Chapter 12

While Catelyn and Maia ran into one another, Miles also happened upon a man he had not seen in years.

Getting bored while waiting for his mother, he went over to the child department for a walk, but then he overheard a cringy conversation coming from past the rack.

"Darling, do you think our baby is going to be a boy or a girl?"

The man wrapped his arm around the woman's waist and in a seductive voice, he endearingly cooed, "I'm happy with either, as long as you're the mother."

"That sweet tongue of yours!" The woman said while hitting the man's firm chest playfully. "The Mason family is developing swiftly right now, so my future mother-in-law would probably prefer a boy to inherit the family business…"

Miles shivered and thought, 'Ew, grown-ups are so gross.'

He curled his lips into a pout and moved to leave, only to accidentally see the faces of the couple through the gaps between clothes. He tripped and came close to losing balance.

That man was Jamie Mason, his biological father.

Ever since he could remember, he had asked about his father. Catelyn did not intend on lying to her, and with how intelligent Miles was, it did not take long for him to find out about Jamie.

When he found out that Jamie had abandoned him, he bit his lip and decided he did not need the man either; Catelyn was enough for him.

Miles rolled his eyes and pouted in contempt before trying to leave. All of a sudden, however, his phone started ringing.

He slid open the screen and saw that it was a spam message, but the sound of the notification had caught the attention of Jamie and Louella Atherton.

"Who's there?" Jamie, thinking someone was trying to take pictures of them, shoved the rack away to grab Miles by the arm, only to realize that it was a child.

Miles's limbs were hardly that long to begin with, and despite the pain of being grabbed, he could not escape.

"Let me go!"

He was beginning to resent Jamie.

"Jamie, this child…looks so much like you." Louella walked over slowly and felt dazed when she saw how much Miles resembled Jamie.

Jamie seemed to have noticed as well and asked, "Whose child are you?"

Miles clenched his fists as he thought back to Jamie's betrayal and abandoning Catelyn. He immediately put up an innocent expression like he had been wronged and said, "Daddy, you haven't given us any money for four years. Mommy is running out of options, so she sends me to find you…"

"Money?!" gasped Louella as her eyes widened in shock.

Jamie tightened his grip around Miles's arm. "Say that again!"

"Mommy might only be a maid working for your family before, but do you have to be so heartless? You chased both of us out without caring to check on us, only to be together with this pretty lady. Now, I can't even afford to go to school! Pretty lady, we really can't survive like this…" whimpered Miles in a choked, soft voice while looking at them with tears in his eyes, not realizing the storm his words had raised between Louella and Jamie.

The expression on Louella's face stiffened as she realized that this child could be Jamie's illegitimate child.

She was one of the offspring of a collateral bloodline of the Atherton Family, but she had been in a position with wide influence in recent years and plenty of eligible bachelors were after her. She had picked Jamie out of her many pursuers, only to find out that he had an illegitimate child.

"Louella, don't listen to him. I don't have a son this old nor did I screw around with maids." Jamie glared daggers at Miles and said, "This boy was sneaking around and is probably up to no good."

As the veins on Jamie's head began to pop, he questioned Miles viciously, "Spill: who's your mom? What is she trying to accomplish by making you follow me to take pictures?"

"I said let go! You're hurting me!" Miles's wrist was hurting as his face stiffened coldly. He decided not to play the innocent card anymore. His resentment toward Jamie deepened as he internally growled, 'How frustrating! To think that I'm this old trash's son!'

He lowered his head and bit down on Jamie's wrist.

"Argh!" Jamie gasped and flung Miles to the side.

Losing balance, Miles stumbled backward and Louella subconsciously moved to help him, but someone else beat her to it.

It was Catelyn, who had just come back from the washroom. She held Miles steadily in her arms, concern etched onto her fair-skinned face as she checked her son. "Miles, are you hurt?"

Her faint flowery scent surrounded Miles as he shook his head awkwardly. "I'm okay."

"Catelyn?" When Jamie saw her, everything finally began to make sense, and he pointed at Miles furiously. "This is your kid? You never got rid of him?"