Chapter 1816 An Awkward Meal
When I reached home, I saw a few luxurious cars parked at the gate. I assumed they belonged to Nathaniel’s guests, so I didn’t pay much attention to them.
However, I soon learned that it was a mistake. The moment I entered the place, I saw Cameron and Zachary sitting there.
“Mom? Dad? What are you doing here?”
I had just placed the bags aside when I heard John saying, “Emma and I are here, too.”
I couldn’t make heads or tails of what was going on and had to ask for help by signaling John.
John wasn’t free to say anything, but he discreetly gestured for me to look in the direction of the staircase.
I followed his line of sight and saw Nathaniel walking down the stairs in a casual outfit. As he did so, he said, “I asked everyone to come over because I know that you miss hanging out with your family. Did I guess right?”
He had made his way to me by then. His eyes looked straight into mine as he added, “I know you lost a lot in the past, and I will get everything back for you.”
I was exasperated when I saw how strangely confident he seemed, but I didn’t complain or anything.
Nathaniel was there when things between John and me fell apart, so I had no idea why Nathaniel thought that he could fix that broken siblinghood.
The truth was that things between John and I were fine, but we still had to keep the pretenses up.
That made everything super awkward. Nathaniel tried his best to behave like an easy-going guy, but his obnoxiousness still made him talk as though he was a king ordering his subordinates around.
“The two of you are Scarlett’s parents, so you should move here. That way, the whole family can be together. And come on, John, man up, and stop throwing a tantrum. Let’s forget about all that unhappy past after having a meal together. When the sun rises again, you and Scarlett will return to being siblings who love and respect each other.”
No one responded to Nathaniel’s words, and the aura of the place became so overwhelming that it was hard to breathe.
It reached the point where I simply couldn’t handle it anymore. I didn’t want Nathaniel to keep making things so awkward for everyone, so I smashed a plate and yelled, “That’s enough! I will solve the matter between me and my family. You don’t need to be our middleman.”
I ran to my room and slammed the door. Fury burned in my veins as I stood in front of the window.
Nathaniel entered the room soon after.
He carefully closed the door and walked toward me. There was a pause when he stood behind me, but his hesitation didn’t last long. Soon enough, his long arms stretched over as he tried to hold me in his arms.
Yet, I moved to the side to avoid his hug.
As a result, his arms hung awkwardly in the air. All his stunned gaze saw was my furious glare when our eyes met.
Nathaniel retracted his arm right away and shoved his hands in his pocket before sighing deeply. “I honestly don’t know what you’re so angry about.”
It was only natural that someone like him would not understand what was going on. Anyone with even a smidge of conscience and morality would be able to empathize with the situation. No one could pretend that nothing had happened after learning that someone close to them had chosen to aid an inhumane criminal like Nathaniel. It was only natural that it’d take some time to fix a broken trust, and they couldn’t accept someone like Nathaniel as one of their own.
Hence, Nathaniel wasn’t doing anything for my sake. He was humiliating my family and me.
There was a difference between being an upstanding man and a horrendous demon, and he could not switch from one to the other with just a simple gesture.
The silence dragged on for a while. Nathaniel eventually showed his displeasure toward the glare he was given. He furrowed his thick brows and asked, “Isn’t a family reunion what you wanted all along?”
What I want is for you to never exist! I want you to disappear!
Nathaniel could never understand the pain he caused. I could tell that he still stubbornly thought that he could change everything. It was just like how he assumed that he even had the slightest shot at replacing the love Ashton and I shared for over a decade.
I glared over without saying a thing. At that moment, it felt as though I was looking at a foolish clown.
Nathaniel sighed exasperatedly. He sounded annoyed when he asked, “You still miss Ashton, don’t you?”
I refuted, “Well, what do you expect? I have loved that man ever since I learned what love is, so there is no way I can just pretend that he was never a part of my life. Getting over that relationship will take time, and I don’t even know how long. Besides, you promised that you would help me move on, but you keep talking about him. Seriously, if you’re that bothered about my past with him, you can just get out of here. You don’t need to stay here and look at this face.”
Nathaniel suddenly chuckled. His eyes didn’t shine with a murderous glow, but loneliness and self-mockery were abundant. “You’d only talk to me… or at least yell at me when I mention Ashton.”
