“It’s you?” Ollie’s hand was still on the doorknob. His heart throbbed anxiously, but he soon relaxed when he noticed that no one else was at home. He stepped onto the porch and slowly took off his shoes before taking out another pair of adorable slippers from the shoe cabinet to change into.
Miles stared daggers at Ollie. Not only did this boy sleep in his house and answered his calls, but he was also wearing his shoes?
“You! Get out!” Miles puffed his cheeks and pointed angrily at the door. His crystal-clear eyes were filled with rage that exploded like a volcanic eruption.
This was the boy who took his place with his mother the night before!
“I suppose you don’t know who I am just yet,” muttered Ollie. He paused and ignored Miles’ furious reaction to set his school bag aside before extending his hand toward Miles. “Hello, my name is Ollie Mason.”
His composure was a distinct contrast with Miles’s anger.
‘Ollie? Isn’t that the young Master Grandpa Albert was referring to? So Grandpa Albert mistook me for this boy, and my mom thought that Ollie was me?’
“You!” Miles felt that he should be angry, but he simply placed his hands on his waist when Ollie reached his hand over and said. “You probably have a great time pretending to be me, but I’ve been suffering, thanks to you!” he growled. “That adult of a demon in your house locked me up! I hate him!”
Ollie straightened his back stiffly and said, “That’s my father, and I won’t allow you to talk about him like that.”
“You say that he’s your father, but he locks you up over the smallest things! What kind of father does that?” Miles retorted like an angry little kitty out of sympathy for Ollie. “That guy is even worse than that old trash whom I’m supposed to call my dad.”
At the very least, Jamie had never punished him physically.
Ollie’s body stiffened as he pursed his lips, and disappointment filled his eyes.
Miles noticed the sorrow in Ollie’s expression and felt somewhat irritated and guilty, as though he was bullying Ollie. “Whatever, I’m very forgiving, so I won’t be mad at you. You’re a man, so stop feeling sorry for yourself…” Miles shook Ollie’s hand before he had the chance to withdraw as a friendly greeting.
Ollie’s dark eyes shone and he did not move away from Miles’ touch.
“Exchanging identities will be our secret. You can’t tell anyone else.”
Miles did not want his mother to know that there was another replica of him in this world either and thus agreed. “Deal, I promise! Now that I’m back, you should hurry and get back to Mason Estate.”
“Can’t you stay there for a while longer? There’s a lot of fun stuff in Mason Estate. Grandpa Albert can give you anything you want.” Ollie did not want to return to Mason Estate that soon. He wanted to spend another weekend with Catelyn so that she could take him to a theme park.
“No way! I’ve already lent you my mother for a day. Besides…” Miles pouted with his chin up before he continued proudly, “It took me a lot of work to escape out of Mason Estate!”
“Escape?” Ollie scowled at him.
“Of course.” Miles puffed his chest and lifted an eyebrow as though he had accomplished something incredible. “Big Demon locked me in and wouldn’t let me go out, so I pretended to get sick and escape while we were on our way to the hospital. How’s that? I’m smart, aren’t I?”
The process of escaping the hospital was both tense and exciting, but luckily for Miles, he had an innocent-looking face.
Alarmed, Ollie blurted hastily, “if you run off like that, Father will be looking all over the city for you!”
“For you, you mean. What do I have to do with that? He doesn’t know me.” Miles shrugged casually; it was just the truth, after all.
The windows in the apartment were not shut completely, and following the breeze that came in, they started to hear the siren of police cars from around the area, hinting as to what would happen shortly after.
Ollie glanced outside the window swiftly, and because the apartment was not on a high floor, he could see the cars on the road distinctly.
It was a convoy of Bens in black with the same logo on them. Those were the bodyguards of Mason Estate.
“They’ve already found out that I’m here? No way; I can’t let them find out about us exchanging identities!” Ollie cursed inwardly in a dark expression before muttering, “You are right, I can’t stay here any longer.”
He frowned and swiftly exchanged clothes with Miles. Before he left, he took out a heart-shaped folded paper from his bag and said, “This is the paper art the teacher taught us today. I wanted to give it to Miss Clark, but I don’t think I’ll have the chance to. Please give this to her on my behalf.”
Miles looked away pridefully. “My mommy can only accept gifts from me. Consider it a great compromise on my part that I let you stay the night here and not expose you.”
“Not even this?” A shadow loomed over Ollie’s eyes under his long lashes. Soon, he kept the folded red paper heart away carefully.
As long as he managed to convince his father to let Catelyn design his mansion, he would still have a chance to give it to her himself.
…
Just as the two boys caused all sorts of chaos within the Mason family and inside the hospital, Catelyn had completed her work for the day and was on the way back to Ocean Path Residence.
There were cars filling the streets between the traffic lights, and public transport vehicles were packed. The moment she got off the bus, she spotted the convoy of luxury cars parked outside the residence area. The car at the very front of the convoy was even parked at the middle of the road. Because it was a luxury car that cost tens of millions, other cars could only circle around it.
From the car with a car plate XX9999, a man dressed in a black suit stepped out in an intimidating manner.
The man had his back facing Catelyn, so she could only tell that it was a tall and powerful figure.
‘Tsk! How arrogant,’ she grumbled internally.
Thump!
Just as Catelyn was absorbed in her own thoughts, the man slammed the car door shut and slowly turned around. Catelyn could not react soon enough and accidentally met his eyes.
Catelyn froze when she realized who it was.
It was Cedrick Mason!
Cedrick, too, was slightly taken by surprise. He glanced at the purse in her hand and realized that Catelyn stayed in this area and had just returned from work, but he was not in the mood to spare her a word.
He watched as the bodyguards spread out impatiently and turned to Eason. “The surveillance shows that he came here?”
Eason nodded and glanced at the watch on his wrist. “Yes, and he’s been here for a few hours by now.”
Catelyn realized from their conversation that the young master Mason had snuck out and that they were here to catch him.
Catelyn could not help but feel nervous for the child when she saw the rage that overtook Cedrick’s face. It must have been tough to be Cedrick Mason’s son, but since it was someone else’s family business, she knew better than to get involved.
Just as she was about to leave, Eason received an update from the bodyguards and turned to Cedrick respectfully. “Master Cedrick, we’ve located Young Master!”
The next moment, Catelyn saw a towering bodyguard stepping out of the trail with trees on the sides, carrying a small child in his arms.
Catelyn’s feet instantly froze as she thought to herself, ‘W—Why does that boy look like Miles?’
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