Fatherly Scheme

Miles leaned against his door for who knows how long. His thoughts drifting everywhere were interrupted by the sudden grumbles of his stomach.

He forgot that he hadn't had dinner yet.

He glanced at the wall clock centimetres above his study table. It was 8:03 pm.

Chances about meeting the mother-son duo when going out of this room is high, especially because the woman had guests over. Not only that, he'll look even more a liar in those guests' eyes.

Well... It's not like he cares anyway.

Knock Knock

His thoughts were interrupted once again.

No one would dare knock at his door if his father wasn't home. So, whoever the person on the other side, it definitely wouldn't be anyone from this estate.

It could be a guest. But why would a guest knock at his door?

He hesitated for a moment before he leisurely opened it.

With a creak, a young girl's face appeared in his view.

The young girl was a few centimetres shorted than him, looking like someone who had just turned 15. She wore a classic white knee-long dress over a grey crocheted turtleneck

She was quite a beauty with her dark hair and hazel eyes, and looking at those hazel eyes reminded him of the man in black.

The girl stood there with a paperbag in her hands. She looked startled when Miles opened the door, as if she didn't expect him to do so.

"... What is it?" Miles did not bother with pleasantries at all. He looked at her like she had done something wrong.

The girl showed a nervous smile, but she didn't look uncomfortable. She looked like she was used to someone talking and looking at her that way.

"Hello, brother. Mrs. Maxim told us that you weren't at home earlier, but when you arrived, my mother made a call, and I went to the bathroom, so I didn't have the chance to give this to you."

The girl then raised her hands, Miles got a clearer view of the paperbag. It was a small strawberry flavoured cream-filled delicacy from a luxurious bakery.

Miles looked at it for a moment, seemingly contemplating whether he should accept it or not. But he's actually thinking whether eating a delicacy for a dinner would be bad for the body.

"Oh.. I... my name is Kathy Hudson..." The girl broke the lingering silence nervously.

Miles snapped out from his thoughts.

"... Oh, I got it." Miles received the paperbag, "Thank you."

"Are you... gonna eat it now?" Kathy looked at Miles, this time, with a little confidence.

Miles glanced at the paperbag in his hands and looked at Kathy. He raised his brows, "Hmm?"

"Ah... hadn't you had dinner yet?" Kathy blinked.

Miles: "Hadn't I?"

Kathy: "... Your stomach is..."

Kathy did not finish her words, Miles' stomach grumbled again. This time, more audible.

"....."

"....."

"Do you feel uncomfortable around Mrs. Maxim?" The silence that built up was interrupted by Kathy's seemingly out of place question. But there was a hint behind it that Miles could read.

Kathy... this young girl, despite her age and an apparently innocent look, was someone who could perceive something like that.

And instead of saying it directly, she'd hinted it like it was something very natural.

Miles looked at her with narrowed eyes.

"I... it's just that you wouldn't be going into your room without eating dinner if you weren't..." Kathy explained. "Don't worry.. I-I'm not saying it's invalid... I mean.."

"I've been curious... you could've just asked a servant to deliver this to me.." Miles looked at the paperbag in his hands, "Why didn't you?"

Kathy pursed her lips, and Miles waited when she opened her mouth again.

"D-Don't get me wrong... I.."

Just then, a call interrupted Kathy's words.

"Ms. Hudson, here you are!" It was that red-haired man again.

The chateau's second floor was like this: Upon ascending the imperial staircase, you would see five doors. In the middle was the master bedroom. The right was Miles' room. The left was the red-haired man's room. The other room was an empty room that was transformed into his father's study, and the other door led to a small second living room where family photos were displayed. Miles typically hated the second living room because of the fact that the photos here had the duo's face, as if they were in the first place, and the fact that his mother's photos were replaced so blatantly.

Upon the red-haired man's ascendancy, he saw Miles' room half-opened with Miles out — still haven't taken off his cloak and narrowed his eyes at the girl in front. They appeared to he conversing, which is rather surprising because of Miles' unfriendliness.

He scrunched his brows together.

"....Oh, brother." The red-haired man smiled obviously fake, "I thought you had gone to rest."

Then he shifted his gaze to the young girl.

".. First Young Master..." Kathy smiled faintly.

"Ms. Hudson, my mother sent me to ask for you downstairs. The snowfall hadn't subsided yet. It appears that you and the others might have to stay here for the night." The red-haired man's eyes looked at Kathy very tenderly. Then he swept his eyes at Miles again. "Brother, why don't you go down with us?"

Kathy glanced back at Miles. She was hinting Miles to go with them so he could eat dinner.

Miles pursed his lips and looked at the red-haired man, "... Both of you should head down first. I'd go when I finished changing clothes."

In fact, even if Kathy hadn't gone to knock on his door, he still would go downstairs. He couldn't care less about how he looked like to others, nor did he care about his acts being pointed out. You could humiliate him, but he'd never spare you a glance and just walk past you.

So what if you think he was a spoiled brat that lacked manners?

People can only say something about it. But could they do something about it? Even if they could, what is it? Does it even matter? Could it stop him from doing what he wanted? No.

That's the kind of unbothered Miles was.

Kathy flashed a small smile at him, and the red-haired man happened to see it. The fact that Miles actually agreed to go extremely irritated the red-haired man. Now that Kathy actually smiled at Miles, he could only grit his teeth.

The next second, Miles found himself back in his room.

He slowly took off his cloak and undressed. His mind again drifted somewhere.

This was habitual for him. Overthinking has been the only thing he found himself engrossed at for the past six years. Especially when he felt sleepy, hungry, or tired.

The thing concerning him about right now is the way that Kathy personally came to him.

He had some guesses, and the way the red-haired man scrunched his brows at sight of him and Kathy conversing and seemingly getting along just fine, backed that guess.

He suddenly laughed.

He hasn't even turned 18 and still had to finish his final year on senior high school.

Kathy felt like someone who just graduated from middle school wasn't for the fact that she's incredibly perceptive towards other people. Like she could understand the meaning behind other people's acts very well. She seemed to have a lot of experience in that case, like she was used to someone treating her with a cold shoulder.

But that only made him doubt even more.

Someone who could deal with a person filled with indifference — who else would think about it?

There was only one person who wished so badly to deal with Miles — his own father.

He furrowed his brows.

Hudson family was distinguished as the family who reigned wealth over the country and several parts of the world. They owned an influence that was as strong as an imperial seal, especially towards the business world.

Although Maxim family couldn't be considered as influential as Hudson's, they had a history of more than just several hundred years. That history was extremely rich, and written in that history was that the Hudson and Maxim have a rapport that lasted for a very long chain of years.

There are also several marriages that happened between the two families, strengthening their bond even more.

Just this fact alone disturbed Miles' thoughts.

He thought of his middle-aged father, whose white hair began to grow.

When his mother died, his father couldn't take care of him, so we went into his grandfather's care.

When his grandfather died, not even a few months later, he brought home that duo.

Miles' heart ached, and he gritted his teeth.

'Scheming bastard.' He thought as he got out of his room and walked downstairs.

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