The caller, who was too distressed, couldn’t help stammering.
Xander panicked. “What happened to Daddy Trueman?”
Nora also looked over. Justin asked gravely, “What on earth happened?”
His voice seemed to have some magic power that calmed the caller, who then answered, “An accident has happened!”
…
In a hospital ward.
Nora and Justin stood at the door, both looking at the man on the bed.
Xander’s eyes were all red from crying.
“Why are you crying?”
Trueman, who was on the bed, sounded annoyed. “You’re a man, aren’t you? I’m so tired of hearing you cry.”
Xander stopped crying at once. He stepped forward and stretched out his little hand to touch Trueman’s face. However, his face was all bandaged, and every part of it was injured.
Yes, that was right.
Trueman was disfigured.
After he got into the car that Justin had arranged for him, as they slowly drove to the airport, a thought suddenly hit him and he cursed. “Sh*t!”
Neither Nora nor Justin were a saint in the traditional sense. How could they possibly do something like giving up the V16 for him and letting their own son die?
Trueman would never have thought this deeply before.
But when he found out that Justin was King while knowing that King’s identity must forever remain a mystery, it was at that moment that it suddenly hit him.
He suddenly said, “Stop for a moment. I’m going to the pharmacy to get some medicine.”
Thereafter, he took a bottle of concentrated sulfuric acid and splashed it on his face.
It disfigured him.
This was his way of erasing Trueman from the world and allowing Xander to live on.
Xander had never let him down before. In that case, he wasn’t going to fail him either.
Xander couldn’t help but ask, “Does it hurt?”
“Duh, obviously it does.”
Trueman leaned on the bed and crossed one leg over the other. He shook his leg casually as he said, “I am disabled now. Since I brought you up, you must take care of me until I die of old age, you hear? I’m counting on you to feed me from now on!”
In other words, he was willing to stay at the Hunts’ residence and be under house arrest for the rest of his life.
After all, even if he was now disfigured, going by Nora and Justin’s personalities, they still wouldn’t trust him completely.
Xander nodded and said seriously, “Don’t worry, Daddy Trueman, I won’t let you go hungry! As long as I still have a bite of food, you will also have a morsel of it!”
“Sh*t! Being a big joker, aren’t you?! Leaving yourself a whole bite and giving your dad only a morsel?” Trueman pointed to his face. “I did this all for your sake, you know!”
Xander wanted to say more, but Trueman waved him off. “Alright, get lost. I’m going to bed. I’m exhausted! I’ve only just taken over the body, so I’m not that good with it yet…”
“Okay.”
Xander walked to the door. Suddenly, he looked back at him and asked, “Does it hurt, Daddy Trueman?”
Trueman stopped shaking his leg for a moment. Then, he scoffed and replied, “Of course it doesn’t! I told you, I’m a man! This bit of pain is nothing! I won’t make a peep even if I break an arm or a leg!”
Only then did Xander breathe a sigh of relief.
Nora, however, glanced at Trueman. She said nothing and cast her eyes down instead.
After the family of three left the ward, Trueman clenched the sheets all of a sudden.
F*ck!
It hurt so f*cking much!!
It hurt so much that all his toes had curled up…
Yet… he was also so goddamn happy.
For the first time in his life, he had lived for himself and made a decision on his own. At last, his life was no longer dictated by the old King, nor was it the result of discussion with another.
He had lost his freedom again.
But it also seemed that he was finally free.
On the way home, Nora suddenly asked, “What do we do about him?”
