The Illegitimate Heir

Chapter 12

She obviously was not expecting him back so soon.

Still, she quickly regained her composure and hastened to his side.

“Honey, what are you doing back home already?”

“What? I shouldn't have come back so that you will pull the house down before I get back?”

Richard's forbidding tone made Patricia drop the hand she had raced to touch his arm.

The woman acting like a tiger just now had suddenly transformed into a meowing cat.

“Honey. I am just teaching our son a lesson. My absence has spoilt him so much and he has forgotten himself.”

“Do I need to have your arms and legs broken before you will let go of him?”

Richard’s deadly calm voice made the men flinch in panic as they hurriedly dropped Adrian.

The sudden movement, plus his pain, made Adrian crumple to the ground.

Richard rushed forward as if to help him.

Even though he stopped himself almost immediately, the unconscious movement alone surprised all.

Richard had never moved that fast for anything that wasn't business.

Especially not for Adrian.

Adrian picked himself up immediately, refusing to let out a groan as pain shot through his body.

He wiped the stain on his chin, gritting his teeth against the pain as he eyed Richard suspiciously too.

That move had not escaped him either.

What was Richard up to exactly? he wondered once again.

First the ridiculous event. And now he was saving him from Patricia's punishment?

That had never happened before.

Not even when he was a naive young boy of ten, running to him for help as his mother swung a cane after him.

He could still remember Daniel's echoing laughter that day.

Just as he could remember the look on Richard's face as he ran to him.

Richard had been on a call then as Adrian ran to him, begging him for help as he shook his leg desperately.

“Let me call you back,” he had said to the person on the call.

Then, looking at Adrian like he was a slug that had crawled out of the sewer, he said coldly, “Don't you ever interrupt or touch me like that again.”

Then he had left him right there, ignoring Patricia’s apology as she told him such would not repeat itself again.

As Patricia descended on him that evening, the sound of the switch echoing, something had died in Adrian's young mind that day as he watched Richard's retreating back.

It was the last time he had begged him for anything, no matter how much he hurt.

That was also the day he finally realised that he would never be like Daniel to either of his parents.

Daniel could say whatever he wanted when he wanted.

Daniel could throw tantrums and nobody would shut him up.

Daniel could go to games with their father and even get dropped off at school personally by him.

Richard was not unapproachable, after all.

It just depended on who was doing the approaching.

Adrian had accepted that long ago.

So, what exactly was going on now? He wondered, even as Richard tucked his hands in his pockets like he regretted that one movement.

Richard, on the other hand, just did not want anything visible to happen to him.

He didn't want the general coming back to see marks on him.

Once the ceremony was done and Charles left, Richard did not care about whatever happened to Adrian.

Nothing must go wrong before that day.

Patricia had nearly ruined things for him.

His scowl darkened as he turned to her.

“Is this how you treat your own son? What would people say when they see this?”

It turned out he was only worried about people's talk, Adrian scoffed in realisation.

Patricia was flustered as she tried and failed to hold Richard's gaze.

This had never happened before. Richard had never interfered with how she raised the boy.

She hurriedly stepped forward. “Honey, Adrian, he is becoming greedy these days. I don't know what he told you to make you agree to the bride selection, but don't you think Daniel is more deserving of it? Adrian will just disgrace our family as usual.”