Filed to story: The Return Novel by Josh Williams PDF Free>>
The car drove out of the airport. After a while, Bryce looked at Natalie and said indifferently, “You can let go.” Only then did she come to her senses. She immediately let go of his hand and fiddled with the hair beside her ear awkwardly.
“Thank you for helping us,” she said.
Liam, who was sitting next to her, shouted excitedly, “Thank you, Daddy!”
“Don’t shout,” Natalie reached out to cover the child’s mouth and shushed him. “You can’t just call someone ‘Daddy’.”
“Why?” Liam blinked and looked at her in confusion. “Daddy helped us just now, he stopped those mean people from bullying us…”
Natalie was stunned. She didn’t know why he believed this man was his father, nor did she know how to explain Bryan’s actions. She coughed lightly, looked at Liam, then lowered her head and said in a soft voice, “This man is not your daddy, he just saw us being bullied by bad people – that’s why he stepped in to help us.” She reached out her hand and gently tapped the child’s nose as she laughed. “You can’t do this anymore. Do you understand?”
Bryce stared out of the window with a cold expression. He seemed to be deep in thought until he heard Natalie’s words, then he said sharply, “I pitied your child so I helped you. Don’t take my kindness as a charity that you can ask for any time.” He turned his head to look her up and down, then folded his arms and turned away again. “And I won’t take responsibility for the actions of a woman like you.”
Obviously, he had heard what Nick had said about Liam being illegitimate. These words stabbed Natalie’s sore spot and her expression hardened. She had been grateful to him for saving her, but now it seemed there was no difference between him and Nick. They both saw her as nothing more than a speck of dirt.
“Stop the car.” She didn’t want to say anything else, so she signaled the driver to stop with an expressionless face.
Bryce looked at her in confusion. When the car stopped, she got out and reached back in to pull Liam out. “What are you doing?” he asked.
She removed their luggage, took 100 dollars from her wallet, and threw it on the car seat. “Thank you for your help. This is the cab fare. I hope we never meet again.” She took Liam’s hand, pulled the suitcase, and strode off, not giving Bryce any time to react.
He looked at the hundred-dollar bill she had thrown at him and squinted his eyes dangerously. When was the last time a woman had spoken to him so bluntly? Usually, women didn’t dare to get angry with him, not even when he was being rude to them. He gritted his teeth and threw the bill out the window. Then, he gestured to the driver. “Drive.”
Natalie didn’t go straight to the family home after getting out of Bryce’s car. Instead, she took a cab to her grandma’s house. After all these years, Grandma’s courtyard was still the same as it had ever been, but the old woman had aged quite a bit. Natalie quickly stepped forward to hug her. Her heart warmed and her eyes filled with tears. “Grandma, I missed you so much…”
“Natalie, my sweet granddaughter…” The old lady gently patted her back and said with a calm, gentle laugh, “I wonder how much suffering you’ve endured while you were away.”
Naturally, she was overjoyed to see her precious granddaughter and delighted to meet Liam. She doted on him, wishing that she could keep him locked up in her heart. Having experienced so many things in her own life, she knew what to ask and what not to ask, and since her granddaughter didn’t seem to want to talk about it, she didn’t ask about the child.
Natalie stayed at her grandma’s for the night. The next morning, she took Liam out for a stroll. She thought about the places she used to go to when she was young and couldn’t help feeling a little happy. But she didn’t expect to run into Nick and Sheryl at the entrance to the residential complex; they had come looking for her. The smile on her face immediately disappeared and she stared at them.
“I don’t think we have anything else to say to each other. Please don’t bother me.”
Sheryl hadn’t come here on her own initiative. She deeply hated Natalie and didn’t want to see her, so why would she have come looking for her? “Do you think I wanted to come here?” She twisted her lips. “Daddy wants to see you. He wants you to come home.”
Hearing these words, Natalie fell silent. She didn’t want to have anything to do with her family anymore, but she still hadn’t made this clear, so she needed to talk to him face to face. She stood there quietly for a long time before she took Liam and put him into their car.
On the way, no one said a word. The car soon arrived at the family home. Looking through the window, she saw that the yard was pretty much the same as it had been when she left, but the situation was different now. She could no longer face these people with a calm demeanor as she had before.
“You’re back.” As soon as she stepped into the house with Liam, her stepmother Rosemary came hurrying over. She put on a warm and gentle expression and said, “You must be tired from traveling. Was the flight OK? Are you hungry? Mary, please prepare some food for Natalie,” she said to the house cook.
Natalie watched her fake sincerity and felt extremely disgusted. Rosemary had ignored her for the past five years and had never cared about her in the least, but now she was showing all this enthusiasm. “I know you don’t like me,” she gave her an unappreciative look. “You don’t have to do this.”
“What did you say to your mother?” Tom’s sullen voice came from the living room. When he came out and looked at the child in Natalie’s arms, he frowned. “I sent you out of the country to reflect on your behavior, but instead you brought back a bastard!” His entire body filled with anger and his finger trembled as he pointed at Liam. “Let me tell you, I will not accept him as part of the Davidson family!”