Love’s Change of Heart novel Chapter 383

Louis released him roughly. His brows furrowed together in anger, and just when he wanted to snap, something soft grabbed his fingers.

For a moment, he was stopped short by the sudden sensation, so he blinked his eyes as he reorientated himself and looked down. He saw a child, who was only a few months old, looking at him with curious, rounded eyes. The child had a wide grin as he babbled nonsensical words.

Louis lowered his voice at the sight of a young one. "This is…"

Aidan tidied himself on the couch as he said composedly, "He's my son."

The anger that had subsided a little within Louis flared up again, and he shot a glare at Celia, unaware of the situation. She was rightfully startled by the fury in his eyes, which quickly clued her into what he was probably thinking. So, the instant she realized that he had gotten the wrong idea, she waved her hands frantically as though she was warding the devil.

"I'm only here to take care of the child under President Pearson's orders. It's not what you think it is!" Toward the end of her words, her tone even turned slightly shrill in her panic.

The knot between Louis' brows loosened a little, and he turned to Aidan again. "What the hell is going on?"

"I'll tell you the truth if you promise not to breathe a word about everything you saw here today to Leanna."

"As long as you didn't betray her, there's no reason for you to be afraid of this."

Aidan lifted his gaze at him. "I just don't want to complicate things further."

Well, considering that both men weren't about to go on a stampede, Naomi knew that the person who just barged in wasn't a bad person. Therefore, she turned her attention to Celia and said, "Celia, I'm so sorry. Please take the rest of the day off."

Celia gave her a nod, dropped off the groceries on the dining table, and scurried off.

The second the door closed, Naomi picked up the child on the couch. "It's feeding time for the baby. So don't wait up."

Naomi held the child in her arms with practiced ease and went into the room with the child leaning against her shoulder. The baby's eyes were fixed on Louis as he flailed his arms around, trying to say something.

As Louis took a closer look at the child's features, he suddenly had a thought in his mind.

In fact, earlier, when the young lady said that she was just here to babysit, an idea had already flashed past his mind. However, the idea was so unbelievable to him that he didn't delve further into it.

When he could no longer ignore those thoughts, he uttered in disbelief, "Could he be…"

Aidan's brows lifted ever so slightly. "Yeah."

"Leanna doesn't know about this?"

"All she knows is the existence of this child, but nothing else."

"Why did you hide it from her, then?" Louis asked.

"I told you that I don't want things to get even more complicated," Aidan said.

Louis unconsciously raised his voice at the offense he felt for his sister. "But this is her baby! You know exactly how upset she is over this baby, but you… Don't you think that you're taking this too far?!"

The look on Aidan's face turned a few notches colder. "The baby was born prematurely and was in emergency rescue right after he was born. So if you are in my shoes, how do you plan to break the news to her? Are you going to make things worse for her when she's at her most miserable and helpless state?"

A stunned Louis didn't know what to say all of a sudden and said after a few seconds, "But isn't he doing well now? Why did you—"

"Before you went to look for Jethro, did you tell her everything?"

Louis abruptly went still as he could probably understand Aidan's situation, and the room fell silent.

After a while, Aidan rose to his feet. "Remember what you promised me. If you go back on your word, you can forget about the kid acknowledging you as his uncle."

Louis didn't protest and merely watched as Aidan headed toward the door. Then, he peered at the room where his nephew was. "Are you leaving just like this?"

"Or else, what?" Aidan asked. "Do you want to stay here instead?"

Louis retracted his gaze and then left together with Aidan. On the way back, he asked, "Earlier, you said that he has been in emergency care since he was born. How is he doing now?"

"He's rather frail, so he falls sick often. But the doctor comes to check up on him regularly."

"When will he recover?"

"Once he's a little older, and his immunity system gets stronger, he might do better."

Louis frowned and asked no further questions.

…

Meanwhile, after hitting the karaoke bar, the group left by themselves, and because Zoe had some drinks in the evening, she couldn't drive. So, Leanna drove her home instead.

On the way, Zoe said, "Nana, what are your plans after this?"

"Me?" Leanna gave it a thought before saying, "I guess I'll get the studio on track."

Several issues cropped up this year. Previously, she was busy preparing for the competition, and because of a series of troublesome incidents, she didn't have the time for the studio at all.

Zoe nodded. "That's what I think as well. Look, after these few months, our studio has gained a small reputation within the country, but we haven't been using such publicity to the fullest. So after this, we should run some ads and hire some famous influencers to promote our product or something. We'll definitely make it big in time!"

Leanna agreed to her plan with a light yet firm nod. "Yes, we will."

"That's why I said it's really not important that you didn't win the first spot. So what if you're second? In my heart, you'll always be number one! Now and forever!"

Leanna chuckled in amusement before she teased, "Are you comforting me?"

Zoe blinked. "Oh, you noticed it?"

"It's okay. I expected this. Moreover, to be able to enter such a prestigious competition is already such a rare opportunity for me. Plus, I even won a spot; all in all, it's a win for me."

Zoe nodded her head vigorously, agreeing to her statement strongly. "Yes, you're right! That's exactly what's on my mind. Just treat this as an experience."

As the karaoke bar was nearby Zoe's place, they reached her place within ten minutes by car.

Zoe pushed the door open and said, "Nana, I'm going home, then. Drive carefully on your way home and drop me a text once you're home."

Suddenly, Leanna called out to her, "Zoe."

Zoe caught the seriousness in her tone, so she plopped herself back into the seat and asked anxiously, "What's wrong?"

Then, Leanna told her everything Lewis had said in the hotel.

A couple of minutes passed by before Zoe finally opened her mouth. "No, maybe I had too much to drink. Give me a second here. So, that guy said that he wants to have a special show for our brand at the international fashion week?"

"Yes," Leanna answered.

Zoe slapped her thigh in her joy and appeared to have sobered up. "That's good news! Excellent news! Did you agree to it?"

"Not yet. I'm still considering it."

"What's there to consider when it's such an amazing thing? I told you that the position really doesn't matter! Look, Lady Luck has finally decided to bless us, after all!"

"The studio has been accepting orders, and if it's a special show for the brand, I'll have to come up with a lot of jewelry designs, and I'm afraid that I'll burn out," Leanna mumbled, expressing her concern.

Zoe calmed down a little and suggested, "Should we stop accepting custom orders from now on and just produce pieces for our brand? That way, you can fork out more time to prepare for the fashion week."

"Stop doing custom orders?"

"Yeah. What do you think? If it's okay with you, we'll just make arrangements for that."