Love Across the Light Years -The Devil CEO Indulges My Lies.

Eira blinked at Mabel and asked quite seriously, "People sneeze when someone misses them?"

Mabel smiled and nodded. "Yes." She gazed toward Adelyn and continued, "Many people still believe that if a person sneezes without a reason, someone is missing them somewhere."

"But I’m right here with Mama," Eira said innocently. "I’m no longer missing her."

Mabel only smiled at her words. "Then, little young miss, someone else must be missing her."

With that said, Mabel didn’t linger. She went back to her work.

Eira thought for a second longer and then turned to Adelyn with a gaze full of curiosity.

"Mama, is there someone else who misses you as well?"

Adelyn hadn’t really been thinking about it seriously. However, when the little one asked her like that, she was caught slightly off-guard.

"Someone else??" She smiled at that before asking her back, "Has someone been missing me, sweetie?"

Little Eira looked at her seriously and nodded without any hesitation.

Her response only puzzled Adelyn further. She looked at her before asking again, "Who?"

"Me."

Eira answered without blinking. Her gaze was so sincere that not even the devil could doubt her.

"You?"

The girl nodded again, humming, "When Eira hasn’t met Mama, she used to miss her a lot. Even in her sleep."

Adelyn didn’t know why, but hearing her confess that, she felt her eyes warm.

She knew the girl was referring to her real mother —one she must actually be missing.

But still, when she said it while staring at her like that, Adelyn couldn’t help but feel connected. Her heart pained in the same way a mother’s heart would ache when faced with her child’s years of longing.

"Do you still miss Mama?" Adelyn asked, reaching out to cup the girl’s face gently.

Eira stared into her eyes and slowly shook her head. "Eira already has Mama with her. Eira doesn’t miss her anymore."

"Really?" Adelyn asked as though she wanted to make sure of it.

The little girl nodded more confidently.

And seeing her confirm it only made Adelyn smile.

She couldn’t know how much she was able to fulfill the role of a mother in Little Eira’s eyes, but even if she was fulfilling it just a little —she was happy.

The longing in the girl’s eyes for her mother had always been real. Adelyn still remembered the tears she had seen in those beautiful, bright eyes when she had first met her in the restaurant.

It had pained her even then when she hadn’t known her well.

She hadn’t wanted to break her heart or treat her coldly.

But at that time, she had to.

However, seeing Eira no longer looking as vulnerable as then, Adelyn felt happy. The change might have been small, but to her, it was enough to make her feel that perhaps she had done something right.

She knew she was taking a position in the girl’s life that wasn’t supposed to be hers. But the girl was too young to face anything heartbreaking, such as her mother’s abandonment.

So as long as it was making the girl happy, she didn’t mind being her mother.

"Exactly, baby," she said before leaning in to press a peck on her cheek. "With me here, there’s no need to miss anyone anymore."

It was a little selfish.

But she believed being a little selfish wasn’t bad. After all, that woman had abandoned such a sweet, beautiful kid first.

Little Eira nodded at that.

However, the original question remained.

So, she once again asked, "But Mama, if Eira hadn’t been missing you, who is missing you then?"

Her question made Adelyn pause for a second. But the next moment, she smiled and gently poked the girl’s cheeks as she said, "No one could be missing me."

"No one?"

The girl repeated.

And Adelyn smiled and nodded. "No one." She then glanced in the direction Mabel had gone before explaining, "What Mabel said was just a folk superstition. And superstitions aren’t true. They are just created to make sense of things that don’t carry any real sense."

Little Eira thought for a long second.

And after a while, she nodded. "That must be true," she said quite thoughtfully. "If not, with how much Eira had missed Mama before, Mama would be sneezing non-stop."

Adelyn couldn’t help but chuckle at that.

"Exactly! There you got it. My baby is so smart."

Eira giggled as Adelyn leaned closer to nudge her little nose with hers.

Just at that moment—

Karl’s voice came again. "Am I interrupting something?"

Adelyn pressed her lips into a thin line and stared up in his direction.

"What are you doing here again?"

Karl walked in with ease and came to settle on the sofa across from her. "I came to accompany you straight after college."

"To keep me company?" she repeated as if she couldn’t understand it. "Did I ask for that?"

Karl looked at her for a second before shaking his head. "You didn’t. I volunteered. Am I not good at doing that?"

Adelyn pressed two fingers to the side of her head and massaged it gently. "I thought you only loved to volunteer at places like yesterday."

Karl felt both guilty and embarrassed. He tried to quickly explain. "Yesterday was not planned, sister-in-law, trust me."

"That Bryce tricked me into going there. But I promise ..." He raised three fingers at once. "I’ll never step into that place again. I learned my lesson."

"You did?" Adelyn didn’t believe him.

But Karl genuinely looked serious when he nodded.

Seeing him like that, Adelyn could tell that he meant what he said. So she simply bought whatever he said. "Okay, we’ll see about that."

Karl nodded even more seriously.

Adelyn returned to her script, while Eira also went back to coloring.

For a while, the room returned to its earlier quietness.

The soft sound of Eira’s crayons moving across the paper mixed with the occasional rustle of Adelyn turning a page of her script.

Karl watched them silently.

He had entered with his usual carefree expression, making it seem as though he had really come only because he wanted to keep Adelyn company.

But Adelyn had understood him well enough to realize when something was off.

Though he said that he had come here just to accompany them, there was definitely something else on his mind.

He watched Adelyn for a long moment, almost as though he were trying to decide how to bring up whatever he had come to say.

Adelyn, however, remained focused on her script, pretending not to notice his gaze.

Eventually, Karl seemed to make up his mind.

He shifted slightly on the sofa and finally revealed the tail he had been hiding all the while.

"Sister-in-law, actually ..."

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