Chapter 4

Landon's round face was scrunched up with disgust, his brows furrowed so tightly they nearly met. He would not even look at me.

"Dad, you're seriously the worst!"

The worst? I nearly laughed.

Landon had been a handful since he was small. I had spent a fortune bringing in the best tutors to teach him discipline and basic decency, to make sure he understood where the boundaries were.

I looked at the children standing beside him, sons and daughters of household staff who had grown up alongside Landon as his companions. They used to get along well. Now their faces and arms were covered in scratches from ballpoint pens.

Malcolm followed my gaze and chuckled.

"Landon's just being a kid. He and his friends like playing this little game where they draw on each other. Boys will be boys. You're way too hard on him, Gavin."

Landon nodded eagerly at that, grinning so wide the baby fat in his cheeks bunched together.

Landon had never had much self-control. I had monitored his diet from a young age to keep his weight from becoming a health problem. Malcolm, on the other hand, had been shoveling chips and cake and every other greasy, sugary snack at him nonstop, letting him skip real meals entirely.

Now Landon was barely taller than a fire hydrant but built like a tank.

I could hardly bring myself to claim him as my son.

I turned to Malcolm. "Did you come here just to show off how popular you are?"

It hurt, but I also knew there was no point in forcing something that was not there. I had given them everything, but they had still chosen Malcolm and let him undo all of my efforts. What could I do besides accept the way things had turned out?

"Wow, Gavin. I didn't think you were this cold. Your own kids don't even want you, and you couldn't care less."

I shook my head and looked at my two children.

"From the day you were both born, I looked after every part of your lives. School, home, everything. I gave you the best of what I had."

I let out a sigh. "If you don't want it, I won't force it on you. If you want Malcolm to be your father, I won't fight your mother for custody. He can have the title."

The moment the words left my mouth, Landon and Elise went wide-eyed, too stunned to speak.

They had not expected me to let go this easily.

Elise's lip began to tremble. She was about to cry. Malcolm glanced at the nanny beside him.

The nanny bent down and whispered to them. "No father in the world would actually abandon his own children. He's just testing you, trying to get you to apologize first.

"Don't worry. Give him a few more days of the cold shoulder and he'll come crawling back, begging you to return. Or would you rather go back to classes and homework every day?"

That was all it took. Landon scoffed, completely convinced I was putting on an act.

"Quit the performance, Dad. You're exactly like Mom says, always pretending to be the good guy. Go ahead and ignore us forever if you've got the guts!"

Landon made a face at me, grabbed Elise by the hand, and ran out.

"Happy now?"

"Happy?" Malcolm sat down on the edge of the bed and leaned close to my ear, dropping his voice to a murmur. "This still isn't enough to get you thrown out of the Cavell house."

Before he even finished the sentence, he let out a shout and stumbled backward, right into Corinne, who had just rushed into the room.

Acting that polished deserved an award. It was a genuine waste that he had not pursued a career on screen.

Still, some people were blind. Corinne saw the scene and did not think twice. She swung at me. If I had not jerked out of the way in time, the slap would have been hard enough to cost me my hearing.

She looked at me braced against the mattress, scrambling to dodge, and something seemed to register. She stared at her own hand for a moment, then set her jaw and spoke.

"He is vicious enough to try to take someone's life. Lock him in the attic and make him kneel for a full day and night. Until I say otherwise, no one brings him food. Anyone who disobeys can pack their things and leave."