“Sure, sure.” That was the first time Finnick had ever heard someone promising to protect him, and it was his own son at that. All at once, joy bloomed within him.
“However, you’ve got to love me a lot. You must love me more than you love Mommy,” Larry blurted worriedly as something seemingly occurred to him out of the blue.
At that, Finnick thought that he was jealous of Vivian. Conversely, Vivian knew the true reason behind his request.
“Why?” Finnick couldn’t resist asking.
“Because you’ve already doted on Mommy so much in the past, yet you’ve never doted on me, Daddy. So, you’ve got to compensate me.”
Larry knew that he had misspoken earlier, but since the words were already out of his mouth, he didn’t change his tune. Instead, he bit the bullet and uttered it with laughter in his voice.
It sounded as though it was a joke, but Finnick finally realized that he wasn’t jealous but lacked fatherly love.
It’s because I wasn’t by his side ever since he’s young that he never had any fatherly love. And though he said it in a joking manner, it’s even more distressing than if he’d done so in a disappointed tone. What had he gone through that he’s even speaking of something unhappy with a smile?
At the thought of that, his heart twisted in agony time and again. He didn’t know what to say to console Larry.
At this precise moment, Vivian, who was sitting with Larry, spoke.
“I’m sorry, little pumpkin. It was me who deprived you of the five years you could’ve been with your daddy. If it wasn’t because of me, you wouldn’t be so unhappy now.”
She knew that she was at fault in this matter, but she had always thought that Larry wasn’t bothered about his father, whose identity he didn’t even know. Never had she expected him to have always been longing for his father.
Thus, this was quite a revelation to her.
“No, don’t take all the blame on yourself. And don’t worry, Larry. I’ll never again abandon you in the future.”
A bolt of anguish lanced through Finnick when he heard Vivian shouldering all the blame, so he spoke and gave Larry a promise.
“It’s a promise, then. Mommy, Daddy, you must keep your word, okay?” Larry put on a cute expression after hearing that, making them both laugh.
Subsequently, Vivian and Finnick inadvertently met each other’s eyes, both tickled pink.
Finnick reached out and took her hand, warmth filling him as he gazed at her.
Meanwhile, Larry docilely sit on Vivian’s lap and did his best not to disrupt the two lovebirds when he saw the blissful expressions on their face.
About twenty minutes later, they arrived home.
From the look of things, Finnick reckoned that Benedict had reached a long time ago, and he was now drinking tea on the sofa.
Beside him was Noah, who said nary a word.
Strangely enough, ever since Noah admitted to his mistake back then, he had been increasingly taciturn.
Everyone had noticed this, but no one said anything. After all, perhaps he just had nothing much to say.
Vivian, on the other hand, felt that there was something amiss with him. Therefore, she planned to ask him about it when she was free.
“Didn’t you two take the same route as I did? Why are you only arriving now?” Benedict couldn’t help grousing as he had already drunk several cups of tea before he finally spotted the three of them.
“No, no, it’s because your car is good. Next time, gift us one, and you won’t have to wait for us,” Vivian quipped impishly.
Since he’s complaining that we’re slow, I’ll just ask him to give us a car! While there are already a lot of cars in the garage, I don’t mind having another one, especially if it’ll be at zero cost to boot!
“Hey, you’re always trying to take advantage of me! Ask your man to give you whatever you want.” Benedict wasn’t about to fall prey to her trick.
In reality, he didn’t mind buying her a car, but it would be extremely embarrassing if he were to truly do so after she had put it in such a manner.”
“Hehe.” Vivian merely gave an awkward bark of laughter in response to his retort.
“Have a look at the newspaper this morning. You two are the talk of the town now.” Benedict snagged the newspaper that had just been published that morning from the table and handed it to them so that they could see what had happened.
