You can teach a child how to think, but not what to think.

- Margaret Mead

The back door of the car opened by the same stoic guard who waited for me by the car.

I took the remaining steps toward the door and found the bouncing red-haired child, smiling brightly while wildly waving her hand at me. "Hi!"

I went in and sat myself on the plush seat, belting myself in. Looking at the little girl, I gave a nervous smile. "Hi."

From the other side of the car, Tyler looked up from his phone and said. "Hello, Claire."

I simply smiled at him.

The same bodyguard took the driver seat and started the engine. Tyler looked at me again and pointed at the big guy with jet black hair and hawk eyes who was currently manoeuvring the car. "Claire, that's my most trusted guard Simon."

Simon, the bodyguard glanced at the rear view mirror at that moment and nodded at me.

I smiled at him too.

My eyes roamed over Lydia. She wore a beautiful short sleeve dress with the top half being white, the bottom half being white polka dots on blue, both part joined by a black bow in the middle. I could see the fabric looked comfortable and lavish. No wonder her dad was a billionaire. The dad who was currently sucked into his world of business through his phone.

Looking out the window, watching the scenery change from small buildings to tall buildings, I tried to put my jumbling thoughts on hold. Since the little girl beside me kept on stealing glances from her iPad to me, I thought she was expecting me to say something and I knew I should converse with her.

For me, children were easy to talk with rather than the adults. I was always good with children. And this was a piece of cake for me but still why did I feel nervous? I talked with her before but at that time, I didn't know that this Little Ariel wanted me as her mother.

Mother.

What did she see in me to name me her mother? I had always felt disappointed in myself but this girl saw something good in me, saw something worth in me. Suddenly, I felt determined. I would do anything for this girl. I would make her the happiest girl ever. But first, I needed speak out.

I turned abruptly toward Lydia who instantly dropped her iPad beside her and looked up at me with wandering eyes. "How is your vacation going, Lydia? Oh, Can I call you that? Lydia, I mean. I know I called you Little Ariel at first but now that I know your name. What should I call you? It's not like I wouldn't call you Little Ariel anymore. I would because you'll always be my Little Ariel but I want to know what you like--"

"I think either one is fine with her. Right, Lydia?" Tyler's voice put a stop to my ranting. His eyes were on his daughter who was smiling. Tyler's amused eyes flickered to me and a cough came from the driver seat. I was damn sure, it was for covering the laugh.

Lydia fell back on her seat while giggling at me. "Yeah, both are fine."

My eyes roamed between Lydia, Tyler and Simon. I cleared my throat and rolled my eyes at Tyler.

All the nerves in me exploded at once that I failed to notice I was ranting. But thank god, Tyler interrupted before I could make myself more embarrassed than I was already. Not that I would ever let him know I was embarrassed. He had enough arrogance in him to last him a century. More were not needed.

Not bothering to reply to the man in the shirt, my eyes went toward Lydia but they immediately returned back to him. Shirt? No suit jacket, No tie? That was new. He noticed me eyeing his broad defined chest and a little smirk graced his aristocratic face, with a raise of one eyebrow.

I rolled my eyes at him, yet again. I admit he had a fine body to look at but I refrained myself as much as I could to not look at his chest rather to look at the fabric covering it. I swear I tried. But a woman couldn't ignore this guy's body parts that easily.

When Tyler wasn't still removing the smirk, I glanced down at Lydia and said. "Lydia, dear?"

Since Lydia was watching the adults with wonders in her little eyes, her reply came quick. "Yes, mommy?"

The title Lydia used had me staggering back, the door behind me keeping me at bay. I was astonished to the point where I had no clue to come back from. Was that what she had been referring me as since the moment she met me? Did she refer me as mommy even to others?

I felt a sudden joy as well as worry creep on me. Joy because she already gave me her mother's place. Worry because she already trusted a stranger to call mommy. She shouldn't just trust strangers like that.

Tyler's eyes and mine met. My face clearly gave away the silent question cause he just shrugged even though I knew, it hit his nerve someway. Nonetheless, I also knew this was not the time to dwell upon the matter.

I shook my head and smiled at the little girl. "Lydia, were you and your daddy in a hurry to get to me when leaving your home?"

The confused girl answered in her small voice. "I was but I don't know about daddy." She cocked her head toward her dad. "Was you daddy?"

"Were." I corrected her. "It's were you daddy, okay?"

"Oh, right!" She nodded at me with a serious expression on her small face as if I had just given her an important lesson. It was an important lesson but I was more concerned about the way she took my words. As if whatever I said was the words written in stone for her. What did I do in life to have this girl show so much faith in me?

"Were you daddy?" Lydia repeated her question emphasising on were, while looking at me with expectant eyes. I smiled at her, encouraging her correction.

There was an unknown flash of emotion in Tyler's eyes before he turned toward his daughter hiding it from me. "No, I wasn't Lydia."

With mocking eyes, I gasped at him. "Really? Then how come you forgot your suit jacket?" I shook my finger at him. "You don't look like The Great Tyler Sanders without the formal jacket hiding a small bit of your arrogance. Not that it helps much."

Immediately, Tyler's eyes darkened and I slipped my hand over Lydia's small hand. I was absolutely sure, he couldn't bark at me when his daughter was around. His eyes followed my movements. "You should be glad my daughter is here, Claire."

I let a sneaky smile slip away from my mouth. "Oh trust me, I am."

But he didn't reply. Moreover, he went back to that cursed phone that always interrupted us. Just because this guy was a high maintenance businessman, didn't mean he could ignore me whenever he wanted. When it looked like he wouldn't give me any answer, I asked. "Are you going to answer that? I'm actually curious."

My dear fiancé let out an exasperated sigh, without taking his eyes off his precious phone and replied. "I don't have time to answer this petty questions. Do you mind, Lydia?"

I huffed loudly, crossing my hands over my chest so that my hands wouldn't find their way to his throat. That infuriating man! He deserved a hard bash on his head but regrettably it wouldn't be possible since a six year old was occupying the seat between us.

The same six year old who went back to her own device due to the grown up talks but upon hearing her name, she sparked up. "Huh?"

I soothed my frown away so it wouldn't scare the girl away. "Lydia, I think Daddy meant do you know anything about the jacket he always wear over those shirts?" I looked over at Tyler who was still engrossed in his world and muttered quietly even though everyone in the car heard it. "You could've been more clear. That's a six year old, not a 40 year old like you."

At once, his head tipped up. "Excuse me?"

At the same moment, I turned my head to avoid his aggressive eyes. This man became annoyed at every freaking thing. Well, I actually liked annoying him. Too bad, he had no patience.

When he understood I wasn't replying to him, he spoke up himself. "Lydia, you understand Daddy, right?"

"Yes!" She replied obediently. "It's at the front." She pointed her finger toward the passenger seat. "There! Daddy kept it beside me at first but I took it and leave it there. I wanted you to sit beside me."

I leaned front as far as my belt let me and found the black suit jacket actually sitting over the front seat. I turned toward the pair of father-daughter.

"Why am I not surprised?" I exclaimed. "I should've known you would go nowhere without dressing up like that. You do know we're going to a lunch and not a meeting, right?"

That infuriating man gritted his teeth at me. "What the fu--" When he noticed my widened angry eyes, he re-arranged his words, nevertheless spoken with a hard tone, "--freak is your problem? It's a outing for me and I always go out like this."

"Exactly, it's a outing." I threw up my hands in frustration. "A family outing, not a business outing!"

Whatever retort he had coming stayed in his mouth and I froze as the meaning of my words settled in. Family. We were a family. A family out to get lunch together. I felt my adrenaline rush go down when the warm feeling around my heart came back at the thought of Tyler and Lydia being my family. A family of my own. It didn't matter Lydia wasn't mine biologically because I knew, the day Tyler asked me to be her mother was the day I accepted her as mine wholeheartedly.

I glanced at Lydia and raised my hand to stroke her hair. She stared at me and I stared at her daddy. "Family outing. Family." I said slowly letting it sink in. "Though it would be better if you could just dress up more casually."

Tyler who was looking at both me and Lydia with warm eyes, hardened his face yet again at me. He retorted with suppressed anger. "This is my choice for God's sake! What is your problem?You don't see me pointing out your flaws in dresses that annoys me so much!"

The adrenaline rush was back but this time with a full blown unstoppable force. I was briefly aware of Simon indicating Lydia to put her headphones on which she brought with her iPad and like the good girl she was, she did it. I was glad she blocked us out cause this was about to get ugly. He didn't just do that! That bastard!

My whole demeanour changed. Gone was the Claire who used to get scared of Tyler Sanders's dark eyes. My blue eyes narrowed with so much strength that I felt like I would get wrinkles. I pointed at my peach coloured dress. "Flaws in my dresses?"

He nodded with clenched fists.

In a loud taunting voice, I asked again. "Pray tell, Mr. Tyler Sanders, in what way you find this dress of mine filled with flaws?"

Quickly checking on Lydia who kept her head down, he pointed at my legs then my chest. "Shows too much skin."

My mind lost the wiser side of mine. I didn't even ponder on how Simon was racing the car swiftly but safely. One hand of mine went over the eyes of Lydia and other pointed at my chest area. "No skin showing here, you stupid arrogant pig!"

If I thought he was angry before then now he was more than furious but I didn't give a crap. "Try bending then you'll see how revealing that dress is!"

"You looked at my chest?!"

"You didn't give me a choice!"

"How is that even possible?!"

"You were flaunting it by bending." He argued. "I'm a man. Of course, I'd notice!"

Eyes widened, I fought the colour getting on my cheeks at the thought of him looking at my chest and concentrated on his previous words. "Mr. Sanders, I wasn't flaunting anything!"

"Then why did you wear that short dress?!"

"It's freaking summer for God's sake!"

The loud booming horn of the car stopped the oncoming comeback Tyler was dying to let out. We both looked toward the front seat.

Simon turned his head with a drained face. He looked like he could just faint right then and there. Yes, the big guy Simon. "We are here!"

Tyler and I blinked at each other then at Simon. The utter relief in his voice didn't go unnoticed. He went out the car, around it and stopped at my side of the door, opening it with so much force I thought he would just tear it off.

"Please!"