The Handsome CEO Is My Husband
Chapter 84

Chapter 84: Chapter 84

"Liam, I am not done talking to you yet. There’s more we need to discuss before your father and I leave. Liam! What?" Adeline asked Nathan when he held her hand. "You’re letting him get away."

"I thought you were done with your father for good? What’s this about returning to him if he decides to drop your brother and use you?" Nathan questioned, annoyed that she wasn’t doing what she said she would.

Adeline sighed. She hadn’t thought about Nathan’s reaction. "That is not important right now. It’s not like my father might drop Benjamin."

Liam stopped to listen to his parents’ conversation to see if his father could talk some sense into his mother. It was hard to convince his mother to let go of the Smiths so if his father succeeded then Liam would be impressed.

"But if he were to call you and drop Benjamin you would go? After everything you told me? After the talk you said you had with them, would you want to go back?" Nathan asked, failing to see why. "You’ve led me to believe for years that your father would lay his hand on you if you acted out of line. Why do you want to make him proud?"

Adeline looked at Liam still standing close. This wasn’t something she wanted to say with her son around no matter how old he was. Why did Nathan have to bring up what her father did?

"I never told you that he laid his hands on me-"

"You’ve hinted at it over the years and the way you fear acting out of line around him confirmed it. You don’t have any idea how much I hate your father and brother but I did what you wanted because you somehow still cared for them. Don’t hold onto them anymore. Drop your brother and father," said Nathan.

"Now is not the time for this. Both of you are acting like it is certain my father would replace Benjamin with me. It is a very low, low chance that I would take only if it happened. We have other things to talk about," Adeline said, removing Nathan’s hand from holding her so tightly.

"If that chance comes along, I don’t want you to take it. He’ll give you what you want to get you back to his side and then it will go back to how it is now. You know your father better than I do yet you fail to see what’s going to happen. No wife of mine is going to be treated this way. You are not going back to your father," Nathan said, not wanting to hear any more about it.

Adeline laughed since it sounded like Nathan was telling her what to do. "You do not control me."

"No. Your father already does that," Nathan replied.

Liam was glad he didn’t miss the show. His parents had their moments of arguing but not like this. His mother had a more important marriage she should have been worrying about instead of his.

"It’s the same as before. It’s either them or me," Nathan gave Adeline an ultimatum.

"Do not do this in front of Liam. Now is not the time to do this," Adeline said, annoyed with Nathan’s timing to bring this up.

He was acting like it was certain she was going back to her father when it wasn’t. What part of that was he missing?

"Liam should know whether we’re still married or we’re on the path to divorcing. You are always going on and on about divorce so this shouldn’t be anything new to you. Decide right now if you’re going to be done with your father for good or with me," said Nathan.

Nathan couldn’t take this game with the Smiths anymore. He loved Adeline but as good as she was at cleaning up her family’s mess something was going to come to bite them in the ass one day. Also, Adeline was expecting him to sit back while her brother and father both got too disrespectful.

Adeline sighed. "I am going to pick you."

"Swear on it."

Nathan didn’t fully trust she wasn’t going to jump to please her father if she could.

Adeline looked past Nathan to Liam. His saying that she would always be a disappointment stuck to her. He had to be more careful with what he said since even though they were on bad terms, she was still his mother and the things he told her hurt her more than he knew.

Liam was waiting for her answer. Adeline could see clearly that he was waiting to see if he should fully cut her father off. This little family was important to her but they didn’t understand her need to please her father after years of no one making him proud.

How smart she was never made her father smile and not even getting a man like Nathan Sterling did. Just once she wanted to see him smile and be proud of her to satisfy a dream she had when she was younger.

Once she got that then she didn’t need anything else.

Liam shook his head. "Good luck to you with that," he told his father. "You’re better off leaving that ship before it sinks."

"It seems so," Nathan agreed.

"Don’t make me out to be the bad guy here again. You don’t like his wife," Adeline pointed out.

Nathan laughed at her bringing that up now. "Right. I don’t like her. I pretended that I did to keep Liam around. Now we’re both the bad guys here. Now what? I think I won’t be joining you on your little trip. Not until you realise what is more important and then come back to me. I’m going for a drink."

Adeline couldn’t believe they had taken so many steps back over a little what if.

"Is it worth it?" Liam asked, curious about what was going on in his mother’s head. "It’s unlikely that you and I will ever be close again because of how low you have gone with the way you treat my wife. The one person you have that doesn’t try to use you is your husband."

Liam continued, "You’ve given me plenty of unnecessary advice about my marriage. You should have been more focused on your marriage. Is it worth losing this family just to prove yourself to your father who just uses you? We both know that if it took this long for him to consider you, he’s not going to pick you."

"Neither of you understand," Adeline said.

"We both understand that you’re going to lose us and it’ll be too late to come back when you realise grandfather’s plans aren’t worth it. Think about it again," Liam said and then left his mother to make her decision.