Always Been Yours (Tessa and Nicholas) novel Chapter 8

“Yes,” Nicholas said, just to humor the kid. He was convinced that it would only take a few days for Gregory to forget all about that woman, and he was even more convinced that there was no way a woman unknown to the Sawyers could make such a long-lasting impression on a tender-aged child.

Alas, Nicholas had spent every waking moment of the following three days keeping Gregory company, only to hear the boy whine about seeing Tessa.

While Nicholas had come up with various excuses to delay such plans of seeing Tessa, Gregory lost patience and threatened to ignore him for good. Then, the boy king decidedly locked himself in his room, refusing to come out or let anyone in.

Staring at the tightly shut bedroom door, Nicholas began to grow exasperated. He didn’t have time for this, certainly not on a day when he had to drop by the company to attend an inter-continental meeting.

As such, he summoned the butler and ordered sternly, “Keep an eye on Greg, and don’t let him get up to nonsense. Call me if anything unexpected happens.”

“Yes, sir!” Andrew, the butler, said solemnly with a respectful nod.

Then, Nicholas straightened up and headed out the door. Soon, his towering figure disappeared behind the door of an exquisite Bentley idling outside, and the car pulled away from the curb, cruising away from the house.

Presently, Gregory was huddled up in his room, simmering in childish anger as he pressed against the balcony and watched his father’s car drive out of sight.

When the car disappeared entirely from view, Gregory turned and stalked back into his bedroom, then slung his Superman backpack over his tiny shoulders. After that, he sneaked out through the hole in the backyard wall and promptly deleted all the camera footage that would have recorded his escape.

In actuality, he had already looked up online the address where Tessa’s orchestra was supposedly based. If Daddy doesn’t bring me to see her, then I’ll go and see her myself!

Now that his mission was accomplished, Gregory dusted off his starfish-like hands and made a triumphant noise. “You must have underestimated me if you think you can keep me under lock and key!”

The little one had only just made his great escape when he hailed a ride through a phone application. He cleverly set the Heavenly Chorus Orchestra as his destination, which was around a startling hundred-something miles away.

Nearly two hours later, Gregory finally stepped out of the car and looked up at the entrance of the Heavenly Chorus Orchestra building.

Tightening his grip on the strap of his backpack, he took a deep breath and walked through the doors, then looked up at the receptionist as he asked softly, “Hello, miss, I’m here to find my mommy. Her name’s Tessa Reinhart, and she works here! Could you help me call her, please?”

The receptionist took an immediate liking to the little boy, but when she heard he was Tessa’s son, she couldn’t hide her astonishment.

Tessa had been working here for all these years, but never once had she mentioned that she was a mother to such an adorable little boy. “Are you here on your own, little one? Give me a moment while I call your mommy right now.”

“Okay, thank you, kind lady!” Gregory said cheerily, then stood by the front desk and waited.

Meanwhile, when Tessa got the call from the receptionist saying somebody was here to see her, she had thought that it could be a member of the audience from one of her shows, but what the receptionist told her was, “Miss Reinhart, your son is here to see you, and he’s on his own. Please come over as soon as possible; it’s not safe for a child like him to be wandering around alone. Heaven knows what kind of predator would try to kidnap him!”

“Er…” Stunned, Tessa blinked and finally said, “Okay, got it, I’ll be right there.”