"Do you want to die, Eason? Did your brain stop growing along with your age? What would’ve been the point if you were to die in a car crash?" Joel’s scoldings could be heard from the courtyard.
Dexter and I stood by the entrance, peeking in. Joel was angrily grabbing Eason, pushing him onto the lawn.
I was perplexed. It seed a little awkward, considering that Eason was much older than Joel.
What was stranger was the fact that Eason had actually allowed Joel to push him onto the lawn. He did not move, nor did he resist or scold him.
That wasn’t how Eason usually was like.
"He’s intoxicated," Dexter explained softly. Eason was clearly tipsy judging by the way he was acting. "Say sothing, will you? I can’t believe you got yourself drunk like this!" Joel scratched his head angrily. It was as if he still had to worry about Eason despite him already being an adult.
"You’re always just bullying !" Eason yelled tipsily, as if he was unleashing all his pent-up grievances all of a sudden.
He was sitting on the lawn with his head hung low and eyes reddening. "If you’re so amazing, try turning into a ghost and scare , then! Try killing them all, then!"
Joel was stunned and stood in silence.
The thought did cross his mind. Just like what Dexter had said, Sion had wanted to kill those bastards from the advanced class. However, that fire stopped him from doing so.
"What happened between Eason and those people from the advanced class?" I asked Dexter softly. He took my hand and brought to the couch. Ashton and Xan were still playing with building blocks. The toy was sothing clearly too childish for them, yet they were enjoying themselves regardless.
"Hudson’s growth spurt was delayed. He was petite back when he was still in the advanced class. Logan and the others were an bullies. They liked harassing students who were weaker than them to assert their dominance in the class," Logan whispered.
I was stunned. I could probably figure out the rest of the story now.
He continued, "Sion used to be bullied in the orphanage because of his young age, which was why he was empathic to Hudson, who was bullied. Hudson stuck close to him after he helped him out several tis."
Sion enjoyed poking fun at Hudson as well. Hudson could only follow Sion out of his fear. He would rather be bullied by Sion alone than to be bullied by many.
Later on, those people no longer dared to bully Hudson in front of Sion. That was because Sion was too ruthless.
Those who ca from the orphanage were madn. Everyone in their class knew not to ss with the two who ca from the orphanage. That was because they would go mad when they were angry.
As such, they would only bully Eason whenever Sion wasn’t around.
Dexter said, "Sion and I weren’t in school on that particular day. They were ruthless in bullying Hudson. He was sent to the hospital and developed a severe germaphobia after that."
His explanation was brief without specifically ntioning how those people had bullied Eason. However,
judging by his germaphobe now, they must have used extrely dirty tactics.
I could imagine how helpless Eason had felt back then.
Dexter continued, "That was why Sion went mad when Hudson cried while looking for him, asking why he didn’t protect him well. He wanted to kill."
Sion wanted to kill those people. He almost killed soone and took the path of no return in his late teens.
The fire had consud everything.
From then, Hudson beca withdrawn and turned eccentric. He blad Sion for dying and leaving him alone.
He had also blad Dexter. He was jealous and wary of Dexter, yet he also blad Dexter for Sion’s death. At the sa ti, he was afraid of Dexter.
"Eason was initially hostile toward you because he didn’t know the truth. Why didn’t you explain to him?" I looked at Dexter. Why would he want to bear Eason’s unjustified anger?
"Hating soone fuels his motivation to keep going." He looked back at with a burning gaze. Eason was soone Sion cared for. As such, Dexter wouldn’t really bla Eason even if he went too far. The reason he did not explain himself was to give Eason the motivation to stay alive and change himself. Compared to before, Eason was a completely changed person now. He learned to protect himself from others.
I remained silent as I leaned against Dexter. I felt heartbroken for him. He had been suppressing himself all the while.
"Dexter," I called for him softly.
"Yes?" Dexter looked down at .
"Hug , please." I buried my face against his chest.
"Are you kissing, Mom and Dad?" Ashton noticed that Dexter was about to kiss .
As such, both of us, who hadn’t quite figured out ourselves as "parents", imdiately straightened up. We looked at Ashton and Xandra seriously and said, "Go play with your toys."
"You can’t sneakily kiss Mom okay, Dad? Mom belongs to Xandra and ." Ashton gave Dexter a warning look while Dexter stared back with the sa intensity. What a father-and-son pair!
At that mont, I felt as if I had brought ho two little troublemakers. Dexter was just like a child himself, after all. Now, there were two more children vying for attention.
Following the abductor’s instructions, Dayton struggled to drag a massive industrial container ant for heavy-duty supplies into Leffers Street. He was heading toward the tenth trash can.
As the trash can was rather large, there wouldn’t be any issue fitting a container in. But now, the problem was the 30 million dollars in cash weighing over 600 pounds. It was impossible for Dayton to unload them into the trash can on his own.
As such, he could only sit on the container and give the abductor a call. "I’ve brought the money over now. Where is she? I want to see if she’s safe."’
"Place the container down and leave the place," the abductor replied with a low voice.
"I’m warning you, don’t try any tricks. Just imagine the consequences if you still refuse to let her go after getting the money," Dayton threatened angrily.
Dexter had taught him all those words.
Dexter and I were hiding sowhere to observe our surroundings. The police were all in position as well.
As the CEO of the Crowdstar Group, Dayton surely possessed exceptional power. It would be fairly easy for him to deal with an abductor.
"We’ll release her once we get the money and make sure they are fine." They only wanted to assess Dayton’s financial capabilities. He wouldn’t be able to co up with 30 million in cash in such a short amount of ti if he wasn’t the president of Crowdstar Group.
Soon after Dayton left, soone ca to move the container. The police dared not make a move as they wanted to see if they would release Xandra. However, the abductors seed to have no intention of doing so after monitoring for half an hour.
"What’s the aning of this?" Dayton called the abductor once again.
The abductor replied, "We’re having second thoughts, Mr. Sacco. Thirty million dollars seems like three dollars to you. I heard that you’ve collected many valuable treasures.
"Last year, you secretly acquired an erald vase worth hundreds of millions from an auction under the na of the president of Crowdstar Group. I heard that it’s kept in the bank vault. I’ll give you an hour’s ti to bring it to us, and we’ll imdiately release her. We’ll kill her otherwise."
An hour was just enough ti for Dayton to make a round trip to the bank. They refused to give him more ti for anything else.
His identity as the president of the Crowdstar Group could only be proven by retrieving sothing valuable using his identity as the president within the specific ti given.
Dayton gritted his teeth, not knowing what to answer.
Dexter said from the headset, "Tell them that this is their last chance. We’ll kill them if anything happens to Xandra."
Dayton did as he was told. He then called his chauffeur to pick him up. The chauffeur was Joel.
This ploy had to be played out completely in order to convince Geno Society that Dayton was indeed the president of Crowdstar Group. Only then would there be an opportunity to contact the superiors supposedly above Mrs. Coleman.
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