Middle Child Syndrome - Chapter 56

Chapter 56: Ch 56: Cannot take ‘no’
The car ride was filled with an uncomfortable silence, and Natasha was relieved when they finally arrived at the mall, with Rika trailing behind her.

But even if they were walking together, Natasha had yet to decide what to talk to Rika about.

She knew she needed to break the silence and speak up before it was too late, but the words seemed to evade her, leaving her mouth dry and her mind blank.

‘Rika is one of my kids. I raised her until this point, but I cannot remember a thing about her right now. What does she like? What can she talk about?’ Natasha’s mind was a whirlwind of questions, her heart heavy with the weight of their strained relationship.

Ultimately, Natasha discussed a topic that always caused her clients and associates to start talking.

“So, did you recently change your perfume, Rika? You smell a little different today. Did something good happen to you?”

Natasha asked with a vague smile, but Rika made a frustrated face back at her.

“I am not wearing any perfume. Since I can’t smell them, I don’t like to wear them often. I thought you knew about that?” Rika’s voice was tinged with a hint of disappointment, a sign of her unspoken expectations from Natasha.

Rika asked the older female, and Natasha quickly retreated.

She did know about what Rika had told her. It was just…it slipped her mind for a second back there. But such situations happened, so it was not Natasha’s fault.

“Anyway, we should shop something for you, Rika. What would you like to have? Some cute and soft clothes? Some tech? Or maybe something more fun to do?”

The older alpha quickly tried to distract Rika from what was happening and her mess up. Rika did not mind and let her mother change the topic.

“I have more than enough clothes and don’t use tech enough to justify buying them. The best gift would be money. Please feel free to deposit it into my account. That way, we won’t have to suffer this awkward phase.”

Rika reminded her mother, but it only made the older alpha sadder.

She knew that Rika felt distant from her and her family, but she did not realise how bad this separation was until now.

Even now, Rika was not looking at her but around the mall. They were together, but they might as well be alone right now.

‘I want to ask Rika to reconcile with me, but I don’t have any right to ask her this, right? After all. It is all my fault that things got this bad in the first place.’

Natasha sighed, and she vowed to do better.

Spending time with Rika had reassured her that Rika was a level-headed person who would be a better fit for the CEO than either Mark or Suzie.

‘I made my decision a long time ago. I kept delaying my decision not to announce it, hoping the other two would mature and come around.’

“Mom, could I go and look around the store by myself? I want to check out a few things.”

Rika asked with an almost hesitant voice.

Natasha’s first instinct was to tell Rika that they should go together. But as soon as that thought reached her lips, Natasha swallowed them and sighed.

‘Maybe it will be better for Rika to go alone for now. I can do nothing to help her now except pay for her purchases.’

It was a tough choice, but Rika was gone before Natasha permitted her.

…

“Oh god! This whole trip could be more comfortable. Mother should have told me what this trip was about. That way, I would have declined before I was forced to come here.”

Rika complained as she dragged her feet through the mall.

She had already grown out of her ‘shopping’ phase, and she no longer liked to spend hours standing and looking for things that she wanted.

Her mother had never come with her or paid attention to what Rika did and did not have before.

Even when Rika begged her mother to come and shop with her, her mother was always busy.

“Let’s not get ahead of myself. This trip today was supposed to be for Suzie’s sake. Just because Mother promised to buy me something does not mean that this trip is suddenly for my sake.”

Rika chided herself as she leaned against the central fountain.

Since many more people were sitting around the huge water body, Rika felt more supported than she did.

But she was also the only one with no partner in the mall.

Seeing Sui alone must have sent so many signals all over the mall, but that did not occur in Rika’s tired mind.

That was why she could not move away in time as an unknown alpha warped his arms around Rika’s shoulder and tried to feel her up.

“Hey, sweet thing. What are you doing here all alone? It looks like you got stood up or abandoned. How about you come with me and my friends? We can show you a good time.”

The man asked Rika with a gentle smile and a beaming expression.

Maybe he thought he could make a vulnerable girl fall for him by hiding his expression in his arms.

But Rika was neither sad nor looking for company.

“Thanks for the offer, but I don’t need it. If that was all you came here to say to me, you should go now. I don’t want to get to know you.”

Rika tried to let this man down as gently as she could. But she knew that he had wounded this alpha’s pride.

The previously gentle man suddenly reached out toward Rika with an angry expression and grabbed her hand.

It hurt to have her wrist granted in a powerful hold, and Rika felt her heart skip a beat in fear.

“How dare you try to make fun of me like this? Just because I thought you were a little cute, you suddenly got an attitude? Who do you think you are!”