Chapter 26

Adam finally woke up by himself and stretched on the bed and yawned. The space beside him was empty and Scarlett wasn't in the room.

His eyes went to the clock and he saw it was 9:37 am.

He threw his leg to the other side of the bed and put on his slippers, he then walked into the bathroom.

After a while Adam came out with damp hair, wearing a bathrobe.

He then went downstairs and saw Scarlett in the sitting room, watching a cartoon while Matt read a book beside her.

Caleb and Reece were talking and checking each other's phones as they laid on the rug. Lucy was seated on the couch beside Matt, with her new phone as well.

"Hello," Adam said once he entered the sitting room.

All at once Scarlett got up and ran towards him and greeted him with a hug.

"Yaay! Yaay! You're awake!" She grinned widely.

Adam chuckled. "Yeah, I am."

"Good morning, Mr. Adam," Lucy said with a smile as her gaze landed on him.

"Morning sir!" Matt waved at him.

"Good morning," Caleb said.

Reece nodded at Adam, "Mornin' man. Good thin' you came down when you did, Lucy wouldn't let us have breakfast without you." He looked at Lucy accusingly as he added the last part.

"Okay, let's all eat now," Adam said and held Scarlett's hand as he headed towards the dining room. The boys all readily followed him while Lucy stayed back to put off the television before following them.

Soon they were done with breakfast.

"You guys should all get dressed, we're leaving now," Adam told them.

"Aight," Reece said and slipped his phone into his pocket before walking up the stairs with Lucy.

"Hey, you didn't accept my friend request, Lucy," he told her as they both walked upstairs.

"I haven't been online since. There's much more to a phone than social media," Lucy said and they both disappeared around the hallway corner.

Scarlett ran after them while Matt picked up the books he had brought down from the library before heading up.

"Careful!" Adam said as he almost missed a step.

"Okay!" Matt replied cheerily before walking out of view.

Caleb was about heading upstairs as well when Adam kept a hand on his shoulder, causing him to look back.

"Are you going to be okay?" Adam asked concerned.

Caleb closed his eyes and smiled a little.

"Yeah. I have you guys now." He patted Adam's hand before heading off to the boy's room.

Adam smiled at his retreating figure.

His eyes roamed around the sitting room for a while.

He saw a book wedged in the corner of the sofa, half-hidden by a cushion. Matt might not have seen that as he was packing up the rest of his books.

Some cushions were on the rug where Caleb and Reece had laid, and a glass of half-drunk water was on the center table.

Adam chuckled and restored everything back to their normal position.

They make everywhere...Adam looked around again as he picked up the glass cup. More homely.

He headed into the kitchen to drop the glass cup.

As he was coming out, he had a call.

He sent it to voice mail when he saw it was Vanessa. Adam sighed as she called him again and he sent the call to voice mail as well.

He didn't know how to break the news to her, so he had been kind of running away from her.

I have a really good plan, but Vanessa...I don't know how she'll react to it. He thought.

Scarlett's childish laughter drew him out of his thoughts.

They had all returned into the sitting room.

Adam smiled at them. I won't think about it now. "You all ready?" He asked. Caleb nodded while Scarlett skipped to the door.

"Let's go!" She said excitedly.

Lucy chuckled and Matt giggled and covered his mouth.

"Hold on Scarlett, Mr. Adam needs to...," She looked at Adam and nodded at him.

Adam facepalmed himself.

"Right. Keys." He swiftly grabbed the SUV keys that were lying around and headed towards the door where Scarlett stood.

"Okay, we're ready now," Adam said and swung open the door.

"Um, sir, you forgot your...," Caleb gesticulated to Adam. Matt was laughing by then and Scarlett who had taken a good look at Adam burst into fits of giggles. Reece just looked as amused as Lucy.

"My what?" Adam reached out and touched his hair.

"Shoot! I forgot to comb my hair." He tried to smoothen it to the side a bit. "Well, never mind that." Adam gave up on the hair. He then smiled at the children. "You know, bed hair isn't bad every once in a while."

He told them with a shrug.

"So, let's go." He tapped Scarlett's shoulder before turning to head outside again.

"Yo! Ain't you getting dressed?" Reece finally asked in an amused tone as he saw Adam was still in his bathrobe and he was heading outside like that.

"Yikes!" Adam exclaimed and ran upstairs quickly, causing them all to laugh.

Soon enough Adam came downstairs fully dressed.

"Let's go," he said and winked at them.

They all stood up and followed him. Scarlett ran up to hold his hand. Adam laughed as he opened the door.

The laugh soon died on the tip of his tongue.

Standing at the other side of the door was none other than—

"Vanessa?!" Adam exclaimed, startled to see her at his doorstep.

Her blue eyes took in each of the children before they finally landed on the interlocked hand of Adam and Scarlett.

The children looked a bit confused but that was it.

Adam looked a bit guilty and surprised all rolled into one.

He watched as various emotions flashed through Vanessa's eyes. First surprise, then shock, then puzzlement, then realization, then anger.

The anger lasted more than the others.

"Vanessa, it's not—" Adam couldn't complete his sentence because Vanessa had slapped him, hard.

"How dare you?!" She screamed at him.

Lucy pulled Scarlett back from Adam's hand and gripped her shoulders tightly. The slap had startled them all.

"Nessie, listen it's not—" Adam tried to say as he rubbed his cheek.

"So, it's Nessie now isn't it?!" Vanessa said through gritted teeth. "So, this is the reason why you've been denying my calls! You've been attending to the children of your mistresses! How could you, Adam?! I thought you loved me!"

Adam stepped towards her and made to touch her shoulders, but she took several steps back.

"Don't come near me you cheat! Filthy womanizer! Don't touch me!" Vanessa snarled.

"They're not my kids, Vanessa!" Adam yelled.

"That's what they all say when they're caught!" Vanessa yelled back at him.

"Would you listen to me? I'm just helping them because—" Adam started but Vanessa cut him off.

"Because they're your children! Adam! This would stain my reputation! Our fans would be horrified at your act! Yes, maybe people would pity me but you, you'll get the hate. It's not even about that! Trixy sneered at me just two days ago that her relationship would hold more than mine would! How could you let her be right?!" Vanessa groaned furiously as she paced about.

Adam's hand that wanted to pull her close to himself froze mid-way.

"What?" He whispered but she didn't hear him as she paced about, forgetting about him temporarily.

"And now the fame of being the world's richest business tycoon fiancée would be taken away from me! Even De-kol magazine only accepted me as their front cover because I'm engaged to you! You don't know how difficult it is to attain that post! And the Cian company that wanted to sign me in to be the one to make a speech on their opening night would cancel the contract because they thought getting to me would help in you being interested in their company's proposal."

Vanessa dramatically fanned herself with her hand as she went on.

"Oh no," she moaned.

"All that loss. And I've promised two other models and one actress that I would be taking them all shopping on Tuesday and I've bragged that they could select whatever they wanted because I was paying for them since I was using your credit card." Vanessa bit her lower lip.

"Okay, here's what we'll do...," She faced Adam sharply.

"I'll announce I'm breaking things off with you but you're paying me big time for suffering through a loss by sticking to you when you were busy with other...issues," Vanessa eyed the children disdainfully.

Adam clenched his fists and glared at her.

"What?" She snapped at him. "I deserve that at least! Vanessa Cortwell would never be in a relationship that never profits her."

"So... with me, it's all bank statements and popularity for you?" Adam asked quietly.

"Don't act all innocent like you didn't—" Vanessa started as she jabbed Adam on his chest, but Reece cut in.

"Who's this melodramatic chick, man? Some gold-digging actress that's being paid to bug you or what?" Reece snorted.

Vanessa faced him furiously.

Caleb nudged Reece sharply.

"That's his fiancée!" He whispered harshly.

Reece turned to him. "She's the one?" He asked as he pointed to Vanessa with confusion.

"You brat!" Vanessa growled at him.

"Vanessa." Adam turned her to face him.

"Listen. Please."

They all stood outside for half an hour as Vanessa made Adam repeat some explanations again.

"So... that’s really it?" She asked unsurely, searching his eyes for any hint of untruth.

"Yeah."

She huffed and crossed her arms.

"But if anyone should see you with them, they'll jump to conclusions," Vanessa said with a small scowl. "And then our reputations would be messed up. Well; more yours than mine, but you'll drag mine in the mud because I'm your fiancée."

"Yeah, they'll jump to conclusions like you did," Adam snapped at her, annoyed at her hurtful statements.

"Well, what are you going to do about it?" Vanessa demanded impatiently, ignoring his biting tone.

"Like I had earlier said, if only you've been listening attentively; they're part of my project!" Adam snapped back.

"What project?! Project find past mistresses that had your kids?!" Vanessa retorted.

"What?!" Adam exclaimed. "No!"

"I told you they're not my real kids! Stop giving me a hard time about it!" Adam warned.

"Whatever! Well, tell me what we're going to tell the world about them in case they're found out!" Vanessa snapped.

"I was supposed to reveal a new project that would break the world record on the uniqueness it would impact on the world, I had intended to build an AI that would be installed in houses and can do everything like cooking, increasing the temperature of the air conditioning, opening the door, turning on the TV or the water heater.... simply any type of chore but the prototype was misplaced at the airport."

Adam looked at Scarlett and grinned a little at her.

"Yeah, well?!" Vanessa demanded, not pleased with the smiling exchange that went on between him and Scarlett.

Adam faced her with an eye-roll.

"It was supposed to be the next big thing, but since the kids arrived—" Adam was saying but Vanessa cut in.

"You mean barged into our lives!"

Adam looked at her, bored.

How did they barge into her life? He wondered wryly but he didn't voice out his thought, he went on with his explanation.

"I decided to make up another project, it's still called the 'next big thing', but I changed the course. Instead of AI, I decided to work on the street. There are lots of children on the streets like them," Adam turned back and smiled at them fondly.

Lucy smiled a little before lowering her gaze.

Reece nodded at him and Caleb gave him a thumbs up. Scarlett on her own sent him a wide grin and Matt smiled back shyly.

"So, I built some buildings where the children could stay. Their daily meals and everything they needed would be funded. I even got some partners to build more schools and parks and other homes for the street kids. Our goal is to keep the kids off the streets," Adam laughed a bit. "The homes are called Scar-Shelters."

He looked back at Scarlett.

"The name was favored by everyone that I partnered with because one; I found Scarlett inside the box my prototype ought to have been, two; It represents the scars they've been through as well, so the name is also symbolic."

"I'm leading an example by taking in some of the children from the street to show the world they're normal kids as well, they just need a little more love. In this way, more people would be encouraged to adopt the other kids as well. So, don't worry; the majority of the populace knows about this ongoing project, so no fingers would be pointed," Adam explained.

Vanessa sighed in relief.

"But how come I haven't heard of this 'Next big thing' project of yours?" She questioned.

Adam's expression hardened.

"Maybe it's because you never care about anything that doesn't profit you."

Vanessa snorted and looked away.

"Well, I've got to get them enrolled in schools," Adam said and started walking towards the garage.

"Don't forget they're just some charity case. Don't get too attached to them," Vanessa said making Adam turn back swiftly.

"Don't ever call them charity cases. Not all rich men are like your father, Vanessa," Adam snapped, annoyed.

She just snorted and sashayed to her flashy red coupé that was parked on the driveway.

As she opened the driver seat she looked back at Adam and finally smiled.

"I'll be sure to remember that. Daddy is awfully glory-seeking, isn't he?"

Adam smiled a bit.

She waved and entered her coupé then drove off, leaving dust behind.

"I don't like her at all," Reece said in a low tone to Caleb who nodded. Lucy hit both their heads and shot them a stern look.

Scarlett ran to meet Adam.

He carried her up.

"Sorry for the delay guys," he looked at the others as he tickled Scarlett a bit.

"Let's go, yeah?" He faced the laughing Scarlett again.

"Yaay!"

They all entered his jeep.

Soon Adam drove out of the estate as well.