Chapter 413 His Position on His Marriage
Remus was in no mood for rest, of course. However, Nicholas ignored him altogether and went to the garden to pick Gregory up before leaving the villa right away.
Remus looked furious as he sat in the living room with his chest heaving up and down. “How outrageous! This is simply unacceptable! He’s grown up indeed. How dare he defy me like this!”
Seeing how angry he was, Andrew, standing beside him, persuaded, “Old Master Sawyer, I think Master Nicholas is determined this time. Why don’t you comply with his wishes instead? Didn’t you decide not to care about the matter anymore early on?”
Remus replied, “I did decide not to care about the matter anymore, but I think it’ll be a great pity for Nicholas to really miss a good girl like Hayley. How could that Reinhart woman compare to her? You know what happened back then. That Reinhart woman is totally after our family’s fortune.”
Andrew hesitated for a moment. Still, he chose to speak for Nicholas, saying, “Indeed, Miss Stone is a fine lady, but Master Nicholas doesn’t like her. Nothing good will come out of an arranged marriage. If Master Nicholas and Miss Stone become an unhappy couple in the future, and he blames you for that, won’t you beat yourself up over it?”
Remus remained silent as his face took on an inscrutable expression.
Meanwhile, only after she arrived at the orchestra did Tessa realize with the benefit of hindsight that something was wrong. Nicholas had let her leave in too much of a hurry. Obviously, he was trying to send her away. In an instant, she got worried about the situation at home, having no clue what the matter that made Nicholas so anxious for her to leave was.
As the situation at home was weighing on her mind, she was in no mood for practice at all, so she put down her violin and decided to rest for a while. Just when she was holding her cell phone and hesitating whether to call Nicholas to ask him what had happened, he called her. She answered the phone, saying, “Nicholas.”
“When will you finish your practice? I’m now outside the entrance of the orchestra building.”
“Just give me a minute. I’ll come out after asking my teacher for leave,” Tessa replied. With that, she hung up and went to her teacher.
A while later, Tessa walked out of the orchestra building to see Nicholas standing nearby in a black suit with Gregory in his arms. She quickly stepped toward them, only to realize that Gregory had fallen asleep on the man’s shoulder, which made her bite back her questions.
Nicholas noticed Tessa’s hesitant expression, of course. Taking her hand in an unaffected manner, he said in a gentle voice, “Let’s go somewhere before I tell you about it.”
Tessa nodded before leaving with Nicholas.
To Tessa’s surprise, Nicholas took her to a hotel. After they entered the hotel room, Nicholas had Tessa wait for him in the living room while he carried Gregory into the bedroom to lay the boy down in bed.
When Nicholas came out, he saw Tessa sitting on the sofa with a frown. Knowing that she had sensed something was wrong, he went over to her right away and held her in his arms, confessing, “I had you leave this morning because my grandpa came. I don’t want you to be upset by some unkindness in front of him, so I had you leave.”
Tessa looked up at him in surprise. “Your grandpa came?”
Nicholas nodded. “He arrived in Vienna shortly after we got off our flight.”
Tessa pressed her lips together. Then, she asked somewhat uneasily, “Is your grandpa here because of your engagement?”
Nicholas didn’t deny it. “I’ve turned him down, so you don’t have to be worried.”
Still, when Tessa heard this, a feeling of self-reproach surged inside her. She was happy while she was with Nicholas, but she had never thought about the situation he was in. She had only met Remus twice, but she knew that he was a very domineering old man with a strong desire for control. Nicholas must’ve been put under tremendous stress by rebelling against that old man. Who knows what he’ll do to force us to break up?
Seeing the look of anxiety and self-reproach on Tessa’s face, Nicholas saw through what she was thinking at a glance. Tightening his arms around her waist, he advised her in a gentle voice, saying, “Don’t think too much about it. In fact, this matter has nothing to do with you.”
“How could it have nothing to do with me?” Tessa bit her lower lip; the self-reproach on her face was obvious at a glance.
Nicholas raised his hand to save Tessa’s lower lip from her teeth. Caressing it gently, he replied, “Even if I’m not with you, I have to tell him my position on my own marriage.”
