All Chapters of Hired by the Father I Hate: Chapter 1 - Chapter 8

Ms. Dorsey froze.After a long pause, she asked tentatively, "Are you sure you're talking about Mr. Booker?"I offered no reply.Ms. Dorsey was silent for a long while, then said softly, "Actually, when Mr. Booker saw your résumé, he gave me a heads-up. He said you're his only son, so he made a point of telling me to hire you.""Sorry." I cut her off with a smile. "I'm an orphan—I don't have a father."Ms. Dorsey was stunned for a long moment. Finally, with a conflicted look, she let me leave.As I took the elevator down, Edgar's current wife, Leah Kern, walked in.She gave a brief nod, then suddenly said wistfully, "This afternoon, when I heard that you had come for an interview, I thought it was just someone joking around. Time really flies—look how much you've grown."When I didn't respond, Leah was silent for a moment before pressing on gently."Claude, take my advice. Back then, both you and Edgar had your own difficulties. But at the end of the day, he's still your fathe

Edgar came home less than once a year. When Grandma called him, he'd either hang up before they'd exchanged so much as three sentences or just not pick up at all.I was still young back then, so I couldn't understand why Grandma refused to place the receiver back onto the cradle when the other end had long since become the beep of the disconnected line.It was as if she thought that if she just waited a little longer, the busy signal would turn back into Edgar's voice.The first time I saw Edgar after I was old enough to remember was five years later, in the depths of a cold winter.The snow was coming down heavily outside. Edgar pushed the door open, bringing in a gust of cold air with him.His hands were full of bags, but he freed one up to ruffle my hair."Wow, you've grown so much taller," he said with a grin.I felt a strange familiarity toward him. It was a feeling that made me want to run away, yet at the same time, it instinctively drew me toward him.I burst into a lou

Edgar looked frantic, his eyes red as if he'd just been crying.I glanced at his hand gripping mine and spoke in a voice so calm that it surprised even me."Grandma is indeed dead. Ten years ago, on the day you went to Divano Island to get married, the doctors weren't able to resuscitate her."Edgar stumbled a step back. His face, which had always been so effortlessly composed and in control, was now filled with sheer panic."H-how is that possible? How could you not have told me about something this huge?"A faint smile tugged at my lips."I did tell you. But maybe back then you thought I was too young, so you assumed I was lying."But it didn't matter. The day Grandma left, I grew up too.Edgar let go of my hand, his face deathly pale.I gently smoothed out the creases his grip had left on my shirt and walked forward.The late spring cold wave in March was quite harsh. Before long, heavy snow began to fall along the road.I knew this road very well, because Grandma had sai

I listened quietly to what the driver said, my thoughts drifting to the past.After Grandma died, I kept tabs on Edgar for a long time. I wanted to know if he ever looked back with regret and wished he hadn't gone abroad that day.But the reality was that Stuart's company ran into trouble and was facing a lawsuit. He pinned all the blame on Edgar and, together with the men in his family, beat him even more viciously than before.That went on until two of his ribs were broken. That was when Edgar finally seemed to wake up, and he divorced Dawn.After the divorce, he took part of the company's resources and founded his own enterprise.Once, during an interview, a reporter asked about his family situation.Edgar paused for a long time and ultimately avoided the question. But for the rest of the interview, he was distracted and even looked down at his phone.At the same time, Grandma's phone received the first message from Edgar in all those years.It contained only one word—"Mom".