Chapter 2: A Girl Among Men

A sea of men as far as Lily's eyes can see. Not a single woman in sight except for maybe one or two that happen to quickly pass by. As Billy carries Lily to the living room, Lily observes her new surroundings and notices that every time she passes by one of the men, they lower their head to her.

After a short walk to the living room, Billy orders one of the men to do something then turns back to Lily. "I know you might be nervous, Lily, but I have to leave for a short moment. You see these men around you? If you need anything like a snack or something to drink, just ask them, and they will get it for you. I have someone fetching you something to eat already, so just sit tight until I come back. Okay?"

Lily grabs onto Billy's sleeve and gazes up at him. "They won't hurt me, will they?" she asks with near tears in her eyes.

"Of course not!" Billy immediately reassures. He lightly grabs Lily's shoulders and has her face the men. "If they try to hurt you, you can hit them as hard as you want and then shout my name. I will come running as fast as I can."

"You promise?"

"Pinky promise," Billy replies as he holds out his pinky. Lily shyly smiles and wraps her hand around his pink. With a small nod, Billy stands back up and starts to leave, but not before giving an intimidating glare to the men in the room.

Quietly sitting in the chair, Lily continues to look around the room until the man that Billy ordered earlier arrives with a tray of cookies and a pitcher of milk. He proceeds to pour a cup for Lily when he suddenly introduces himself.

"Hi there, young lady. My name is Ryan, and I will be the one to take care of you during your stay here at the manor," he informs. Setting the pitcher down, Ryan sits on the floor and hands Lily the cup of milk. "What's your name?"

"Lily," the girl hesitantly answers as she takes the cup of milk. "You're not as scary as the other guy."

"Do you mean Billy?" Ryan asks, scooting a bit closer to Lily.

The little girl shakes her head. "The one that looks like a big monster. You're not scary like him."

Ryan and the guys who happened to hear Lily's remark burst into laughter at the notion that a child was brave enough to call their boss a monster out loud. "Miss Lily, my boss isn't a scary man," Ryan defends as he wipes a tear from his eyes from laughing so hard. "He just has to be that way because he's the boss over everyone in this house. When you're in charge of a lot of people, you have to look scary and mean so that you won't get taken advantage of."

"Well, he looks scary to me. He looks like he can eat me in one bite if I do something bad." Lily stretches her arm out to get one of the cookies, so Ryan gets the cookie and hands it to her. As she takes a bite of the cookie, her face lights up as if all of her nervousness went away.

"Is the cookie good?" Ryan chuckles after seeing Lily's face. Lily nods her head as a pleasant smile grows on her face. The men in the room stop everything they are doing once they catch a glimpse of Lily's smile as if they witnessed an angel come down from the sky.

Meanwhile, in the boss's office, Billy stands across from his boss reading a list of all of Lily's grandfather's debts. "Is this the reason you decided to bring the child to the manor?" Billy asks while still reading the list.

"That old man will continue to incur more debt even after he's dead. He takes care of his granddaughter, but his gambling addiction has more power over him." The boss throws down his copy of the list onto his desk and sits back in his chair. Stray strands of his midnight black hair escape his ponytail and shape his long face as he stares at Billy. "He was never going to be able to pay back his debt, so taking his only grandchild is his punishment."

"But don't you think it was a bit harsh the way that you did it?" Billy counters as he takes a seat on the chair next to the desk. "That little girl will forever remember the way she was ripped away from her grandfather. Even after she gets older, it will still be a prominent memory. And she might come to hate you."

"Someone hating me won't be anything new," the boss comments. "She will eventually learn that she won't be returning to her grandfather's house. Within the week, prepare a proper room for her and get the appropriate necessities."

"You make it sound like you plan on adopting her, Boss," Billy says as he furrows his eyebrows.

The beastly man peeks down at another set of documents to which Billy catches on. "Once the week is over, I will tell that child that she will not be able to return to her grandfather and that I will adopt her instead."

"That's ridiculous!" Billy exclaims before massaging his temples. He takes a long deep breath to calm himself. "Didn't you say that children are pointless since they do nothing but scream and cry?"

"I thought about it after you spoke to the child in the car. I do find children pointless; however, I also find relationships with women pointless even more. This mafia family will need an heir, and I don't plan on having sex with a woman to have one."

"So your plan was to adopt one of your debtors' children to make your heir? How does that make sense?" Billy questions. The beastly man simply nods which makes Billy even more dumbfounded. "Luca, having and raising your own child will be easier for the family. That child will have a bond with you, making it easier for it to have a sense of purpose. This little girl is too scared to even be near you, so how do you plan on getting her to agree to become your child?"

Hearing Billy call him by his nickname, the boss realizes that maybe what he's doing may be excessive. "I'll see what I can do to earn the child's trust in the meantime," the boss comments before standing up from his chair. "That child will be adopted, so don't think I changed my mind on that."

"Why are you so insistent on adopting the little girl?" Billy asks as he, too, stands up from his chair.

"Because she is the only person I have met, adult or child, who is brave enough to call me a monster," the boss promptly responds with a smirk on his face.

"No… No way! Did you just smile?!" Billy shouts while following behind his boss. "That was a smile, wasn't it?! You can't say that wasn't a smile!"

"You're so loud," the boss says right before punching a good one into his friend's shoulder, sending him flying to the ground.

As the duo make it to the living room, they witness a scene that they could only joke about before. A handful of men on their knees sitting in front of a little girl as she sits on the chair. The men tense up when they catch their boss standing in the doorway, so Lily turns around and spots Billy next to him.

"Billy!" the little girl excitedly shouts before jumping up and down on the chair and raising her arms up to be carried.

Taken aback by Lily's sudden change in nature, Billy gladly goes over to Lily and picks her up. "What's going on here? Were these men treating you nicely?"

"They're really nice," Lily giggles as she points over to the men who are now standing up and lowering their heads. "They were telling me all sorts of stories about the scary man and their jobs and what they do around here. They even let me ride on their backs like they were horses around the living room!"

"Oh really? Like they were horses, you say?" Billy brightly smiles while looking in the direction of the men standing before them. "Well, these horses seem to have a lot of free time. It's about time that they returned to work. Right, Lily?"

The little girl curiously looks over at the men, wondering why they are acting that way, but doesn't say anything about it. "I guess horses need to work hard, too, so that they can play a lot when they're finished."

"That's right, Lily. Do you think you can tell them to go back to work?" Billy suggests after gesturing to the men.

"Go back to work, horses," Lily commands with a smile, thinking that they are playing some sort of game.

"Yes, Miss Lily," the men respond before quickly filing out of the living room.

"Except you, Ryan," Billy swiftly excludes. "You're tasked with taking care of Lily, so you have to stay by her side at all times."

"Y-yes, of course, Billy." Ryan's words seem to quiver out of his mouth as if he couldn't get the words out fast enough.

Still in Billy's arms, Lily sneakily steals a peek at Billy's boss. She's been told several stories about him, so she isn't as scared around him, but she still doesn't like him since he took her away from her grandfather.

The boss catches Lily looking, so he takes this as his chance to approach her. He stoops down a little so that he's eye level with her then clears his throat. "Hello, Lily, my name is Lucario, but you can call me Luca. It's nice to meet you." His resounding voice is still prominent despite his whispering attempt.

Lily hastily turns her head around which catches Billy's attention, so he looks over his shoulder to see his boss standing right behind. "Did you really try to start a conversation with Lily?" he snickers, knowing that his boss just got rejected by the child he's trying to adopt.

Lucario only huffs before locking his eyes onto Ryan. "You better take good care of her because your life depends on it."

Intimidated by his boss's cold glare, Ryan steps up to Billy and holds out his hand to Lily. "Miss Lily, how about I show you around the manor and introduce you to everyone? Doesn't that sound like fun?"

"Is everyone going to be nice?" Lily asks as she starts to shrink into Billy's arms.

"Everyone will be nice to you, Miss Lily. I'm sure everyone will fall in love with you the moment they lay their eyes on you," Ryan proudly declares with a warm smile. Reassured by Ryan's words, Lily leans over so that Billy can transfer her to Ryan's arms and the pair leave the living room, disappearing into the hallway.

"Looks like you got your work cut out for you, Luca," Billy continues to tease, running away from his boss so that he doesn't get punched again.

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