Pausing briefly while she regarded Anthony, Natasha then nodded in affirmation. “Yes.”
There, she had confessed to it.
Regardless, the thought of keeping it from the children had never crossed her mind. In her own approach to childhood education, she could never allow herself to take advantage of their youthful ignorance to deceive them or lie to herself.
Natasha was fully committed to addressing whatever queries they might have, except that they had never broached the subject prior.
Nodding staidly, Anthony appeared to be quite unfazed by the answer he was given, to say the least. “Okay. Got it!”
“Isn’t there anything else you would like to say to me?” Natasha asked.
“Nope.” Anthony shook his head. All he sought was an answer, and the fact that he got one was satisfactory enough for him.
“Actually, I wouldn’t have kept it from all of you had any one of you had asked earlier,” said Natasha as she looked at Anthony.
“Nat.” At that moment, Anthony snuggled up close. “This answer isn’t going to change anything. You’re still my mommy who I love very, very much. I’ll never ever want to leave you!”
Being more accustomed to expressing himself through his actions most of the time, Anthony had seldom been so chatty, and much rarer still had he been so sweet.
Hearing such words come off his lips thus made Natasha feel especially moved.
“All right, then!” She nodded coolly as usual. “I’d be holding you to that.”
“Certainly.” Anthony nodded in affirmation.
“In the event he and I went to court over this…”
“I’d refuse to go with him even if he won, and I’d still come back even if he took me away. He might be able to stop me once or twice, but he can’t stop me forever.”
That led Natasha to burst out laughing. She then reached out her hand to pat him on the head. “Now, that’s my boy.”
“That’s why you needn’t worry about this lawsuit, Mommy. In any case, you can only come away a winner.”
“I believe so too.” Natasha concurred with a nod.
Anthony finally smiled as innocently as any child ought to in front of Natasha.
Just looking at him prompted Natasha to drop the questions she wanted to ask.
Being such a restrained person herself, she did not want her own children to inherit that particular trait of hers. Hence, she did not want to interfere with their personal development.
“Go and pour me a glass of water.”
“Roger that.”
Anthony happily approached and began to serve Natasha.
Elsewhere, Kenneth went to inspect the wrecked car after he departed from the hospital and also purposefully made a trip down to the police station to reiterate his own stance on the whole affair.
Considering that it concerned Natasha’s safety, he was determined to ferret out the one who wished to cause harm to her as soon as possible.
Kenneth received a call from Thea almost immediately after he stepped outside the police station, but with the events of the previous day still fresh in his mind, Kenneth declined to pick up and hung up on her instead.
He had thought about returning to the office, but aside from looking quite unkempt, his attire was also spotted with bloodstains. Thereupon, Kenneth opted to head straight back to the Hamilton residence.
Liam was practicing his drawing techniques at home and did not even look up when the butler informed him that Kenneth had returned. “Hmph. He treats this house as though it’s a hotel. Coming and leaving whenever he pleases.”
Knowing well that those comments were meant for him, Kenneth considered his own words before he spoke. “I’m back, Grandpa.”
Meaning to take a dig at him when he turned, Liam was left astounded when he saw the bloodstains on his counterpart and noticed the state of dishevelment the latter was in. “What happened to you? Are you hurt?”
Concerned that Liam might become sick with worry, Kenneth said, “I’m okay. The blood from these stains didn’t come from me. Let me head up to wash and change out of this. Then, I’d explain everything.” With that, he went on upstairs.
While he watched from the rear, Liam was unable to contain himself. “Hey, why don’t you tell me what’s going on first?”
The only response he yielded was the sound of Kenneth’s door closing.
“That little brat…” Liam was equal parts livid and helpless.
While Kenneth was upstairs in the showers, his mind was occupied by thoughts about Liam’s condescending attitude and also Natasha’s general indifference toward himself.
He was not able to tell what kind of feeling he was experiencing at the moment, but he felt annoyed for some reason.
Once done showering, Kenneth went downstairs to where Liam was waiting.
As fond as Liam was of giving Kenneth a tongue lashing every now and then, Liam was nonetheless deeply concerned about his grandson when something happened to the latter.
“Grandpa.” Kenneth walked over and sat himself down on the couch.
“What on earth happened?” Liam asked before approaching to lift his grandson’s shirt.
“Hey, what are you doing, Grandpa?”
“Checking whether you’re wounded, you brat!” Liam continued to probe around and inspect Kenneth’s body. It was only after Liam confirmed his own grandson was fine that he felt relieved.
Kenneth sat down. “Do you think I’d dare to show myself back here if I was injured?”
That prompted Liam to roll his eyes at him. “Lord knows what’s going through that useless head of yours.”
Pursing his lip, Kenneth held his own tongue.
When he noticed how glum the younger man looked, Liam asked, “Now, are you going to tell me what all this is about?”
That was when an idea struck Kenneth. He eyed Liam and then carried on talking as before.
“This blood isn’t mine. It’s Natasha’s.”
Liam was sipping away at his coffee, and hearing that nearly caused him to spew out his drink. “What did you say?” He glared at Kenneth in abject disbelief.
“She got into a traffic accident yesterday.”
“An accident? Was it serious? How is she now? Why are you telling me this only now, you brat?” Liam appeared deathly disconcerted.
“Her life is not in danger. She just suffered a bit of abrasion, some fractures, and a concussion, that’s all.”
“That’s all? What the hell is wrong with you? How bad does it need to get before you’d consider it serious?”
Seeing how agitated Liam was, Kenneth said, “Don’t get yourself too worked up. You have to be mindful of your own heart condition.”
“And you. Why aren’t you keeping vigil at the hospital? What are you doing back here?” an exasperated Liam asked.
The mere mention of that left Kenneth quite helpless. “It was Old Mr. Watson who told me to leave…”
What was to follow was self-evident as Liam looked at him intently. “Y-You had it coming to you!”
Speechlessly, Kenneth pursed his own lips.
“No. I have to go down to the hospital to see things for myself.” Following that, Liam summoned the butler to him. “Prep the car, Dan. I want it ready to leave by the time I’ve changed.”
“Understood. I’d go see to it right away.” Then out went Dan.
“Shall I accompany you?” the observing Kenneth asked.
Only then did the slick nature of his intentions dawn upon Liam, who regarded him, snickering, “Oh, that’s why you were waiting for me here, huh?”
Perking up his eyebrows, Kenneth remained silent. He made no attempt to deny that either.
“Terence won’t allow you to stay at the hospital, so you decided that you’re going to go there in my name. To think you had me wondering why you came back here for… You were plotting to exploit your own grandfather!” said Liam as he regarded him.
“I have no such intention.” Out of pride, Kenneth did not want to admit that.
“Fine then. In that case, you won’t be going.” With that, Liam headed upstairs to get changed.
When he came back down, Kenneth was no longer seated in the living room. Without questioning too much about it, Liam simply got up and left.
After he got in the car, however, that was when he saw Kenneth right there in the driver’s seat.
“Dan said that his foot is killing him, Grandpa, so I’d be helping to chauffeur you around today,” said Kenneth as he turned back to face Liam.
Even if no one else could see through him, how could Liam possibly not? Without commenting further, he straightaway shut the car door.
Pursing his lips, Kenneth went on to roll the car out.
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