"Why'd you make me get in?" I kept my eyes forward.
"I want to take you and Olei to lunch." Silas's tone carried an infuriating sense of entitlement.
"I don't need—"
I just wanted distance from this man.
"Anthea." He cut me off, voice low. "You can take Olei out. Take him off campus for lunch. But I have to be there."
I froze. Turned to look at him.
I'd expected him to block me from Olei, to use every trick to driveme away. But instead, he was saying I could take Olei out?
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"You're Olei's... teacher." He pivoted, but I knew what he meant. "You can spend time with him whenever you want. But until I'm sure you won't take him and run, I'm sticking with you."
I stared at his face, searching that hard mask for a crack. But his expression was too calm, too accommodating—like he was stating the most ordinary fact in the world.
Olei sat between us, little head swiveling, watching us curiously.
"Daddy," he ventured carefully, "where are we eating?"
"What do you want?" Silas's voice softened as he looked down.
"I..." Olei snuck a glance at me. "I want to go to that family restaurant you took me to last time."
My heart squeezed. Silas took Olei to family restaurants? Just the two of them?
Silas looked at me, waiting for approval.
I nodded numbly, disbelief washing over me.
"The same family restaurant as last time," Silas told the bodyguard-driver.
The car pulled smoothly away from the school. I watched the scenery blur past, mind spinning.
This man—cold, ruthless, the one who'd treated me like a tool—was backing down. Why?
Thirty minutes later, I sat in a restaurant covered in green dinosaur decorations, taking it all in.
Silas, in a suit worth several years of an average person's salary, sat expressionless in a dinosaur booth, his cold presence clashing hard with the cheerful surroundings. Olei sat obediently, poking his finger into a toy dinosaur's mouth, eyes squeezed shut in nervous anticipation as he pressed a tooth, waiting for the jaws to snap.
Watching Olei so happy filled my chest with something sweet and warm.
"Are the dinosaur parents ready to hunt for their baby dino?" The server handed us menus, voice bright and playful.
Olei giggled. Silas's mouth curved into a clear smile.
I just felt awkward. We weren't really a family. At least, not in my eyes.
But I didn't want to disappoint Olei, so I didn't correct the server. I took the menu instead. Flipped through it, but couldn't focus. Because Silas's gaze stayed on me, heavy and tangible.
"Besides getting over your parsley thing, your tastes change at all?" His voice broke the silence.
My heart clenched. That was the lie I'd thrown at him out of spite. But this time I didn't lie. I said no.
He took the menu and started ordering. I listened as he rattled off dish after dish—all things Olei and I loved. He remembered we were both allergic to peanuts, carefully confirming ingredients with the server.
