Meanwhile, the ceremony went on as scheduled. Maxen was now using Wyatt's back to sign his wedding certificate while Olivia chatted with the cardinal. However, in contrast to the joy and warmth filling the air, one could smell a different mood on the left side of the aisle. 

Aerith, who was sitting behind Emily, tapped the latter's shoulder. The little one gestured with her hand as she asked, "Are you okay?"

"Of course, little one," Emily responded, wiping the tears on the corners of her eyes. She then patted Aerith's head. She didn't need to explain to a little girl why she was crying but the frown on Aerith's face told her the latter was just worried about her so she said, "These are tears of joy. See," Emily beamed. "I'm happy."

Aerith slipped back on her seat, flashing her cheeky grinned at her Auntie Emily. The little girl trained her eyes elsewhere when her Auntie Emily stood from her seat and excused herself, walking towards the altar to join her Auntie Olivia who was waving in their direction. Seeing her Auntie Emily smile through her tears reassured Aerith that her auntie was not sad, unlike her. 

Aerith pouted and blinked back her tears. Right beside her was Finn sitting on his mom's l.a.p. Her little heart was in pain the entire time she was sitting beside the mother and son, watching them exchange hugs and kisses. She too wanted something like that, and oh how she missed her mom.

Little did she know, she was too deep into staring at Ava and Finn that she didn't recognize Hunter kicking her leg. It was when her shoe fell off and she felt the wind brush on her sole, snapping her out of her reverie.

Aerith nudged Hunter with her elbow and glared at him, tracing with a squinted eye a line from Hunter down to where her shoe flew off. Hunter didn't utter a word, it was his mistake anyway, and he deliberately waited for Aerith to notice that she was missing a shoe for him to pick it up. So he hopped off his seat and picked up the shoe, kneeling in front of Aerith.

"Are you okay?" Hunter said as he mimicked the sign language Aerith used earlier at Emily. He was watching his hands the entire time, making sure he copied the same gesture. Peering up, he saw Aerith bob her head.

With her fingers flat on her lips, Aerith moved it slightly forward to Hunter to thank him for his kindness for slipping on her shoe and his attentiveness over her brewing inferiority complex.

Hunter stood up and dipped his hands in his pocket. He wondered what the sign language Aerith just did. When he saw her beaming at her, he thought that maybe she wanted to kiss him so her tears will go away? 

Raised as a gentleman by his father, Hunter didn't let Aerith do something a man should do first, so he bowed ever so slightly, and planted a kiss on Aerith's cheeks. His cheeks blushed and searched Aerith's eyes for the answers if he did the right thing. However, what he got was something else—his Uncle Wyatt yanking him by the back of his collar.

"Easy, tiger," Wyatt seethed. He was standing by the altar when he stole a peep on his daughter and red flags raised the moment Hunter kneeled. In a flash, he found himself rushing to his daughter's seat, shoving a few people as he did.

To Wyatt's chagrin, the little boy didn't cower down. Hunter held his chin up and his pool of orbs as dark as ink made Wyatt's intestines churn uncomfortably in his stomach. He thought in his head how could such a young lad possess a dark soul that it reflected in his eyes.

Emily's voice rang, snapping Wyatt from his raging anger, "Let go of the child, Wyatt!" 

"The boy's not even scared of anything," Wyatt scoffed. He finally let go of Hunter's collar, deriding himself for his outburst. Now he looked like the bad guy when all he wanted to do was to protect his child. "Are you hurt? Anywhere?"

"No." Hunter shrugged, keeping it cool. 

"You heard that, Hon-Emily," Wyatt's voice tapered off as he spoke when his slip of the tongue was loud enough for others to hear. He ignored the stares and focused on his daughter instead. She was grinning at him, the only one who found his predicament funny. He should be angry, but his daughter was too beautiful that all his anger earlier turned into ashes.

"Daaad," Aerith murmured, eager to steal her father's attention. True enough, Wyatt hopped back to reality. To him, her daughter's voice was akin to bells ringing sweetly to his ear and for a second, he calmed down. 

He peered down, meeting Aerith's green eyes. The innocence in his child broke his heart. How could he deserve someone as pure as his Aerith? And now that he had a thousand questions floating above his head, how could he tell his daughter that she should never trust a man? Especially a man coming from the Ma Family?

Wyatt pondered, was his predicament a punishment for playing with women's hearts that he'd panicked over the simplest matters revolving around his daughter? Never did he think of picking on a child, and he wondered how many boys he would ward off in the future. 

S.u.c.k.i.n.g in a breath, Wyatt glared at Hunter one more time before softening his gaze as he turned his face towards his little one. 

"I'm keeping an eye on you, buddy," he warned. Wyatt wasn't even surprised when Hunter didn't so much as blinked back tears nor trembled in fear to the sternness of his voice. He was about to reprimand the boy one last time just to put Hunter in his rightful place, but Aerith tugged his suit jacket.

"Daaad, Hunter won't make me cry… ever," Aerith did her best to finish her sentence, hoping she said the right words she had in her head as her hand did the talking for her. She grinned at her father, believing the words she said, but something about the frown on her father's face told her otherwise.