Samuel glanced over his shoulder and spotted the man standing by the handbasin. With a graceful gesture, the man dried his hands and lazily raised his eyes. “Not tall enough?” he quipped.
Samuel lifted his head, determined not to appear weaker despite his significant height difference.
“I’m not peeing,” he retorted, unwilling to admit to this jerk that he wasn’t tall enough to use the urinal.
Matthew tossed the used tissue into the bin and cast a glance at Samuel. “Are you absolutely sure you don’t need my help?”
“I don’t,” Samuel replied firmly, holding his head high.
“Fine then.” Matthew rolled up one sleeve, revealing his robust arm. Slipping his hand into his pocket, he inspected the urinal before assessing Samuel’s height. “You’ve got some backbone.”
Samuel tightly pursed his lips, sweat forming on his forehead. Tremors coursed through his small body.
He couldn’t hold it any longer.
But in front of this imposter, he couldn’t show weakness, let alone ask for help.
He clenched his tiny fists, desperately striving to control his bladder.
Matthew raised an eyebrow and leaned against the nearby mirror, intrigued to see how long the boy could endure.
Although Samuel was small in stature, he possessed a fierce spirit.
“Can you explain why you’re so hostile toward me?” Matthew inquired, bewildered by Samuel’s animosity. After all, he had already distanced himself from Samuel’s mother. Why was the boy so enraged about Matthew kissing her?
The imposter had no right to do that. Samuel intended to find a man far superior to him for his mommy.
“You hurt my mommy. And don’t think I didn’t see it,” Samuel glared at him, seething with anger.
He wished he could bore a hole through Matthew with his gaze.
“I hurt her?” Matthew mused, carefully weighing those three words in his mind, recalling the moment he witnessed Dolores being hurt. He had only encountered her twice.
During their initial meeting, Matthew had given her quite the “surprise.”
Matthew narrowed his eyes. Was Samuel referring to the incident at LEO when he forcefully whisked Dolores away and kissed her on the staircase? He had indeed witnessed it. So…
So!
Matthew straightened up and took a couple of steps forward. Squatting down in front of Samuel, their eyes were level. Matthew glanced at Samuel’s tightly closed legs and flashed a wry smile. “I did hurt her. What are you planning to do about it?”
Samuel’s eyes widened. He yearned to sink his teeth into Matthew, inflicting excruciating pain upon him.
Between his intense anger and the struggle to hold his urine, Samuel’s entire body trembled.
“If you beg me, I’ll lend a hand. How does that sound?” Matthew stood up, nonchalantly brushing off his already pristine coat. “If you don’t need my assistance, I’ll be on my way.”
Samuel couldn’t bear it any longer.
With tears welling in his eyes, Samuel strained to keep them open. “Please, please don’t go. I need…”
“Who did you come with?”
“My mommy and my grandma… I’m about to pee,” poor Samuel said, his eyes bloodshot.
Matthew stopped teasing him and walked to him, “Take off your pants.”
Samuel moved quickly and took off his pants.
Matthew stood behind him and carried him up. He walked to the urinal and bent to a degree which made it easier for Samuel to pee into the urinal.
After Samuel finished, he said, “Thank you.”
Matthew froze. He didn’t expect that this child could say “thank you”, so he was surprised.
Samuel put on his pants and looked at Matthew, “For me, kindness and hatred are clearly distinguished. You helped me, but it doesn’t mean I will forgive you.”
“…”
Forgive him?
What did he do that required his forgiveness?
After they got out of the bathroom, Matthew lowered his head and looked at Samuel, “Which private room are you in?”
Samuel rolled his eyeballs. Why did he ask him this? Was he going to hurt mummy again?
“Six.”
Matthew paused and looked at Samuel. This little kid was quite alert.
“I should go.” Samuel felt like his lie was detected and dashed away.
He was just back, and he met the humbug. As the saying went, enemies are bound to meet on a narrow road.
After he made sure that nobody was following, Samuel leaned against the wall and raised his wrist, using the telephone watch to call his teacher for help.
Soon he got through to his teacher.
“Teacher, I met the humbug.”
“Em.”
Samuel told him the whole thing that happened between him and Matthew.
“We are in a restaurant now. How can I embarrass him and make a fool out of him in public?”
Samuel wiped his face with his hand.
His teacher thought for two minutes and asked, “Do you have money?”
“Yes.”
“Go to the pharmacy and buy a box of Durex. If the staff there ask you who asks you to buy it, say it is your father. If there isn’t any pharmacy around, you can buy it in stores too. After you buy it, you …”
“Got it.”
After he hung up the phone, Samuel ran to the reception desk and asked, “Is there any pharmacy or store around here?”
“Walk out and turn right. There is a store not far away.”
“Thanks.”
Following his teacher’s instructions, Samuel managed to buy a box of Durex. He opened it, got the thing in it and discarded the box. He wondered what this was.
He touched it and out of curiosity, he wanted to open it to see what was in it. But his teacher said he could not open it.
He could not disobey his teacher. So, he repressed his curiosity and returned to the restaurant.
After he got back, he stood before the reception desk, “Miss, do you have a guest whose surname is Nelson here?”
Samuel had a pair of big, black eyes which seemed able to talk. He had an upturned nose and a delicate face. He was standing straight and looked like a western gentleman.
He looked adorable. And all the people liked pretty things.
The female receptionist was hospitable and pointed to the sixth private room, “There, six.”
Six?
Samuel blinked his eyes. That was why his lie was detected as soon as he told it.
It turned out that the humbug was in the sixth private room.
“Thanks, Miss,” Samuel acknowledged before hastily making his way towards the sixth private room.
Reaching out, he grasped the doorknob and swung open the door to the private room.
Inside, Samuel found only four individuals, all men, seated in the spacious room. The assortment of dishes on the table remained largely untouched, while glasses stood before each of the occupants, indicating that they were presently engaged in their drinks.
As the door to the private room abruptly swung open, their instinctive response was to direct their gazes toward the entrance. After all, the waitstaff typically knocked before entering.
Why was a kid here?
He must have wandered off and mistakenly entered the wrong room.
Abbott shifted his attention to Matthew, recognizing the boy from his investigation into Dolores. He had seen the child’s picture while carrying out his inquiries.
“Did you wander into the wrong room?” Chester Powell of SD Corporation inquired, his gaze fixed upon Samuel.
Samuel shook his head and pointed toward Matthew. “No, I came for him.”
So, he hadn’t entered the wrong room after all.
All eyes were now trained on Matthew. The expressions on their faces varied. Abbott was eager to witness Matthew’s reaction upon encountering Dolores’s child. Chester pondered the connection between this kid and Matthew.
Under the curious scrutiny of everyone present, Samuel stepped forward and extracted the Durex condom from his pocket, presenting it to Matthew. “Sir, you dropped something in the bathroom. I found it and brought it back for you. Here it is.”
What was it? They all craned their necks, attempting to catch a glimpse of the object in Samuel’s hand.
And when they saw it…
Abbott, “…”
Chester, “…”
Matthew furrowed his brows, his gaze fixed upon Samuel, who appeared utterly innocent. Where had he obtained this?
Did he understand what it was?
Was it his?
“Mr. Nelson, are you in a good mood? Carrying it with you, preparing for an emergency?” Chester nearly spat out the sip of wine he had just taken.
The Matthew Nelson who typically exuded indifference and coldness, the president of WY Group, the celebrity often featured in Business Channel headlines-did he possess the habit of carrying condoms?
What a preposterous notion.
What astonishing revelation had they stumbled upon?
Matthew projected an outward appearance of decency.
Chester felt as if his world had been turned upside down.
Abbott remained silent; his gaze fixed upon the ceiling. When had Matthew developed this habit?
Samuel, a mere five-year-old, appeared innocent and naive. Moreover, since Matthew had visited the bathroom earlier, they wholeheartedly believed that the condom belonged to him.
A five-year-old child couldn’t possibly comprehend the purpose of such an item.
Naturally, they all trusted Samuel’s account.
Matthew’s expression brightened momentarily before darkening once more. He peered down at the Durex in Samuel’s hand. “Are you certain it’s mine?”
Observing the reactions of the others, Samuel knew his plan had succeeded. He nodded emphatically. “You dropped it, and I found it for you. It definitely belongs to you.”