Her Seven Little Bodyguards

Jude was like a wrung-out sponge, and he was earnestly soaking up all the knowledge that he could get his hands on. It was not surprising that he jumped at the opportunity to learn from Vania, and he quickly nodded in agreement.

Vania leaped for joy and immediately started making plans to mold Jude in her image.

She announced with a smile, “Let me go get dinner ready for all of you, and we can have a study session together tonight.”

The four children all nodded in response.

Vania grew more blissful in their presence, and soon enough, she had chucked all her worries out the door as she focused on preparing dinner.

Jude had only been with them for a few days, and he was still fairly thin compared to the others, but he was beginning to look a lot livelier. His melancholic eyes had a touch of aloofness to them, and even at a young age, his looks were extraordinarily striking.

his puzzled eyes toward his three older

was the first to respond. He sighed and sat on the couch. “Jude, you don’t know about this, but before you came home with us, Mommy already tried to get one of us to inherit her designer dreams, but none of us liked designing, so we didn’t let her teach us. After we turned her down, Mommy would often bring it up again and complain that her outstanding design talents were

creased a little when he heard

the task of passing on his mother’s artistic genes? He was feeling a little unsure of himself, and he was afraid

brother a comforting pat on the back. “Relax, it doesn’t matter if you’re not very good at drawing or if

with the other three children, he had become less reserved than he was when he first met them. Even though he barely spoke around them, he would still use simple movements and gestures to communicate his

as he declared, “Don’t worry, Jude.

James and Jake

again and carefully committed their words to

later, Vania had prepared a sumptuous dinner. It was a balanced meal of nutrients and vitamins, but most importantly, it smelled delicious. As soon as she set the food down