Chapter 2

I stopped in my tracks, lay flat on the million-dollar rug, and tilted my head up to look at him. My eyes were hollow, mostly because I was thinking it would be great if this rug's fluff were edible.

"Oh," I drawled. "I'm whatever you say I am."

Matthew was so frightened that he hid behind Chloe Rosewood.

Chloe, Drake's biological mother, gawked at me. Instead of rushing forward to embrace her long-lost son, she took a large step back.

"Drake? Is it really you? How did you end up like this? Do you have any idea how embarrassing you look?"

I looked down at the mud stains on my body. It certainly wasn't a very flattering look. Yet, I did not feel embarrassed because capybaras never cared about appearances.

Drake's biological father, Garrett Kensington, slammed his hand down on the table. "What the hell is wrong with you? This is completely unacceptable! You vanish for a year, and the moment you come back, you start pulling these ridiculous stunts!

"Look at you! Do you even look like the successor to the richest man in the country? What, did you forget how to walk?"

I took a moment to ponder his question. Crawling was indeed less tiring than walking, and with a lower center of gravity, it felt much safer. Thus, I nodded earnestly.

"Yeah. I only know how to crawl. It's more stable this way."

Garrett was so furious that he nearly had a heart attack on the spot.

The eldest daughter of the Kensington family, who was also Drake's older sister, Sage Kensington, rushed up to me in three quick strides.

She looked down at me with undisguised disgust. "Drake, did water get into your brain or something? You've been off doing God knows what for a year, and now that you're back, you're attempting to seek attention with this absurd act?"

I remembered that I had indeed swallowed quite a bit of seawater earlier, and there were still echoes inside my ears. So, I nodded vigorously. "Yeah, it did. A lot of it, and it hasn't completely dried out yet. Do you want to hear it slosh?"

Sage was rendered speechless.

A vicious glint flashed through Matthew's eyes, but he immediately put on a pitiful expression. "Don't blame Sage, Drake. She's just worried about you. We've been looking for you all year, but you… How could you let yourself sink this low?"

He walked over as if he wanted to help me up, but he secretly dug his fingers into my arm. I felt the pain, but I merely sat back and enjoyed the show.

As a capybara, my emotional threshold was exceptionally high. Unless the world was literally ending, I'd sit there and zone out.

"Why aren't you saying anything, Drake? Did something terrible happen to you out there?" Matthew continued his performance, tears rolling down his cheeks on cue.

Looking at his hypocritical face, I parted my lips and let out a massive yawn right in his face. It carried the distinct scent of seawater.

Matthew recoiled three steps from the smell of my breath. His face went from ashen white to sickly green. "Y-You…"

After crawling around all day, I was starting to run out of energy. I plopped back down onto the rug and closed my eyes. "I'm tired. I'm going to sleep. Remember to turn off the lights for me."

The entire living room went silent.

The Kensingtons had probably never seen Drake this emotionally stable before. Drake had been a sensitive, insecure young man who was prone to hysterical outbursts in their memories.

But now, I was merely a capybara in human skin. So long as I didn't let things get to me, they would be the ones going insane.