Wooing My Ex-Wife

Zendaya mimicked him and whispered, “Uncle Charles, let’s keep Benny company together. It won’t do if you keep running away, Uncle Charles. If we should apologize, then let’s apologize. One day, Benny will be touched by your apologies and forgive you!”

Charles’ face paled, but he patted her head and said, “This isn’t something that can be solved with an apology. Let me think of another way around this.”

Zendaya pouted and pointed out, “Uncle Charles, are you trying to avoid this?”

Charles fell silent.

He simply could not think of a way to face Benedict at the moment.

Whenever he saw the way Benedict weakly lay on the bed, the feelings of guilt and helplessness would threaten to drown him.

It crushed him.

“Uncle Charles,” Zendaya cried out, swinging Charles’ arm and pestering him. “Come in with me. Sometimes Mommy ignores Daddy because of his mistakes too. When that happens, Daddy will just keep pestering her. He’ll do anything to get back into her good books. I’m sure he wants to stomp his foot and start bawling sometimes as well.”

Then, Zendaya covered her mouth and giggled. “Uncle Charles, have you heard of a fruit called durian? Why don’t you get some of them? If Benny doesn’t want to forgive you, then you can just kneel on that fruit’s thorny shell. I’m sure Benny will be moved by that.”

Charles turned speechless.

No godfather ever went on his knees for his godson.

Even if they were not godfather and godson, he, as someone older than Benedict, would technically never kneel before a child.

Still, he was more curious as to why Zendaya would think of durians. “Zendy, why would you ask me to get durians and kneel on them? Did your daddy… do this before?”

Zendaya earnestly shook her head. “I don’t know. Mommy keeps the door shut whenever she scolds Daddy, so I wouldn’t know. The walls in our house are thick too, so even when I tried to eavesdrop, I couldn’t hear anything.”

At that, Charles’ expression darkened.

and

involving a couple, he could

those thoughts away, he asked, “Then

for some, and Benny likes it too. If you’re going to kneel on its shell, then we can eat the flesh of the fruit.

giggling, she gave Charles another suggestion, “If you don’t like durians, we can make do with pineapples. Pineapples are yummy

lips twitched. “Zendy, you’re… so kind

were chatting, they

voice, Benedict asked,

eyes. Then, she smacked her hand over her mouth and muttered, “Oh no! Was

So what if he heard us? It’s not as if we were

keep your brother

“Yay!” Zendaya cheered.

the ward, Zendaya merrily launched herself

We’ll be having fruits in the afternoon—durians

her. He then pushed away

after her half-an-hour meeting. A quarter of an hour has already gone by, so she’s coming back soon. Go

to eat durians and pineapples with you! By the way,

blurted out to Benedict a plan that Charles had not even agreed

to kneel before

“Uh-huh,” Zendaya affirmed.

but he could not help wondering if it was true. Still, it did

lifespan shorter if someone older kneels before me. Is he trying to admit his

She never thought that

honest, Uncle Charles has only said that he’s going to buy durians and pineapples. He never said anything about kneeling, but that doesn’t matter. You’re sick because of Uncle Charles, and you’re hurting once in a while because of him

“You’re truly one of a kind, Zendaya. Are you a double

head and flashed him a

If I have to eat a few more pieces of durian flesh… I mean… If I have to pay the price to get