Who's Crying Now, Ex-Husband?

After Mila left the hospital in a huff, she had no idea Sophia was nursing yet another grudge against her.

Not that Mila would care even if she knew.

Her feud with Sophia had been simmering for years; at this point, adding one more grievance to the pile hardly made a difference.

As the saying goes: when you're already deep in debt, what's one more bill?

That was just the way things were.

Besides, right now she had far more pressing problems. Storming away from the hospital in anger, she'd driven straight to the Pembroke estate, only to lose her nerve at the front gate. She'd thought through what she wanted to say, but standing here now, she found herself uncertain how to face Adrian.

She was worried.

Worried that Adrian really had a hand in all this.

Under the night sky, her car sat parked along a tree-lined lane not far from the mansion, streetlights casting soft pools of light. Mila sat behind the wheel for a long moment before finally forcing herself out of the car and heading toward the Pembroke Mansion's grand entrance.

Enough.

Hadn't she already made up her mind?

She needed to hear from her son.

...noveldrama

"So many photos!"

"Mr. Whitmore, have you known my mom for a long time?" In the living room, Adrian was curled up on the couch, flipping through photo after photo on Forrest's phone.

They were all snapshots from Mila's college days-some with Forrest, some just of her alone, every one carefully preserved in Forrest's cloud album.

Forrest had brought them up to distract Adrian, and it worked; the boy's attention was fully captured, and at least he'd stopped fidgeting.

"That's right. I've known your mom since we were little. She was always so full of life back then... just like she is now." Forrest sat beside Adrian, smiling fondly as he reminisced.

"Full of life?" Adrian tilted his head, studying him.

With his glasses glinting under the overhead light, Forrest's eyes were hard to see, but his gentle smile and calm demeanor made him seem every bit the kind uncle-one his mom clearly trusted.

"Absolutely." Forrest nodded, then tried to explain: "You know King Arthur's knights? That kind of spirit."

Adrian's eyes lit up. "My mom was a knight?"

Forrest chuckled. "Not exactly. It's more about having that kind of courage and willpower. Really, anyone can be a knight, Adrian. Maybe when you grow up a little more, you'll understand."

In his heart, Forrest added: But your mom-she's always been my knight.

Adrian's eyes shone with curiosity. "So how do you become one? Do you have to slay dragons or something? My teacher says there's no such thing as monsters."

"It's much simpler than that," Forrest said, switching to a version easier for a child to grasp. "Say someone falls down and feels sad. If you help them up and make them laugh so they feel better, that's being @knight right there."

Adrian scoffed, “That's it? That's just helping people! You sound just like my teacher-always making things sound magical. If that's all it takes, then I've been a knight ages ago!"

"Sounds like you've helped a lot of people, then." Forrest smiled, eyes crinkling.

"No, I haven't!" Adrian suddenly shouted.

Across the room, Nathaniel-who'd been quietly working on his laptop, occasionally looking up to check on them-nearly dropped his computer in surprise.

Now what was this little rascal up to?

He was just fine a minute ago!

"Where's Mom?" Adrian jumped off the couch, suddenly restless again. "Didn't

you say she was coming? Why isn't she here yet?!"

Remembering something, he grabbed Forrest's phone, quickly switching to the camera and typing in the phone number he knew by heart to call his mother. Forrest, who was just walking over, saw what he was doing and hurried to intercept him. '

But he was a second too late.

Adrian punched in the number, only to see a list of unfamiliar contacts pop up instead-none of them his mother's. He froze, thinking he'd made a mistake.

He was about to try again when Forrest gently took the phone from his hands. "Adrian," Forrest said, reaching out.

Adrian jerked away, face full of shock-he was about to start yelling when the housekeeper entered the living room to announce, "Sir, Ms. Sutherland is here to pick up the child-"

"Mom!" Adrian didn't wait for any of the adults to respond. He dashed out of the room, the adults calling after him to slow down as they hurried to keep up.

...

Mila hadn't been inside long,

following the main walkway toward the house, when she heard Adrian's excited voice echoing from afar, She looked up just in time to see her not-so-little boy barreling toward her. Instinctively, she opened her arms to catch him as he launched himself at her.

"Oof-"

She had underestimated just how big and strong Adrian had gotten. The force of his hug nearly knocked her off her feet, sending her stumbling backward. "Careful!" Forrest, who'd hurried after Adrian, rushed forward, grabbing the boy's collar with one hand and steadying Mila by the wrist with the other, pulling them both safely into his arms.

"Are you okay?" Dropping his hold on Adrian, Forrest turned to check on Mila, only for her to smack his hand away. Glancing down, he found Adrian glaring at him with all the righteous indignation a child could muster.