Just as Sebastian finished speaking, his phone rang from where it lay on the side.
He glanced at the screen and deliberately dismissed the call with a tap.
Once the call disconnected, the phone rang again right away. Maxine asked, “Aren’t you going to answer that?”
She seemed to catch a glimpse of Brian’s name on the screen.
With a resigned sigh, Sebastian answered the call, only to hear Brian’s accusatory tone. “Dad, school’s out! Where are you?”
Brian had little homework today, so he finished it all during study hall, eagerly waiting to go find his mom with dad after school. But when he got home, the housekeeper told him that his dad had come back in the afternoon, changed clothes, and left again.
It hit Brian like a ton of bricks.
Brian fumed, ‘We were supposed to go together! Dad broke his promise, he sneaked off while I was at school!‘
The housekeeper saw Brian slumped dejectedly on the sofa and, unable to bear it, tried to comfort him, “Maybe he just went to a meeting.”
Brian stared blankly ahead, his eyes vacant. “No way,” he muttered, “If Dad was going to a meeting, he’d never have come back just to change his clothes.”
With that, Brian pulled his phone out of his pocket and called Sebastian, the one who had broken his promise.
“You just stay home and get some rest, okay? I’ll take you out next time,” Sebastian explained.
He thought, ‘After finally getting some alone time with Maxine, there’s no chance I’m bringing along this damn third wheel.’
Brian wasn’t about to let this opportunity slip away. He dug in his heels and insisted, “I’m coming! Where are you guys? I’ll get Scott to take me there right now!”
After the kidnapping, Sebastian assigned Scott Manwaring as Brian’s bodyguard. Fresh out of sports academy and from a family that ran a martial arts dojo, Scott wasn’t Sebastian’s first pick, he’d planned to hire a professional. But Scott defeated every other candidate in the combat trials.
When asked why he took the job, Scott just shrugged. “The paycheck alone was reason enough, I was sold the moment I saw those numbers.”
Once on the job, he quickly bonded with Brian. While providing close protection at home, he even doubled as Brian’s personal tutor, much to everyone’s surprise.
Listening to Brian’s unyielding tone, Sebastian couldn’t help but think, ‘Kids really do get harder to handle as they grow up.‘
Before Sebastian could respond, Maxine, sitting across from him, asked, “Is that Brian?”
Sebastian really wanted to say no, but he knew if he did, Brian would probably call Maxine directly.
After a brief hesitation, he gave a reluctant nod, clearly unhappy about it.
Maxine smiled and said, “Why don’t you join us? The food hasn’t even arrived yet, and the mansion is just nearby.”
Half an hour later, Scott dropped Brian off at the restaurant entrance, where Sebastian was waiting to usher him in.
As soon as Brian walked in, he immediately asked the waiter to add a seat next to Maxine. Eagerly leaning in, he said, “Mom, let me sit with you, whatever you’d like, I’ll get it for you!”
Sebastian pretended not to notice how desperate Brian was for Maxine’s attention, and used the serving spoon to pick some food from the pot a it on her plate.
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Chapter 243
Brian huffed pointedly as he refilled Maxine’s drink. The subtle rivalry between father and son thickened the air with tension.
Maxine could see there was something off between the two of them.
Maxine set down her silverware with a sigh, looked between the two of them, and said, “Alright, what’s going on with you two today?
As soon as she finished speaking, Brian pouted and complained, “Mom! Dad promised to bring me to see you, but he sneaked off alone and wouldn’t ter
me come!”
Maxine looked at Sebastian, who cleared his throat awkwardly and mumbled, “You still have schoolwork.”
Brian snorted at his dad’s lame excuse and turned away. “Mom, let’s just ignore him!”
Maxine simply smiled without saying a word.
After dinner, Brian quickly took over Maxine’s wheelchair, deliberately shouldering his dad asi
attention all to himself.
with a huff, making it clear he wanted his mom’s
