Chapter 1004

Keira didn’t know why she was crying. It felt as if an overwhelming sense of grievance had settled deep in her heart.

“A little princess, 3200 grams… Here, kiss your mommy,” Lena cooed, holding the baby close to Keira’s face, letting her tiny lips brush against her cheek.

At that moment, Keira’s tears fell even harder.

“Look at you, crying like this,” Lena teased, handing the baby to a nurse to be bathed. Then, she turned back to help clean up the mess beneath Keira.

“Lena, take care of Rea for a bit. I’ll step outside,” Hayden suddenly said, getting up to leave. He couldn’t exactly help with anything at this point, but leaving before Keira had even been cleaned up felt a little too hasty.

“What? Now that you have a daughter, you’re abandoning your wife?” Lena scoffed at him.

Hayden didn’t explain. He simply leaned down to kiss Keira and whispered, “I’ll be right back.”

“Make sure she gets something to eat,” Lena reminded him.

The moment Hayden stepped out of the delivery room, he headed straight for the infant bathing room. As soon as he arrived, he spotted two familiar figures hovering around the nurse who was holding the newborn.

“She takes after the Hart family. Look at that nose—it’s identical to Hayden’s,” one of the old men said proudly.

“Just the nose! Look at her brows, her little mouth—those are pure Mitchell family genes,” the other countered.

Hayden leaned against the doorway, watching the two elderly men bicker. Before they could escalate their argument, the young nurse interjected, “Gentlemen, I need to bathe the baby now. You can come back and see her later.”

“Oh, just a little longer! If we wait, Hayden will come back, and then we won’t be able to see her…” one of them tried to stall.

Hayden cleared his throat.

The two old men instantly turned around. The nurse, seeing him, quickly carried the baby into the bathing room without another word.

“You should be inside with my granddaughter. What are you doing out here?” The one who spoke first was Elder Mitchell. After a brief moment of awkwardness, he forced a stern expression onto his face.

Even though Keira had never formally acknowledged him or called him “Grandfather,” Elder Mitchell had long taken up the title himself, constantly referring to her as his granddaughter.

“Exactly. You should be with your wife,” Elder Hart chimed in.

“If I stayed with my wife, you two would have taken the chance to fight over my daughter,” Hayden said coldly, his gaze sweeping over both of them.

The two old men exchanged looks.

“Nonsense. We’re just excited to see her,” Elder Mitchell defended. “Why would we take her? We’re not the ones raising her.”

“If you’re not trying to take her, then why did you send people to secretly follow my wife?” Hayden challenged.

At that, the two elders glared at each other.

“You did it?”

“I didn’t!”

They both denied it at the same time.

Hayden wasn’t interested in their excuses. “Let me make one thing clear—if you so much as think about making a move on my daughter, I’ll make sure neither of you ever sees her again.”

“Of course not, of course not! We just wanted to give her a welcome gift,” Elder Hart quickly said, pulling out a small box and handing it over.

Not to be outdone, Elder Mitchell immediately took out a bag with the words “pure gold” stamped on it.

Hayden didn’t particularly like either of them, but he had no qualms about accepting their gifts. “Consider this the price for seeing my daughter just now.”

“When the baby has her one-month celebration, we’ll bring even bigger gifts,” Elder Hart promised.

Elder Mitchell nodded in agreement. “Yes, and not just for the baby—my granddaughter will get gifts too.”

“That goes without saying. My granddaughter-in-law gave the Hart family such a beautiful little princess. She deserves a grand reward,” Elder Hart said with great enthusiasm.

“A grand reward? How grand, exactly?” Elder Mitchell scoffed. “Come on, old man, don’t just talk big. How long has my granddaughter been married to your grandson? What have you actually given her?”

“We tried to give her things, but she refused to accept them. What else could I do?” Elder Hart said, turning to look at Hayden. “Ask this brat yourself.”