You More Than Anything In The World

Placated, Benjamin stayed in the living room for a while, then excused himself to work in the study.

Meanwhile, Arissa kept up a lively conversation with Darius, and they even played a round of chess afterward.

By the time Shaun came over to the house, the chess game was at its climax. Arissa greeted him absentmindedly, then put all her focus on the game.

Darius merely glanced at Shaun in acknowledgment before quickly picking up one of his chess pieces. “That was a sneaky move, Issa!”

“Heh! You saw it, huh?” Arissa smiled smugly. She looked at the chess piece he was holding above an empty square and asked, “You sure you want to stick to that square, Dad?”

The old man had regretted his moves the last couple of times, and she could not help teasing him while reminding him that he could not change his mind after this.

Darius' brows were tightly drawn together as he studied the chessboard. Then, with a solemn nod, he said, “I'm sure!”

“No take-backs,” Arissa pointed out in a sing-song voice.

He took in her confident expression and began to waver, then looked back at the chessboard. He paused, then finally put his chess piece down on a different square and announced, “I'll put it here!”

Shaun, William, and Edwin could not help sputtering from where they watched by the sidelines.

“Very well, then. I guess I'll just have to move mine here!” Without warning, Arissa moved a chess piece forward. Another step and she would take Darius' chess piece away.

At the sight of this, Darius panicked and quickly retracted his chess piece. He abandoned his pride and put the chess piece onto the first square he had chosen earlier, then said, “I think I'm better off leaving it here.”

Arissa smirked. She was used to Darius' fickle-mindedness.

Thoroughly entertained by this exchange, Shaun interjected playfully, “Here I was thinking you'd be too proud to admit cowardice, Old Mr. Graham.”

Darius glared at the young man and snapped, “Quiet, you! Go look for your boss and stop bothering me. You're going to make me lose!”

Shaun was rendered speechless by Darius' outburst.

William and Edwin, on the other hand, hid their smiles. They had expected such childish behavior from Darius. Oh, my. He has no qualms about blaming young people for his own inevitable defeat.

Even Arissa began to feel sorry for Shaun. She laughed and pointed out to him, “Your boss is in the study.”

Shaun was not here on any important business other than to give Arissa her regular health check-up. However, he had put that off after seeing that she was busy beating Darius at chess. He scratched the tip of his nose, then went to look for Benjamin in the study.

Unfortunately for Shaun, Benjamin happened to be busy as well. He only gave Shaun a quick look of acknowledgment before diving back into his work.

With a raise of his brow, Shaun found a seat for himself in the study and texted Kingsley.

“How's Grandaunt doing?” Benjamin suddenly asked without looking up at Shaun.

Shaun glanced at him, then said, “Her blood pressure was on the higher side this morning, probably due to a lack of sleep last night. It went back to normal after a while.”

“Lack of sleep?” Benjamin frowned at this and finally looked at Shaun properly.

Shaun had made tea, and he was pouring a cup for himself as he elaborated, “She was down with a slight cold last night. There was some coughing, too.”

“Why didn't you tell me?” Benjamin demanded as he shot Shaun a dark look. They would have visited Mary in the hospital had they known she was ill.

“It's nothing serious. I gave her some tonic this morning and she felt better afterward.” With that, Shaun raised his teacup and asked, “Would you like some tea?”