try begging
"How come you don't know Ellie when you raised her?"
Leon told the foolish woman who thought he was broke and had everything he wanted about a child he had observed named Ellie.
"Even if you buy dozens of dolls made by craftsmen, Ellie still cuddles the rabbit doll you made. When there's something delicious in front of her, she first asks where Mommy is. Even when she's having fun, she only looks for you, and if something happens, she goes to you and cuddles."
The day we first met, the child said that he had tried lobster for the first time and wanted to leave a note saying that his mother should try it too. And the whole time he was with her, he only thought about his mother. Before she quit her job, even when he was having fun, he would look at his watch and ask where the needle should be for his mother to come.
"You are still the person Ellie trusts and loves the most."
He was a loser not only to Grace, but also to the old stuffed rabbit that Grace had made for him. 'Daddy' would not be on Ellie's list of things she loved.
"What do you think would happen if you ran away with Ellie again now?"
Leon had no choice but to admit it, even though it hurt his bones.
"That kid will forget me completely in a month or two. Even if he remembers me, he'll probably just look back and say, 'Yeah, there was that guy. It was a fun time.'"
Grace was speechless, not knowing that the man was even thinking like that. She thought that anxiety was only hers.
"Is your love worthless?"
The man snorted.
"Love that can be bought with money is worthless. But I want to have that."
To confess his humiliating feelings to her just to appease her. The man was still arrogant, but at the same time, he looked pitiful.
"You're already the winner of this fight. You can just watch me struggle and laugh at me. If you can buy love with money, buy it. Like this."
He was the one who had the composure of a winner. Why did he say such things to encourage me? He was still a man I had difficulty understanding.
"If you can buy love with money, buy it."
After finishing her bath and going to see Ellie's dress show, Grace made a bold request to the man sitting next to her.
"Shouldn't I give Ellie the presents I couldn't give her when she was little?"
"Oh, I see."
It wasn't me, it was Ellie who was helping, but the man seemed happy to oblige, as if it was a good idea.
"Oh my, oh my."
A child wearing a blue floral dress clapped her hands, then stood in front of the man and began to chattering.
"Ellie gets presents on Santa's day, and on her birthday. And on egg-picking day..."
"Easter."
Although the man taught the exact words, the child's mind was completely absorbed in describing the gift.
"Like this!"
Ellie stretched her arms upward as far as she could and drew a large circle.
"Take the big chocolate bunny."
The thing Grace gave me last Easter was, at best, the size of my forearm.
"And the inside of the chocolate is filled with sweet candies."
The Easter Bunny chocolates are hollow. Leon knows this, but he's willing to be fooled by the cute con artist.
"And Ellie is two years old."
As the child proudly held out two fingers, Grace counted and intervened.
"So, there are two birthdays, two Easters, and two Christmases, so there are six gifts?"
"swimming...."
Leon simply loved the sight of his daughter smiling proudly after working with her mother to steal a gift from her father.
"As expected, Winston was born with greed in place of conscience."
Grace's eyes were distorted without the child's knowledge. As she watched the man smiling proudly while receiving a kiss from his daughter, she felt a sense of discomfort, as if she had been caught up in the man's tricks.
"Mom, what about this?"
The child grabbed the ear of the muffin that was on her lap and lifted it up and down. When neither of the parents understood, the child looked around and then suddenly opened her eyes wide and ran to the door.
"Major. Uh...."
Campbell, who was coming in to report to Leon, stopped when the child ran towards him.
"It's a hat."
So Ellie snatched the hat Campbell was wearing and put a stuffed rabbit inside it.
"What is this?"
"ah...."
Grace taught the man the answer, even though he still didn't understand.
"circus."
"ah...."
The man slowly nodded as if he finally understood, and then asked the child with sparkling eyes.
"Buy it for me?"
"I want you to show me."
Grace, who was tired of it all, rolled her eyes.
º º º
In the end, no one won, and the fight continued until just the day before Christmas.
"I'll go to Columbia when the first ship leaves in April next year. I don't plan on going with you. I'll just let you come see Ellie as promised."
Grace kept her voice low so Ellie wouldn't hear her as she packed up her toys in her apartment.
"Then what will Ellie's Easter present be next year...?"
"I don't need a penthouse."
As soon as the man sitting cross-legged on the sofa calmly opened his mouth, Grace cut him off. As if to show by her own actions that there was no room for compromise, she turned around coldly and started packing again. The man said nothing more.
After observing for the past ten days, Grace was forced to come to a very uncomfortable conclusion.
The monster I created eventually became the human I created.
That said, I had no intention of starting over with the reborn 'human' Leon Winston.
Jim had only come to pack Ellie's belongings since she was staying at the hotel until early next year. In fact, Ellie didn't need anything since that guy bought her everything. Grace packed her clothes and shoes and put her camera in her bag.
"Is that mine?"
As I was taking out Ellie's Christmas present from under the tree, which was already shedding leaves because no one had watered it, a child came running towards me.
"You can open this tomorrow morning."
"Ugh... ."
I already knew there was a toy pony inside since I chose it. My father had promised to buy me a real horse, but Ellie wanted Grace's meager gift as the man had said.
"I wish tomorrow morning would come quickly."
"Then the circus."
When the man asked, Ellie immediately changed her words.
"Then I hope tonight comes quickly and tomorrow morning comes!"
I decided to go see the circus tonight. It seems that with money and power, you can get tickets where you didn't have before.
Grace, who was looking around to see if she had forgotten anything after packing up her gift box, caught the man's eye. He was looking at her and Ellie in the picture frame on the nightstand. The child, who was looking at her father, suddenly began to groan and take out the album under the nightstand.
"I'm not taking that."
The child shook his head in response to his mother's words. Did he mean that he would take it anyway, or did he mean that he had no intention of taking it? Leon only realized what she meant after she took out the album.
"Okay."
The child took off the photo attached to the first page and handed it to Leon. She was giving him the first photo of her life that she had refused to give him, saying it was her mother's when they first met. He accepted it absentmindedly and asked.
"...Why is this?"
Leon was left speechless by the following answer.
"Ellie will give you this, so you will never go to heaven again."
The child wants him. Leon closed his eyes as he was overwhelmed with emotion and held the child in his arms like the first time they met. He looked calm on the outside, but inside, he felt a storm of emotions he had never felt before.
"I promise."
Leon whispered in the child's ear that he would never go to heaven again, but in his heart he repeated a different vow.
I will never let you go again. I will never lose you.
Back at the hotel, Leon couldn't take his eyes off the best Christmas present of his life. Then, a disapproving gaze was fixed on him.
As he raised his head, Leon quickly turned his gaze away and pretended to look at the magazine, and waved the photo as if to show it to the woman.
"It's mine now."
Grace glared at him and whispered in his ear so that Ellie, who was playing with her dolls, couldn't hear.
"Ellie, it's not you, it's your money that's good. Don't get me wrong."
"Good job."
"what."
"Bullying from the side."
As soon as I brought up the idea of living together, the woman shut her mouth, put down the magazine, and walked over to the child.
"The spell has been broken. Now I have to go back to being a dirty girl."
"Ugh... But then the prince wouldn't recognize me."
"If you leave a pair of shoes like this, the prince will come looking for you."
Leon, who had been watching the two playing with dolls, quietly intervened.
"I guess they'll find it by reporting it to the police, not by looking at the shoes."
As he spoke of the whole story from the cruise ship to the eventual motive for finding it, comparing it to playing with dolls, Grace slyly glanced at him.
"The play is over and now it's time to... ."
Leon was just about to tell them to get ready to go to the circus as he looked at his watch.