Chapter 381: STRONG KID
"Something is wrong, Ethan. You can tell me what it is and we can solve the issue together. If it’s about your company, we can discuss it together," she tried to persuade him to tell her something.
Ethan only breathed on her skin, which ended up tickling her a little but she didn’t want to distract herself at that moment.
"Ethan..." she called when she noticed he didn’t intend to share some of his problems with her.
"It’s nothing, Erika. Just a little problem with the company just like you guessed but there’s nothing I can’t handle," he tried to convince her but her raised eyebrow only proved that she didn’t believe him. If it was little and he could solve it easily, he wouldn’t have shredded pieces of paper in his room. It was obvious that it wasn’t something simple.
"Ethan...." She called him again, gently playing with his soft locks and he hummed in delight while his nose was still buried in her neck.
"It’s nothing. I’m just a bit tired from it but I will be okay tomorrow, don’t worry."
He looked at her in the eyes before leaning to peck her on the lips.
"Was there something you wanted to talk to me about?" He asked her, taking some strands of her hair and putting it behind her ears.
Erika could see that he was hellbent on changing the topic. The obvious eye bags he had, indeed proved he was tired and she didn’t want to disturb him anymore. She got up from his lap and intended to clean the office.
"I will tell you later after you’ve gotten enough rest," she said, "picking the other pieces of papers on the other side of the office which only made her wonder how much he’d wasted. Curious to know what he was working on, she tried unruffling a ball of ruffled paper in her hand and when she did, most of the words were already canceled out with ink so she couldn’t read a complete sentence properly due to the missing letters.
She glanced at Ethan and found him looking at her already with a worried expression. She looked back at the paper and didn’t bother asking about it.
"You can tell me what you wanted to tell me, Erika. I’m not too tired to hear what you want to say," said Ethan.
Erika threw the papers she gathered and arranged the couch with his suit that he dropped on it before coming to meet him again.
"Adrian is dead," she said.
Ethan turned speechless as his mouth widened a bit, trying to force out words to come out but he didn’t know what to say or ask. He was simply shocked but not too shocked.
"According to the officers, they said that he was stabbed numerous times in the stomach and his body was found alongside another inmate who also had a stab in his stomach. They have caught the person who killed him, it was another inmate," Erika added.
Ethan released a sigh, rubbing his forehead a bit to relieve stress before he asked.
"How are we going to tell Jake the news? He just got to know Adrian and now, he’s dead. The kid would be devastated."
"I also thought the same, which was why I was thinking it would be best if we don’t tell him that Adrain is dead until some time has passed. If he wants to visit him again, we can tell him that Adrain got transferred to another prison in another state." Erika suggested which got her a raised eyebrow from Ethan. "I know it’s wrong to have to lie to him but he’s too young to digest the death of his real father whom he just got to know about," she added and Ethan could only sigh.
"I don’t think that lying to him would be the best option at this moment. We can just wait for a while, a week or so before we tell him but we shouldn’t lie to him by saying that Adrain was transferred to another prison. The trust he has in us would change if we lied to the kid so I think it would be best to lead him with the truth only," Ethan made his suggestion as well and Erika sighed in return.
She was aware that lying would be wrong but she didn’t want to have Jake feeling depressed again.
Before Erika had decided to adopt him and bring him to her house, she had asked the sisters who took care of the babies at the orphanage how Jake interacted with the kids there and they replied that he was always on his own.
Even when he was asked to join the other kids to play, he wouldn’t want to. It was only after hanging out with Erika a bit did he start to loosen up and she was scared that he would close up again if he found out that his father was dead.
"I completely understand what you are trying to say but I just don’t want him to go back to being depressed again. He’s way too young to be troubled," she expressed her thoughts and Ethan could see from her face how worried she was for Jake. "But you are completely right about that. He needs to know the truth, and we can only hope he takes it well." She added and Ethan nodded.
"Jake is a strong kid. He’s going to be sad about it first but after that, he will be able to heal and move on. But we would have to keep a close eye on him while he’s healing, and if necessary, we will get him into therapy," Ethan suggested and Erika nodded.
"You are right, he’s a strong kid." She smiled, still a little shaken at the fact that Adrain was dead. It was news that felt completely unbelievable but what had happened had happened and there was nothing she could do about it.
