Always Been Yours

Chapter 9 Gregory Has Gone Missing

Over at Sawyer Group, Nicholas was still in the meeting when he got a call from Andrew. As soon as he heard that Gregory had gone missing, he stood up abruptly and walked out of the conference room with a steely expression, announcing through gritted teeth, “Dismissed!”

There was no hiding his anger and hostility. The sheer incompetency! What’s the use of keeping the staff if they can’t even keep an eye on a toddler?!

He looked more mutinous than he had seconds ago as he boarded his car. Just as he was about to rush back to the manor, his phone rang with an intrusive trill.

It was an unknown number, Nicholas noted, but he was in such a daze that he mispressed and answered the call instead of rejecting it.

As soon as the call was put through, an awkward female voice filled the other line, stammering, “H-Hello, President Sawyer. It’s me, Tessa, the violinist who performed at Young Master Gregory’s birthday banquet the other day. Do you still remember?”

She heard no response, but what she did hear was her heart thumping wildly in her chest. She wasn’t so presumptuous as to think Nicholas would still remember her after their brief meeting on the yacht, but then again, that wasn’t her priority at the moment.

Clearing her throat, she explained promptly, “President Sawyer, Gregory has come to the orchestra building to look for me all on his own. I was concerned that you might be looking for him, so I figured I’d give you a call. If it’s not too much trouble, could you please come and bring the little one home?”

Nicholas’ gaze darkened ominously at this as he said icily, “I see. I’ll be over right now. Thank you.” Then, he hung up the phone decisively and gave his assistant a call, snapping irritably, “Find every bit of information you can on a woman called Tessa Reinhart right now—her childhood, her accomplishments in school, every single detail there is to know about her!”

and

…

get to the building in record time, having taken a mere hour to complete the otherwise two-hour

he stormed through the main entrance of the orchestra building, anyone could see how stormy his face

of him, Tessa straightened up and greeted him stiffly and awkwardly,

kept quiet, not daring to so

stark contrast to their uneasy demeanors, Gregory was happily seated down, his little legs dangling over the edge of the chair as

it came from the depths of hell, as he demanded darkly, “Gregory. Sawyer. I don’t know where you keep all that audacity, but how dare you

Trevor jumped at the thunderous volume of

at ease as he turned his head away haughtily, sneering, “It’s not my fault that you didn’t keep your promises, Daddy. You told me you’d bring me to see the pretty lady, but you went back on your word, so I have no choice but to come here alone.” He spoke softly, but that did little to hamper the hurt and accusation

a second, he wasn’t sure if he had the right to argue. He couldn’t deny that he had been stalling Gregory, hoping that he might eventually forget about the promise, though Nicholas couldn’t

deep breath and walked up to Gregory, intending to talk some sense into the boy. “You have to cut me some slack here, kid. I’ve been really tied up at work, but I did try to free up my schedule to bring you to see Miss Reinhart. You shouldn’t

me you were busy working! Don’t think I don’t know that you see me as a dumb kid who will fall for your lies! I’m already four, and I wasn’t born yesterday. You can’t keep spinning lies

sputtered aloud before she

grumbling. Having calmed down, Nicholas went on to cajole the child, saying, “Okay, so now