Sign the Papers Mr. Langford novel Chapter 209

Leo’s tiny shoulders flinched.

Wren saw it.

She didn't bother arguing with Eleanor about nutritional value, nor did she bring up the traumatic fishbone incident.

She merely pulled Leo closer to her and said in a calm, unyielding tone, "He does not drink fish soup."

Eleanor scoffed. "You certainly never had all these ridiculous rules before."

"I did," Wren said, meeting the older woman's glare. "I simply swapped it out before you ever noticed."

A dead silence fell over the dining room.

Eleanor's expression turned ugly.

Lawrence stood off to the side, his gaze fixed on Leo. The boy kept his head down, anxiously twisting the hem of his uniform, bracing himself for the adults to start screaming over a bowl of soup.

Lawrence finally broke the silence. "Change the soup."

A maid rushed over with a fresh bowl.

As Leo took it, he whispered, "Thank you."

Wren gently rubbed his back.

The meal surprisingly didn't devolve into a shouting match.

Yet, it felt as though everyone were balancing on a razor-thin wire—one wrong move and the tension would violently snap.

Eleanor attempted multiple times to dictate how Wren should manage the household now that she was back, but Lawrence expertly deflected each attempt. Eleanor, however, was not one to concede easily. After dinner, she ordered a maid to bring over a menu and a stack of invitations.

"Since you're back, Margaret is having a few old friends over this weekend. You used to handle all these arrangements, so you know the drill."

Wren was busy organizing Leo's medication box.

She methodically snapped the lids shut for Monday through Sunday before finally looking up.

"I am not arranging it."

Eleanor looked as if she had been practically salivating for that exact response. "You are staying under this roof, yet you refuse to lift a finger for this family?"

"I am staying here strictly because the court and the school mandated a stable environment for the Observation Period," Wren said, sliding the pillbox into the side pocket of her son's backpack. "That does not include playing party planner for The Langford Estate."

Eleanor’s fingers visibly trembled with rage.

"Are you actually trying to use the court to threaten me?"

Wren locked eyes with her.

"You are the one who delusionally assumed my return meant I was resuming my old duties."

Lawrence sat on the sofa, his untouched coffee growing cold in his hands.

The phrase "resuming my old duties" made a dark shadow cross his eyes.

A duty with no salary, no boundaries, and absolutely zero gratitude.

Eleanor opened her mouth to unleash hell, but Leo suddenly reached out and tugged on Wren's sleeve.

"Mom, I want to go do my homework."

His voice was barely a whisper.

But the entire room heard him.

"Then let's work on it for twenty minutes, and then we can go downstairs for a walk."

Leo's eyes lit up a fraction. "Can we go see the koi pond?"

"Yes."

"Is Dad coming too?"

Wren’s hand paused.

She refused to make promises on Lawrence's behalf.

"You can ask him yourself."

Leo hesitated for a long, agonizing moment before finally shaking his head.

"Never mind."

Wren didn't push him.

At seven o'clock that evening, Lawrence pushed the door open. It wasn't locked.

Wren was hunched over her laptop, revising documents for Stellaris. The glow of the screen illuminated the faint exhaustion etched under her eyes. Leo had fallen asleep at the small desk halfway through his homework, his fingers still wrapped around his pencil.

Lawrence stood in the doorway, hesitating to step inside.

The scene was incredibly foreign.

Yet agonizingly familiar.

In the past, Wren would always sit with their son while he did his homework, but it used to happen in the nursery. Next to her would be his suit jacket, the contracts he needed to sign the next morning, and the guest list Eleanor demanded she review.