Chapter 3 We Look Exactly Alike!
One could tell at a glance that the man wasn’t to be messed with, for he had a commanding presence. Still, Nicole straightened her back nonetheless and took a step forward, blocking his path. “Hey, you! Were you the one who bullied my son?” Since the man was very tall, she only reached the height of his shoulders despite standing on high heels, which somehow made her feel somewhat weaker.
Upon hearing Nicole’s voice, Colton turned to look at her. The woman had dazzling features, but her palm-sized face had fury written all over it. Holding her small chin high, she looked wild and intractable. However, Colton was slightly lost in thought when he caught a whiff of the barely noticeable scent on her. This scent… It feels somewhat familiar…
Suddenly, a child’s sobbing voice snapped him out of his thoughts. “Mom, it was him!”
A flicker of scorn flashed across Colton’s eyes, which were as deep and fathomless as a frozen pond, when he saw the boy clinging onto Nicole’s trouser leg. Women nowadays are getting craftier than one another in terms of tricks in order to get close to me. To think that this woman is able to find a kid who looks so much like me! If it weren’t for me being certain about Queenie being the only woman I’ve ever touched, I would’ve suspected him of being my son…
“Apologize to my son, mister!” Nicole demanded, holding her head high while trying hard not to appear timid. “Don’t you feel ashamed of bullying such a little kid as an adult man?”
Colton’s eyes narrowed slightly; his voice was deep and mellow, like a barrel of well-matured wine. “Didn’t he tell you what he had done?”
Naturally, Nicole sided with her son. “Tell me then—what did my son do to make you bully him like that?”
Colton let out a cold snort before lifting his foot. “Do you understand now?”
Nicole looked all the way down the man’s incredibly long legs until she spotted a damp patch on the hem of his trouser leg. Could this be… A bad feeling arose in her gut. As she lifted her son up from her feet, her throat felt somewhat dry. “What did you do?”
Hayden replied aggrievedly, “Nothing. I just peed on him by accident, so he wanted to hit me.”
Nicole’s initially towering rage immediately vanished, and she rubbed her nose in embarrassment. Will it be too late for me to start apologizing now? Why didn’t this little rascal tell me sooner about it after doing something wrong? “I’m sorry,” she said apologetically with a complete reversal in attitude while looking down at the man’s trouser legs. The man’s clothes were unbranded, but she could tell from the fabric alone that they must be very expensive. “I’ll compensate you for the…”
Colton loathed such disgusting and obsequious ways of chatting someone up. He interrupted Nicole coldly, saying, “Just manage your child so that he won’t call any man whom he came across ‘Dad.’ Such a way of chatting someone up is really old-fashioned. And besides…” He paused for a moment before continuing in a voice as cold as a deep pond that had existed for 1,000 years, “There’s no way you can compensate for my clothes.” With that, he strode off.
Chatting someone up? There’s no way I can compensate for his clothes? Nicole trembled all over with rage. Just what kind of a man is he? Well, I admit that this guy is incomparably good-looking, but he isn’t so charming to the extent where women would throw themselves at him on sight, is he? Although her son was the one in the wrong in this matter, she couldn’t help but despise the man for his cocky way of speaking and haughty manner. What a bad-mannered, uncouth upstart! What a waste of such good looks!
“Mom.” Hayden looked up with a hurt look in his eyes.
Seeing how her son looked, Nicole couldn’t find it in herself to scold him. She pinched his tender cheek, asking, “Did you call him ‘Dad’ just now?”
“Yeah,” Hayden mumbled in dejection.
A hint of helplessness flickered across Nicole’s face when she heard Hayden’s reply. “Didn’t I show you photos of your dad? Your dad is a jerk!” She never concealed Hayden’s parentage from him, and she had shown him photos of Joseph, but he never believed her. Whenever she showed him Joseph’s photo, he would retort, “There’s no way my dad would be so ugly! I’m so good-looking, so my dad has to be good-looking, too.”
Nicole was rendered speechless. Joseph was a philanderer, but he was by no means ugly.
Lifting his little face up, Hayden replied stubbornly, “That’s impossible! Mom, don’t you think that the guy just now is my dad? We look exactly alike!”
