I have been working at Arabelle as a designer for a few years now, and every day after work I would come home with a smile on my face and joy that I will soon be with my family.
But this was the first day something stood in my way. Literally. As I was trying to get to my house a van was parked in the middle of the road preventing me from driving further.
I noticed it was a moving van and ironically thought how I already couldn't stand my new neighbors.
A guy that was taking some packages inside noticed me and came over to my window that I opened when I realized he wanted to tell me something.
"Hello, I apologize for the inconvenience."
"No, it's alright. You are just doing your job."
"I would move the car, but the man who hired us specifically told us to park here."
"I understand." I shortly said and he left, visibly nervous.
The last thing we needed was a new neighbor whose only hobby would be to see us upset. The previous neighbor who lived here had that as his only form of entertainment.
It was always funny to me how, ever since Liam moved from this house, nobody ever lived in it. I jokingly said to Mason that it seems to be cursed ever since Liam lived there, but he didn't see that as a joke and agreed with me.
But even if that was a joke, it was still strange how nobody ever wanted to live there anymore, but people used to fight over it back when it used to belong to an old widower.
A couple that bought the house from Liam had a number of other houses that they were selling, just as this one. After getting no offers they even lowered the price hysterically low that I suggested to Mason that maybe we should buy it, but of course he disagreed.
So if people have been avoiding this house for whatever reason these past couple of years, whoever these new neighbors were, they had to be special.
I parked my car on the side of the road and started walking home. Just as I passed by the friendly man I just talked to, he dropped a stuffed rabbit on the road. After quickly picking it up, he mumbled something into his beard about how clumsy he was.
"Children will live here too? That's nice."
"Only one small girl, as far as I know."
"I have a girl too. I'm happy she will have someone to play with."
"Toys mean nothing without friends." I sensed there was some mockery in his voice that even if I was rich and I could've afford to buy my child any toy, they were all worthless if they had no friends to share them with. And he was right.
Emma was still going to kindergarten, and she loved every minute of it, but whenever she had to leave her friends she got upset and only waited for the next time she will see them again.
In the meantime she had to spend time with Jacob, who considered himself to be a big boy, as he was a few years older than her and was going to school. That is why he wasn't always so interested to play with her. Even more because she wished to play with her dolls while he was more interested into video games. I noticed they slowly started drifting away.
"Exactly." I said and walked to the house.
After I greeted the maid I started looking for others around the house but I couldn't find or hear anyone.
"Where are the kids?" I asked the maid.
"Mother of Mr. Mason came an hour ago and took them with her. I told her I had to ask you for permission first but she said she already took care of everything with her son. I apologize if I..."
