping off the bed. “None of this is your fault. But I have to run and talk to Yasmine now. Is that okay?”
“You have to say sorry for yelling and thinking a stereotype,” Pia said wisely, nodding her little head.
“Something like that, yes,” he said, unable to hide a smile. “See you at dinnertime?”
She smiled back at him, and his heart felt like it would burst.
Apologizing to Yasmine and begging her to stay would not be easy. And it would be even harder to explain to his publicity chief and Slaite why he was keeping her on. But there was nothing in the world he wouldn’t do for his little girl.
And Yasmine was obviously very, very good for Pia.
