After One Night Stand

Chapter 5

Jaspar glanced down at his phone, his mother, his sister, and his parents' housekeeper Violet had called him a total of seven times, all three women wanted him to get home to see his father as soon as possible, but his father, who was the one in question, hadn't contacted him.

"That's why I don't think my dad wanted to see me; he never contacted me."

John drove for his young master Jaspar, which was mostly to prevent Jaspar from turning the car around midway and going somewhere else. Hearing his complaint, John swept the rearview mirror and caught the impatience on his face.

"But you haven't contacted your father actively, either."

That was the truth, and even though Jaspar had been avoiding the question, John spoke up for him.

"He was the one who said he didn't want to see me..." Jaspar's voice gradually lowered and soon became inaudible, and he knew he didn't have a good enough reason.

This father and son had achieved dazzling results in their respective fields, but were complete failures in handling relationships with those closest to them, and he was even shirking his responsibilities, all the thinking and decisive skills adults possessed completely failing at this point.

John sighed in his heart, although the lady also asked him to persuade her son, but as a housekeeper, he could only help so much, and further reconciliation would have to be done by their own efforts.

Jaspar had problems with his father, but they were only common differences between father and son. He loved racing and had just won the Canadian division, which was the best result of his career. Everyone on his team thought he had a bright future ahead of him, and his family and friends wished him well, except for his father.

He was the eldest son in his family, and his father wanted him to come back and inherit the family business as soon as possible. Stock Real Estate Limited, named after the family name, was founded by Jaspar's grandfather and had already been publicly traded. It had maintained a steady track record during his father's decades in charge, and was gradually expanding into new businesses, gaining a prominent position among the real estate giants.

But how could a race car driver take over a real estate company? He knew that wealth was valuable, but he didn't want to dedicate his life to land and money; he could support himself by racing, if his father would let him go.

The car eventually reached its destination, and Jaspar returned to the wealthy area in the western part of Plain City, where he grew up in the sprawling, staggering mansion until he was placed by his father to study finance abroad.

He hadn't been back here for a long time, since his last argument with his father. But everything here was still the way he remembered it. The house was a blend of vintage Greek architecture and modern civilization.

The huge front yard was decorated with fountains and flower beds with carved goddesses, and all the flowers and trees were kept in perfect condition at his mother's request.

His mother was fond of classical painting, and his father did not believe that she could achieve success in this area, and he always gave his mother's work a very low opinion with a shake of his head. So he grew up with a resentful attitude toward his father in this regard, and sometimes he even thought that his parents should have divorced.

The vehicle crossed the front yard and reached the main entrance of the villa, a modern main building built to his father's liking, with a simple architectural shape and one-piece floor-to-ceiling windows on the second floor, both of which still gave the twenty-year-old house an edgy modern feel.

This was his father and mother, and although he couldn't contemplate what fate had bound the two of them together, they had lived together for most of their lives, and like the mansion, had some justification for their existence.

Jaspar's mother was waiting for him at the door, the years having left unmistakable marks on her face, but at the same time thickening her temperament. This elegant noblewoman embraced her son: "My most excellent son!"

"My beautiful mother, I miss you so much!"

He embraced her mother with joy and sincerity.

"Do you miss but do not come to see me?"

His eyes wandered for a moment, he just didn't want to see his father here, but he couldn't possibly worry his mother, "You could have come to see me, did you see my recent match on TV? What did you think?"

"Excellent, I have already said that my son is the best kid in the world."

Mrs. Stock hesitated, but took her son's hand, "But don't mention your racing in front of your father, okay? You know what he wants from you."

What little good mood Jaspar had managed to build up had all but disappeared by now, and he nodded obediently in front of his mother before following her along to his father's study.

The solid wood carved double doors, which did not deviate in any way from his memory, also seemed strange to him because in all his memories, the parts related to this room were not very good.

For his majestic father had always brought his son here only when he needed to establish his authority.

The door opened and Mr. Stock was sitting at his desk, and he looked up just in time to meet his son's eyes. But he took one brief look at his son and then looked to his wife.

"Ila? Where's my coffee?"

"You might want to stop the coffee."

Jaspar had gone over to the couch and sat down, but he heard his father's order and immediately ignited his anger that had nowhere to be released.

"With all the maids employed in the house, why do you have to let mommy pour your coffee? Her hands are for painting, not for serving you!"

In fact, he didn't know why he was in such a grumpy mood, he had actually planned to listen to his mother's words, even if there was no way to negotiate successfully today, he would try not to argue with his father, and he should speak with reason as an adult.

Maybe it was because he had just had a fight with Ivy this morning, or the woman he had met the day before had left like a runaway after dawn. Or maybe it all went back to his childhood, when his mother suffered from his father's debasement but refused to divorce him, to the point where she still wanted to serve her husband like a maid.

What he didn't expect was the tremendous effect this questioning would have, as both his father and mother looked at him with an expression of surprise.

His mother immediately walked up to him and pulled him back: "What kind of attitude are you using to talk to your father? He just asked me for a cup of coffee."

Jaspar's anger had been extinguished and he looked hesitantly at his mother in front of him, feeling regret that he had let her down.

Just then, Mr. Stock looked at his son, who looked more and more like him in temperament, and he suddenly wanted and gave him some guidance, maybe his plan to make his son inherit the family estate would work, so he spoke up and said, "You don't have the means to negotiate with me as an equal now, unless you inherit the company."

Ila tightened her grip on her son's hand in a panic, but Jaspar's anger had been rekindled and was not likely to be easily suppressed any longer.

"I told you a long time ago that I wasn't going to give up racing and then go to work at Stock; I wasn't destined to be a businessman like you."

"A businessman like me?" Axell, who was still energetic at the age of 60, still possessed a winning spirit and thought he knew his son. His son was just a kid who had gotten addicted to playing outside, and he would come home eventually.

"What is it about a businessman like me? I can win in the real estate business and still support my whole family!"

Looking at his familiar father and his familiar confidence, Jaspar took a deep breath and said the words that had been pressed into his heart for more than twenty years.

"I know exactly what you've lost, your relationship with my mother is mediocre, and you're equally estranged from your own brother! You've dedicated the rest of your life to the company, though it's impossible to decide if it is all worth it until now! But really, all this is nothing, and the most important thing is that you still want me to continue your destiny!"

"You! Get out, now!" Axell realized that his son had always had a talent for pissing him off and anger made him growl at his son.

Jaspar looked at his angry father and remembered before, so he coldly said to his father, "What? Are you trying to use some mean trick to make me give up again, like you did before?"