Yes, I Have a Child with the Villain

——

Bringing the child to the company?

Caroline Whitman rejected the idea without a second thought.

Even though there was hardly anyone at the office on weekends, she wouldn’t dare bring a child there right under Franklin Whitman’s nose.

Caroline Whitman: [Tell Ryan I’m done with my overtime now.]

Adrian Grant: [Okay.]

A second later, Adrian Grant sent another address.

It was for a private dining restaurant.

Adrian Grant: [The child says since you’re done with work, we should have lunch together.]

Caroline Whitman: [?]

Caroline Whitman: [Are you sure those weren’t your words?]

Adrian Grant: [We both underestimated the child’s intelligence.]

Caroline Whitman was skeptical. ’Is this kid following some kind of genius-baby-protagonist script?’

At the private dining restaurant.

The moment the door to the private room opened, the first person Caroline Whitman saw was Tiny, and then the man.

Adrian Grant was sitting right next to the child.

Thin, gold-rimmed glasses accentuated his refined features. His tall, lean frame was draped in a bespoke suit, and he exuded an air of noble refinement—quiet, yet intensely commanding.

Adrian Grant glanced up, and their eyes met.

His gaze was so direct it made Caroline Whitman’s heart skip a beat. Thank goodness she was wearing sunglasses.

Ever since that night, she had deliberately staggered her waking and returning hours. Despite living under the same roof, they hadn’t run into each other once.

Now, suddenly face-to-face, the images from that night inexplicably flooded Caroline Whitman’s mind, and a wave of shame washed over her again.

"Mommy, you’re finally here!"

Tiny, oblivious to the undercurrents between the two adults, simply knew his mommy had arrived and flashed a sweet smile.

Caroline Whitman calmly averted her gaze, acting nonchalant as she walked over, set down her bag, took off her sunglasses and hat, and pulled out the chair next to him. She sat down and asked casually, "Did you have a good time today?"

"Knowing Mommy was working overtime all by herself, I couldn’t have fun playing outside."

Adrian Grant, who had witnessed the little guy playing happily all morning: "..."

’How am I seeing the makings of a master manipulator in this kid?’

Sitting beside her, Adrian Grant thoughtfully poured her a glass of water and pushed it over. "Ryan said that if you have to work overtime this afternoon and tomorrow, he wants to work overtime with you."

Caroline Whitman: "..."

She had no choice but to turn and look at Adrian Grant. "Did you teach him to say that?"

Adrian Grant: "It was Ryan’s own decision."

Ryan Grant looked up at Caroline Whitman with his little face. "Daddy and Mommy used to take me to the company all the time. I’ll be a good boy, I promise I won’t run around."

Caroline Whitman refused. "Nice try. Last time, I told you to wait for me alone in the private room, and you suddenly ran off. If that happens again, where are we supposed to find you?"

With this precedent, Caroline Whitman readily used it as an excuse to reject Ryan Grant’s proposal to join her at the company.

The little guy seemed to know he had done something wrong last time. He wisely just said, "Oh," and dropped the subject. Just then, the food arrived, and he started to dig in.

Ryan Grant was used to taking an afternoon nap. Plus, the summer sun was scorching outside, so Caroline Whitman suggested they just go home and relax after they finished eating.

The three of them had just taken a few steps out of their room when someone came out of the private room behind them.

It was Jonathan Grant and Grace Lawson.

"Hey, isn’t that Adrian?" Jonathan Grant paused, looking doubtfully at the tall figure up ahead.

"Strange, why is he carrying a child?"

Grace Lawson frowned, taking her reading glasses from her purse to get a better look. Even if he were reduced to ash, a parent would still recognize their own child’s back in an instant.

They had come out for a special meal, only to run into what looked suspiciously like their son with a family of three.

Their son was carrying a little boy, with a woman walking beside them. The whole scene was bizarre.

Just as Grace Lawson was about to call out and ask what was going on, Jonathan Grant quickly stopped her.

"Don’t call out yet."

As he spoke, he took out his phone and snapped a photo of their backs.

Grace Lawson understood immediately and quickly pulled out her own phone to take a picture.

As the three of them turned into another corridor, they caught a glimpse of the child’s side profile.

"Mr. Grant, doesn’t that child look an awful lot like our boy Adrian?" Grace Lawson adjusted her glasses, thinking it was a wise decision to bring her reading glasses today.

Jonathan Grant had quickly snapped a photo of that moment. Now, he was zooming in on the child’s profile on his phone, studying it with a deep frown for a long time.

Finally, he nodded and said with certainty, "He does! He looks just like Adrian when he was little!"

Grace Lawson’s heart filled with a mix of shock and delight. "You don’t think that boy secretly had a child abroad without telling us, do you?"

After a pause, she asked with alarmed suspicion, "But who’s the woman next to them? Could she be the child’s mother? Does Adrian think we’re not open-minded enough, so he planned to hide this from us forever?"

The elderly couple quickly looked at the woman in the photo. She was wearing a hat and sunglasses that obscured most of her features, making it impossible to tell who on earth she was.

"Oh, right, didn’t someone say they saw Adrian with a child in Marinus last time?" Grace Lawson suddenly remembered. "If Adrian really has a child, it couldn’t have just been the two of them that day. There must have been a woman with them."

Jonathan Grant pondered this. It did sound plausible.

But they just couldn’t wrap their heads around why Adrian Grant would secretly have a child with someone.

The couple decided to make a trip to The Seraphic.

But The Seraphic was empty.

The place was clean and dust-free, but that alone didn’t reveal much.

After all, hiring someone for regular cleaning wasn’t difficult.

So, Jonathan Grant and Grace Lawson checked the toiletries. It was clear they hadn’t been used in a long time.

Beyond that, they couldn’t find any other clues.

There wasn’t even a trace of a woman living there, let alone a child.

The conclusion was obvious: Adrian Grant was living in another one of his properties. They weren’t going to find any clues here.

So, Jonathan Grant had someone check if Adrian Grant had secretly registered a marriage or if there were any children listed under his name.

The results came back blank. No marriage, and no information about a child in his records.

"Could the registration be under the woman’s name?"

"Go ask Miss King. She should know."

"No, let’s not alert him yet." Grace Lawson, knowing her son best, stopped him after some thought. "Adrian is quiet but strong-willed. If this child is just a misunderstanding, confronting him could backfire."

Jonathan Grant: "So what you’re saying is, we should just pretend we don’t know anything for now?"

Grace Lawson: "Even if we asked him to his face, he wouldn’t admit it. Let’s wait. He’s bound to slip up eventually. We don’t want to tip him off."

"Hmph, that boy. He’s getting bolder and bolder. If some scandal about an illegitimate child gets out at a critical time like this, who knows what those other branches of the family will try to pull."

...

By the time Caroline Whitman and Adrian Grant got home with the child, the little guy had already fallen asleep in the car.

Adrian Grant gently placed the child on the bed. As soon as he stepped out of the bedroom, his phone vibrated. He walked to his study to answer it.

Caroline Whitman yawned and went back to her room for a short afternoon nap.

When she woke up, Adrian Grant was still in the study.

Unable to use overtime as an excuse anymore, Caroline Whitman had no choice but to pass the time building blocks with the child in the living room.

And so the day passed.

On Sunday, Caroline Whitman didn’t go back to the office to work overtime, and Adrian Grant was home as well.

Constantly running into each other, she still couldn’t bring herself to calmly spend an entire waking day under the same roof with Adrian Grant.

So, she used the excuse of going shopping with friends to get out of the house.

And that was how she got through the entire weekend.