C4 Please love mummy

Arthur's POV

Catherine had spent all her time shopping for Mia. She had even made me take the day off just so I could go with her. As we opened the door of the house, Mia who was seated on the couch alone while being watched by the maids and guards and once she took notice of us she ran away as usual.

"Arthur" Catherine stared at me with such watery and sad eyes.

"She will come around okay. Go and show her all the things you bought for her" I urged Catherine so she wouldn't get more upset.

"But what if she doesn't like it?" Catherine was more discouraged at this point.

"She will love it, trust me, just go and give it to her" I brought out a teddy bear from one of the bags and handed it over to her.

I slowly walked behind her to see how Mia would react.

"Mia darling I got you something" Catherine brought out the teddy she was hiding behind her.

As usual Mia didn't respond to her, she sat on the floor leaning on the bed.

Catherine soon joined her to sit on the floor.

"Look it's a light red teddy bear, do you like it?" Catherine showed it to Mia in the hopes that she would respond to her but Mia didn't even utter a word. She tried her best to move away from Catherine as much as possible. Catherine kept trying to get closer to her and that scared Mia a lot.

"I don't want it. Please leave me alone… go away… go away.." Mia kept on repeating.

Poor Catherine just dropped the teddy on the floor and ran away. I tried to call out to her but she didn't respond.

She went into out room locked herself in the room.

"Catherine, please open the door. It's okay,you can show her the other things you bought. Maybe she doesn't like teddy bears" I kept on banging on the door, pleading with Catherine to open the door for me.

"Arthur didn't you see? Didn't you hear? My own daughter asked me to go away. She doesn't like me, she doesn't want anything to do with me" Catherine kept on crying out from inside the room.

"That's not true Catherine, she just.." I was talking before Catherine interrupted.

"Just stop Arthur. Stop trying to give me false hope. Just leave me alone" Catherine thundered. Catherine had never been a cool headed person, she always reacted to the littlest things.

I just couldn't take it anymore, I stormed into Mia's room and grabbed her.

"What is your problem? What do you really want? Why can't you just reciprocate the love we are giving you? We have given you everything. We gave you a comfortable life, you have so many maids at your beck and call. What else do you want?" I kept on shouting at her angrily as I squeezed her elbow.

I looked at Mia and she looked so terrified, she had begun to cry and I realized myself. Seeing her so sad broke my heart into a thousand pieces.

I carried her and made her sit on the bed and knelt before her.

"Mia, please forgive me but I really don't know what you want. Look, you have made your mum cry so much all because she bought you gifts" I tried to sound as calm and gentle as I could then I went to the sitting room and brought out the other things we had bought for her.

"Look we bought all this for you and you just make us sad everyday. We are your parents and we love you more than anything in this world. Please tell us what we are doing wrong" I kept on pleading with my 4 year old daughter who had now stopped crying but was still very speechless. She didn't say anything to me, she just stared at me and I got tired at some point and left the room for her. I went to my room but the door was still locked, I cannot believe Catherine had locked me outside our room.

I was so tired and it was late already, no one had dinner that night. Neither me nor Catherine had the appetite. I passed by Mia's room and noticed that the door was half closed. She was sleeping and looked so peaceful and innocent but what amazed me more was the fact that she was putting on the pyjamas that Catherine had bought earlier that day for her, not just that but she was hugging the teddy she had rejected earlier. I rushed towards our room and knocked on the door.

"Please go away. Leave me alone Arthur" Catherine knew that I was the one.

"Catherine just come out I want to show you something. It is really amazing please just come out please" I kept on insisting over and over until Catherine finally gave in.

"What is it?" She opened the door roughly and almost slammed it at my face.

"Damn you could be more careful you know" I was rubbing my nose which she hit with the door.

"Are you showing me or I should go back inside?" She rolled her eyes.

I nodded my head as a yes and asked her to follow me to Mia's room, more like I dragged her since she refused to come with me.

"Arthur, please let me go. I really don't want to see her now" Catherine kept trying to free her tiny wrist which I grabbed and kept dragging her to Mia's room.

"Take a look for yourself" I pointed to sleeping Mia.

Catherine's eyes widened in amazement and she looked so happy.

"I bought that for her. See Arthur she is hugging the teddy" Catherine was so excited and began to act like a child herself.

"I can see that. I brought you here to remember" I was feeling on top of the world at this point.

"I can't believe this. She..she" at this point Catherine was just speechless and maybe her heart couldn't contain the joy and she began to cry.

"It's just one step at a time and we will get there soon" I encouraged Catherine who went to sit on the bed beside Mia and began to make backwards strokes on Mia's hair. Mia opened her eyes and was waking up, Catherine was frightened and stood up but Mia pulled her back and continued her sleep.

Catherine gasped in amazement.

"Did you see that?" Catherine was so surprised.

"Yes but we have to leave her so she can sleep now. She is going to school tomorrow" I reminded Catherine who wanted to sleep in Mia's room which she ended up doing.

The next morning Mia ate her breakfast at the dining table with us for the first time. She allowed Catherine to feed her and clothe her, normally she would just run away from us.

"Mia do you want more?" Catherine asked Mia who had finished what was on her plate.

"Yes please" Mia responded really quickly. I couldn't eat, I was still shocked like I kept blinking my eyes and pinching myself to check if I was dreaming or something.

"Bye daddy,bye mummy" Mia picked up her school bag and left the house with her driver.

"Hello Earth to Arthur,Earth to Arthur" Catherine kept waving her hands in front of my face.

I looked so dumbfounded she just had to do it.

"Are you okay Arthur? You haven't even touched your food and do you realize you are running late for work?" Catherine began to arrange her bag. She was putting on a horse blood two piece pant lady slim suit which went for about 20 to 30 thousand dollars. She kept on tapping me.

"When did you buy that?" I found myself asking

"When we went shopping, why? Don't you like it?" She lowered her eyebrows and I just kept on staring at her.

I mean what is happening I was so confused about everything happening around me.

"Eat your food quickly, we have a meeting to attend" she reminded me and that was all I needed to hear.

Reality dawned on me that I had only 20 minutes left before the meeting.

The meeting went well thankfully but I couldn't stop myself from thinking about Mia's sudden change of attitude.

"Are you thinking about Mia?" Catherine walked into my office without my notice.

"It's quite difficult not to considering her sudden change in behavior" I told her not looking away from my laptop that was infront of you.

"I know, I am also concerned but more than being concerned I am happy. This is what we have been looking for all this while so why should we start worrying over it" Catherine tried to explain.

"Although you are right Catherine, the speed at which she changed is my concern. People just don't change overnight" I tried my best to make her see things from my perspective

"I know but let's just see how far we can go with this" Catherine suggested.

I was so confused and I felt like I was left helpless. No one would want a daughter who will love you today and run away from you the next day. I wanted to know what was going on but there was no one who had answers to my questions.

A year went by so quickly and Mia changed completely. I was indeed a very happy father. Mia had started talking and being friendly, she began to play with other kids and things seemed to have fallen into place until one unfortunate day we were ripped off everything. Everything was taken from us just like that in the blink of an eye.