Spoiled By My Brothers: Return of The Lost Heiress

Chapter 172: Seraphina, The Girl Whom He Named Himself

When Seraphina was going through hell in the orphanage and later in her life at the Lancaster mansion, thinking she was all alone and had no one around her who cared for her, someone had been desperately looking for her.

Lucien met Seraphina when he was fifteen and had lost his big brother, who was the light of his life.

And every year on his birthday, his parents would drag him to an orphanage to do charity.

But to him, it was more like they were trying to atone for their sin rather than remembering him on his birthday.

His brother, Ethan, was always Lucien’s shield. He was the one who stood between Lucien and their father’s sharp, demanding glare whenever he rebelled.

What repulsed him was the news later, making them the most generous people, rather than the parents who killed their own son by pushing him so hard that he decided to give up on his life.

For Lucien, all of this was bullshit.

People always became kinder when cameras appeared. Every year, wealthy families visited the outskirts of the city and donated a fraction of their surplus wealth.

But Lucien felt worse year by year, because Ethan wasn’t beside him anymore.

At the front of the room, the orphanage director was speaking. Something about generous contributions.

"Thank you for investing in the children’s future. I can’t explain how grateful I am," the director said with a sly smile on her face.

Lucien could tell that not a single penny would go to those children, so he wasn’t interested in listening.

His eyes remained fixed on the floor as he couldn’t tolerate another second of it.

He walked away without asking for permission, not knowing where to go until his eyes fell on a little girl sitting alone near a tree and digging mud.

She looked about nine, but too tiny and far too thin for her age, her collarbones showing clearly beneath a faded frock dress. Her dark, unbrushed hair fell around her face, hiding her profile.

Lucien would have walked away if she hadn’t suddenly turned her head.

Their eyes met. Little girls’ wide eyes stare at him as if looking right through his soul.

Lucien frowned, lowering his gaze. He was already annoyed, and this girl was making him even more irritated. "What?"

"Here," she made a ball of mud and gave it to Lucien. "Please... Please don’t be sad... sad, bro... brother, take it."

Her voice was soft; there was no trace of pity in it. He would have turned on his heel and left if there had been even a hint of pity in it. It was her honesty that forced him to stop, melting something in his heart.

"This... This is the cho... chocolate... ball," the little girl struggled to talk as she looked down at her hand. "It... It is not real... but... but it can make... make you happy."

Lucien didn’t know what had gotten into him. He went on his knees and took the mud ball in his hand, which crumbled in his hand.

"My brother died," the words left his mouth before he could stop them. It was a stupid thing to say to a child, knowing that she could not even understand him.

The girl’s expression changed immediately.

"Oh."

That was all she said. Oh.

She carefully dug more mud as she handed him a stick to do the same. "My puppy died."

Lucien blinked, caught entirely off guard. "What?"

Her small fingers tightened around the stick. "Last year... They... They beat him and... he died." For a moment, she looked down at her shoes, her small shoulders drawing inward. "I... I cried... every day until my eyes hurt."

Something in her expression made him pause. She wasn’t trying to compare his sadness; she was sharing her pain with someone who had been through the same.

"I miss him," her voice trembled a little.

Silence settled between them again, but somehow those stuttering words comforted Lucien more than anything.

She turned her face to look at him. "I... I think your brother would be sad... sad if you stopped smiling forever."

Lucien laughed out loud unknowingly, thinking that he was getting comforted by the girl who was almost 5 years younger than him.

"What’s your name?" He asked.

"The... The director said... that people... like us... can’t... can’t have a n... name," the little girl said as her eyes were locked on him. "You... look pretty when you... You smile."

Lucien was shocked to hear that she had no name, but her later comment caught him off guard.

No one had ever dared to call him pretty.

"People like what?" He asked, ignoring her comment, and got angry.

They took payments from them, and that was how they treated the little girl?

How dare they?

"Shall I give you a name?" Lucien said casually. But he hadn’t thought that the little girl’s eyes would light up with anticipation.

"Everyone has a name, only... I don... don’t have... be... because... I... I can’t talk," her face dropped.

"Why not..." Lucien started. "Why not call you Seraphina, like God’s angel, who was sent to me to make me happy?" He said, smiling heartily for the first time after his brother’s demise.

"Sera... Seraphina?" Seraphina looked at the boy in front of him and smiled. "Will... Will you marry... me then?"

Lucien’s eyes grew wider at her words. He had just randomly given her a name without thinking. Not knowing that Seraphina would cherish that name in this life and the next, too.

"Why would I marry you?" Lucien asked, calming himself down.

"Be... Because you gave me a name, and... only a family... can give a name... to someone," Seraphina said, struggling to talk.

Lucien felt a pang in his heart.

He had always thought that he was the saddest person alive, but seeing how a little girl who did not even have a name made him feel weirdly comforted, yet a strange will to do something for Seraphina, the girl whom he named himself.