A Second Chance At Forever novel (Eleanor and Bernard) novel Chapter 1534

Damian followed Bernard back to the car, just in time to see Eleanor Shultz. He froze for a moment, "Mom, what are you doing here?"

It had been a long time since Eleanor had seen Damian. When she saw her son, now grown up, her eyes instantly welled up with tears. "We wanted to come and check on you secretly, but we didn't expect to find you in trouble..."

Upon seeing the shoe print on Damian's face, Eleanor's heart ached unbearably. She reached out to touch her son's cheek but paused mid-air, worried Damian might not be comfortable with the gesture.

Seeing the caution in his mother's eyes, Damian no longer displayed his usual disdain. Instead, he grabbed her hand and placed it on his own face.

Feeling Damian's thin face, Eleanor couldn't control herself any longer and embraced her soaking wet son. "Had I known you'd be bullied abroad, I wouldn't have let you go five years ago..."

Damian, now a young man, placed his hand, larger than his mother's, on her back and gently patted her. "Just this once, and you happened to catch it. Usually, I'm the one doing the bullying."

Eleanor, having seen everything with her own eyes, couldn't believe her son's attempt to comfort her. She checked him over for injuries. "Are you hurt anywhere?"

Damian shook his head. "I'm quite agile; I fended off a few attacks from those muscleheads until Dad came to the rescue..."

With admiration in his eyes, Damian looked at the man in the front seat wiping his hair with a towel. "Dad, you looked like a hero saving me just now."

Bernard cracked a smile, took the towel Aidyn Reyes handed him, and tossed it back. "You're not a kid anymore. If you always wait for your father to save you, what will you do when I'm gone?"

Wiping his hair haphazardly with the towel, Damian flashed a rare confident smile. "My father, taking on ten men single-handedly, how could such a strong and valiant man not be around?"

Bernard's cool gaze dimmed, Eleanor felt the same, and even Aidyn remained silent. The sudden quiet in the car left Damian puzzled. "Why has everyone gone silent?"

Bernard glanced at Eleanor through the rearview mirror, signaling her. She pressed down on the dull pain in her heart and gently took the towel from Damian's hand to wipe his face. "Do you know who bullied you?"

Diverting Damian's attention, he nodded while enjoying his mother's gentleness. "Yeah, some jerks from the islands, always playing dirty tricks behind my back."

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