"Tayme!" It was her father's voice through the communication door.
She had seen it when he tried to open the one in the corridor, after several people had passed by and tried to persuade her to open the door.
She didn't want to talk to her father anymore. She didn't want to live with him anymore, and she wasn't even willing to listen to his voice. She would ask her mother to send her to England, like one of her friends from nursery school, to study there until she was old enough to look after herself.
"Tayme... Talk to me, please." Maxwell's voice was choked. He had been calling her relentlessly for a long time.
"Go away." She decided to reply.
"I love you, my princess."
"You said you loved Mom, too."
"I do. I didn't lie to her, and I'm not lying to you."
"Are you going to tell her what you did here?"
"Do you think I should tell her? Do you think she'll be happy to know?"
"She'll abandon you."
"And that's what you want for our family? Would your siblings like that? And your grandparents?"
"You're going to cheat Mom. You're going to give that tramp a house."
"Don't talk like that!" He scolded her.
"Those words are nothing compared to the disgusting images of what I saw you doing to that bitch."
Maxwell thought about breaking down the door and giving Tayme a beating. How could a three-year-old girl talk and reason like that? It wasn't natural. What kind of monster was her daughter?
"Whatever you think you saw..."
"I don't think I saw it. I know I did."
"You may have dreamt it..."
Maxwell could feel the debauched smile on his little princess's lips.
"It wasn't a dream. It was a nightmare." She answered at last.
"Daughter... Everyone's downstairs waiting for you..."
"To hell with your mothers! I can't believe they didn't hear the horrible noises you and that whore were making in the bedroom!"
"Tayme! I demand that you respect me! Respect all people!"
"You want me to respect you? I'm sorry, but... Never again."
Maxwell cursed Anna's inherited intelligence for being a haze on his children for a while. She didn't look a mere three years old. Her vocabulary was very large for a child of her age. Her daughter was a dwarf disguised as an innocent child.
"Why don't you forget it?"
"I can't. I hate you. Forever."
"You can't feel that way about someone who loves you as much as I do."
"I won't tell Mom. She gets sad and cries. I don't want to see her sad. She doesn't deserve it. But I'm not your daughter anymore."
"Tayme, forgive me, please..."
"No."
"Why did you say you'd kill Camille in front of her grandmothers? They still don't understand anything."
"Explain it to them. You studied to know how to manipulate opinions."
"My God, Tayme! You sound like a bitter old woman!"
Tayme took a deep breath.
"I'll tell them later that I was only joking. But actually, I saw it. I saw myself big, and I saw myself killing her..."
"You had a vision?" Maxwell cursed softly. Why did you fall in love with a descendant of a witch?
"Yes. And I just wanted to warn Camille. I didn't want her to be afraid."
"You don't think about hurting anyone, do you, Tayme? I taught you that you should never hurt anyone."
"What you said, and say, has no value for me anymore."
"Don't you love me anymore?"
"I do. But I hate you too."
"It'll only be our secret, Tayme. You'll see how happy I'll make you all."
"You may be able to do that for my brothers and grandmothers, but I'll never be happy in your presence again."
"Don't be so hard on me... Open the door, please."
"Why would I do that?"
"You're just a child, Tayme. No matter how smart you are, you still need me to support you."
"Are you going to starve me?"
"Of course not, my child. I mean... I could just give you something to eat. What would you wear? How would you study? How..."
"You're blackmailing me. You're worse than I thought. I have two grandmas and a grandpa who will never let me lack for anything."
Maxwell felt like slamming the door, but he let himself slip through it and sat down.
Tayme got up and opened the connecting door. It seemed that her father no longer expected her to do what he asked. He was sitting on the floor, tears streaming down his face. He raised his hand to touch her, but she pulled away. He got up and put his hands in his pockets to prevent himself from involuntarily trying to touch her again. He would have to earn her trust little by little.
"Are we going to understand each other now, Tayme?
"I only opened the door so that you could look me in the eye and see that I'm not lying. Nothing will ever be able to make me forget what I've seen and heard. And also, to tell you that you'll never see me cry again." She said this and went to the other door, unlocked it and left.
Maxwell didn't know what to do. She was the apple of his eye. His only daughter. He never thought he could hurt her like that, and he hoped she would forget in time.
He thought about trying to do with her what he did with humans, but if he couldn't, she would hate him even more.
He sat on her bed and reflected on what he had done and only then did he regret it. Anna really didn't deserve that. Her family didn't deserve that. But he couldn't go back on the feeling he had allowed to enter his heart. Had he been bewitched? How could he feel the need to be with someone he had practically seen for the first time that day? Something was very wrong. And he would try to put it right. He owed it to his daughter.