The Guardian They Left for Dead

Chapter 2: Nia Jian

Nia kept sweeping near the edge of the courtyard with her head lowered.

The other children of House Voss were still playing, laughing in their clean clothes while servants brought them snacks and warm drinks. No one looked at Nia unless they wanted to mock, scold or order her, so she tried to make herself small and quiet.

But Liam saw the jade pendant around her neck as it hung low from her clothes and greed took over

He stopped playing and walked toward her with two other children behind him. His clothes were neat, face was proud, and because he was Sera Voss’s son, no one in the manor dared offend him.

“What is that?” Liam asked, pointing at the pendant.

Nia quickly covered it with her hand. “It’s mine.”

Liam’s eyes narrowed. “Yours? Someone like you has something that pretty?”

The other children laughed and Nia lowered her head and tried to move away, but Liam blocked her path. “Give it to me.”

“No,” Nia said, her small voice shaking but firm.

Liam’s face changed at once. “You dare refuse me?”

Nia held the pendant tighter. “My mother said I must never lose it.”

At the mention of her mother, Liam sneered. “Your mother? You mean Mira? The woman they dragged away to become another man’s mistress? My mom said she's a slut and a disgrace!”

Nia’s eyes turned red. “Don’t talk about my mother.”

“Why not?” Liam stepped closer, enjoying the way her face twisted with pain. “And your father too. Where is he? Did he run away because he didn’t want you? Or did he die in some dirty ditch while begging for coins?”

The other children laughed and something in Nia snapped.

She dropped the broom and pushed him with both hands. Liam stumbled back, shocked that the timid weak girl would dare push him, then his face twisted with anger.

He rushed at her, and the other children joined him. Nia was smaller than them, and she was hit more than once, but she did not back down. She protected the pendant with one hand, bit back her tears, and when Liam came too close again, she kicked him hard in the leg.

Liam fell to the ground and for a moment, everyone froze.

Seeing that many of his peers were looking at him and feeling embarrassed, he screamed.

The sound drew Sera Voss, his mother from the pavilion. She came over quickly, her face darkening the moment she saw her son on the floor.

“Liam!”

Liam immediately started crying and pointed at Nia. “Mother, she attacked me! I didn’t do anything. She just pushed me down!”

Nia shook her head quickly trying to defend herself. “No, he wanted to take my pendant. He insulted my mother and father first.”

Sera did not even look interested in her explanation, seeing her son on the floor already told her enough so she walked straight to Nia and slapped her across the face.

The sound was sharp and too hard for a child, Nia fell to the ground, one cheek burning as tears rushed into her eyes. Around them, the servants lowered their heads, pretending not to see anything.

“You filthy little thing,” Sera said coldly. “Who gave you the courage to touch my son?”

Nia trembled. She wanted to explain again, but she knew no one would listen. In House Voss, her words meant nothing.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

Liam wiped his fake tears and stood behind Sera, still angry even after seeing Nia slapped. “Mother, she has always wanted my things. She attacked me because she wanted to steal from me.”

Sera’s eyes moved to the pendant around Nia’s neck, then back to her bruised face and a slow, cruel smile touched her lips.

“Since she likes acting wild, then let her play with something wild.”

Nia’s stomach dropped.

Sera turned to the guards nearby. “Take her to go play with Liam’s hound.”

Nia shook her head at once, panic filling her small face. “No, please. Please don’t. It will bite me.”

Liam laughed. “Then call your father. Didn’t you say he will come back? Tell him to save you.”

The guards grabbed Nia by both arms.

She struggled hard, crying as they dragged her across the courtyard. “Please, don’t take me there! Please!”

No one helped her despite her desperate cry for help

At that moment, a magic circle opened outside the gates of Voss Manor and Jayden Jian stepped out of the light.

He still wore the same dark cloak from Grey Pass, and the silk girdle Mira had given him years ago was tied around his sleeve. He looked at the manor gates, calm on the outside, but his heart had already begun to move faster.

This was where Mira was, after many years, he would finally see her again.

He was still lost in thought and smiling when a child’s cry cut through the air and Jayden turned his head.

Nia had also seen him and for a second, she stopped struggling completely as she stared at his face, her memory immediately locked on to something and to further confirm her suspicion, her tear-filled eyes fixed move to the silk girdle around his sleeve, and her whole body froze like she had seen something from a dream.

Then she struggled and broke free from the guards with all the strength she had left and ran toward him.

“Daddy!”

Jayden stiffened as he waited, looking at the little girl rushing towards him

The little girl threw herself against him, gripping his cloak with shaking hands as she cried harder and he froze

She was so small that her arms barely reached around him, yet she held him like someone who had been waiting her whole life and was terrified he would disappear again.

“Daddy…” Nia cried, her fingers gripping his cloak. “You came back. You finally came back.”

Jayden looked down at her, confused, but his voice softened without him noticing. “Little girl, you’ve mistaken me for someone else. I’m not your father.”

Nia shook her head hard, tears falling faster. “No, I didn’t mistake you. Mother said you would come back. She said you wore her silk girdle on your arm.” Her voice broke as she looked up at him.

“Why didn’t you come? Why didn’t you send word? Mother waited for you, I waited too… but you left us here alone.”

Jayden’s chest tightened.

Only then did Jayden properly look at the little girl clinging to him.

Her dress was little more than rags. Bruises covered her thin arms, one cheek was badly swollen, and dirt mixed with the tears running down her face. She looked like a child who had cried too many times and already learned that no one would come when she called for help.

Jayden’s expression turned cold.

He lifted his eyes toward the guards who had been dragging her moments ago, and they immediately stepped back.

“Who did this to you?” he asked.

Nia only held his cloak tighter. “Daddy...”

Jayden sighed and gently placed a hand on her small shoulder.

“Little girl, listen to me. I don’t know who your daddy is, but you cannot keep calling me that.”

Nia stared up at him, hurt and confused.

Jayden’s voice softened as he thought. “I came here to see my fiancée. I have been away for many years, and she has already waited long enough for me. If she comes out and hears another child calling me daddy, she may misunderstand before I even get the chance to explain.”

His gaze returned to her bruised face.

“But I will not leave you with people who treat a child like this. Tell me who hurt you, and where your parents are.”

Nia’s tears fell faster.

“You really don’t know me?”

Jayden frowned slightly.

Then Nia suddenly remembered what her mother had told her. She released his cloak with one hand and reached beneath her torn collar.

“Mother said you might not recognise me because you had never seen me before,” she said through her tears. “She said if you didn’t believe me, I should show you this.”

Her trembling fingers pulled out a jade pendant and Jayden’s eyes fell on it.

Everything around him seemed to go silent.

He knew every line carved into that jade. He knew the faint crack near its edge and the mark his own blood had left inside it years ago.

It was the pendant he had given Mira.

Jayden’s pupils contracted sharply and a terrifying aura burst from his body, cold and heavy enough to shake the gates of Voss Manor and force everyone nearby several steps back.