Loving The Temperamental Adonis
Chapter 316 - 54

Chapter 316: Chapter 54

He studied the scribbles on the board and concluded that his son was probably not an artistic prodigy.

Since no one seemed to be paying any attention to Liam, he leaned over and opened one of the window seats.

It contained an assortment of toy trucks. From that, Liam concluded that Ethan’s future might be in the transportation industry. He didn’t realize he was hoping his son might share his love for cars and motorcycles until he looked inside the second box: there were at least half a dozen toy cars and motorcycles.

Liam straightened and looked at his watch, wondering why it was taking so long for the soldiers to arrive here with Ethan. They’d obviously saved him already.

Twenty minutes later, there was a commotion on the apartment hallway, and Parker got off his chair, striding swiftly to the door.

"Where is he?" he said urgently, but he sounded excited, and Liam automatically tensed.

When Parker walked back into the room, he was carrying a little boy and grinning from ear to ear.

"Rayne, come out here right away. There’s someone who wants to see you!" announced the restaurant manager, who had been sitting with the cops and soldiers the whole time.

Parker lowered the child to the floor as Rayne rounded the corner from the hallway.

People began crowding into the room from the hallway, and the scene exploded with joy and motion.

"Ethan?" Rayne cried, and the child laughed out loud at the same time his mother burst into tears and dropped to her knees in front of him.

"Ethan!" she whispered, running her hands over his face and chest, then dragging him into a crushing embrace, weeping while she chanted his name like a prayer. "Ethan, Ethan, Ethan."

It was an exhibition of maternal love beyond anything Liam had ever imagined.

It imprinted itself on his mind and touched something deeper as he came to terms with the reality that the weeping, joyous mother holding her son in a fierce embrace was the same woman he had held in an even fiercer embrace in bed years ago.

She swept her son up and carried him to the doorway to show him to the crowd gathered there, and it dawned on Liam that the people in the doorway were mostly dressed in white, like kitchen staff, or in black suits, like waiters.

"Miss Wallace?" Parker whispered. "It’s all thanks to Mr. Thompson that everything turned out well. He did a great job in helping us here. Right now, Mr. Thompson has a right to some private time with Ethan and you," he added, deciding he didn’t dislike Liam Thompson after all.

Rayne looked around and finally saw the men in military uniforms. She stared at them blankly and slowly emerged from her mindless euphoria.

"I didn’t know," she said aloud, her voice filled with disbelief that she could have forgotten that Liam was even there, not to mention the fact that he’d been of help. Or that he’d dispatched lawyers with $1 billion to pay Ethan’s ransom within a few hours of her call to Neil. Or that she’d told him to get out of Ethan’s room.

She had not expected him to call the military and assist the cops; she had thought he would have left because she had told him to.

Filled with shame, she searched the faces in the doorway, looking for a hard, unsmiling face, but he wasn’t there.

She turned around with Ethan in her arms and saw Liam standing motionless at the far end of the room, his hands thrust in his pockets, watching for a clearer glimpse of Ethan, waiting there to meet his son.

Ethan’s safe return was unquestionably the happiest moment in Rayne’s life. Oddly, this moment felt very much like the second-happiest one after meeting Liam.

She had never allowed herself to hope that she’d ever see Liam again or that he’d want anything to do with Ethan, but he was here, and he did.

With her mind on Liam, Rayne thanked everyone in the doorway for their help and waited while her assistant followed them out.

Parker and his assistant were the last to leave. Parker reached out to ruffle Ethan’s curls and grinned when Ethan intercepted the gesture and gave him a high five instead. He continued smiling at Ethan as he chose his words carefully and addressed Rayne and Liam in a deceptively lighthearted tone.

"The girl who took Ethan is Jessi Emons, Milo Thompson’s girlfriend, and Milo had convinced her into helping him by lying to her that Ethan is his biological son that was taken away from him, so she agreed to help him not knowing he planned to keep them both in a warehouse.

"Jessi is a very soft-hearted girl whose emotional problems have nothing to do with violence—just the opposite, in fact. She is still crying and begging for forgiveness as we speak now."

Instead of cloaking his next topic in hint, he transferred his gaze directly to Rayne, but he kept his tone mild.

"Milo managed to escape by jumping into a flowing river. You can’t keep staying here unprotected, but I’ll keep some cops at the elevator that leads to your floor tonight. I’d advise you to keep the restaurant closed for now until Milo is caught."

"I’ll do that," Rayne promised, but her mind was on Liam, and she was desperately anxious to put an end to his wait to meet his son.

She conveyed that to Parker and Ivan by ushering them both out into the hall. She closed the door behind them and lowered Ethan to the floor.

He looked sleepy and rumpled, so she deliberately kept him out of Liam’s sight for a few more moments while she crouched down to fix his shirt. "Before I introduce you to your son," Rayne said as she combed her fingers through Ethan’s tousled curls, "I want to tell you two things."

Behind her, she heard Liam move forward, and she stole a glance over her shoulder, actually looking at the handsome face she’d barely seen through her tears in her son’s room.

"What are they?" he asked, and her heart swelled a little at the sound of his well-remembered deep voice, devoid now of anger.

"First, I am very sorry for the way I treated you in the room. I was hurting so badly that I couldn’t think or see or hear. I was in such a horrible daze that I actually forgot you were here until a moment ago."

"What you said in there was true," he replied unemotionally.

"The second thing I want to tell you," Rayne said as she stood up, still blocking Ethan from his view, "is that you’re in for a bit of a shock."

"Why is that?"

Ethan was trying to peer around her legs to see who she was talking to, but Rayne managed to keep him behind her while she turned toward Liam.

"Liam, this is Ethan," she said with a smile. "I think you’d recognize him even without an introduction," she added, and then she stepped aside so that Liam could see what she meant.

The scene that followed was so emotional that Rayne felt her throat constrict.

With an expression resembling awed disbelief, Liam gazed down at a miniature version of himself, while Ethan tipped his head way back and stared up at Liam with much the same expression until Liam’s intense black stare suddenly unnerved him.

Ethan’s chin began to tremble as if he was about to cry and he looked worriedly at Rayne. Liam looked worriedly at her, too.

"It’s okay," Rayne assured Ethan lightly. "How about shaking hands?"

To her amusement, Liam thought she was reassuring him, and he nodded gratefully, stepped forward, and held out his large hand to Ethan.

Ethan solemnly laid his small hand in Liam’s large palm, and Liam’s fingers tightened and relaxed reflexively as if he was having trouble controlling his grip.

Another awkward moment ensued, but before Rayne needed to intervene with a new suggestion, Liam suddenly crouched down as if inspired and gave Ethan a grin.

"I have cars and motorcycles," he confided.

"Me, too!" Ethan replied, giving Liam back his own grin.

"I like motorcycles," Liam said.

"Me, too," his son replied in a tone of wonder.

Liam’s voice dropped to a hoarse whisper. "How many do you have?"

In order to answer, Ethan pulled his hand free, spread his fingers wide apart, and held them up in front of Liam.

"I have this many," he proudly proclaimed.

When Liam seemed incapable of speech, Ethan prompted, "How many do you have?"

In reply, Liam held up his own hand and lifted his forefinger. "This many," he said tenderly, and Rayne turned aside to keep her face from betraying her emotions.

Ethan showed Liam his cars and motorcycles, and Liam admired each one, but it was obvious to Rayne that Ethan was getting very sleepy and needed to go to bed as the time pass.

"Would you like to read Ethan his bedtime story after I give him his bath and put him to bed?" she asked.

"Yes," Liam replied simply. "Thank you," he added, grateful for the moment that she was allowing him—no, helping him—to step into the very role she’d deliberately denied him for nearly two years.

"While you’re doing that," Rayne said, "I’ll take a shower and change clothes."

She reached for Ethan’s hand, but the mention of his bedtime routine suddenly reminded him of Elizabeth, and he twisted around in sudden panic to look up at his mother.

"Where’s nanny?" he cried. "Nanny head get hit with something and she fell down—" His face crumpled at the memory, and Rayne scooped him into her arms, hugging him close.

"Nanny is fine," she soothed. "We’ll call her on the phone right now, and you can talk to her. In a few days, she’ll be back here and will stay with you." She assured.

When Ethan still looked dubious and worried, Rayne started down the hallway toward her phone in the room, pausing just long enough to explain to Liam,

"He cares so much for his nanny. She’s been with us since the day I gave birth to Ethan."