Chapter 194 A One-to-Three Situation
"I'm going home, but I'll leave these things here. I might need them later," Hayden said.
Scarlett replied, "We'll deal with it later when it comes."
How could Hayden not know that he would definitely not be able to come in the future?
He thought to himself that Ambrose must have made her angry. How annoying! He'd finally managed to come over, and Ambrose had ruined everything.
Hayden started crying again. "I'm not taking them back. My luggage stays here."
Scarlett couldn't stand seeing him cry, but she had to be firm. Without looking at him, she got up and headed to her room. Seeing this, Hayden followed her, crying as he went.
"Please don't leave me. I'll be really good."
His crying pierced straight into Scarlett's heart, making her feel terrible. As she walked, her feet felt like they weighed a thousand pounds, she could barely lift them. Looking down, she saw Hayden's tear-streaked face.
He looked exactly like Yara when she cried. Scarlett's heart melted instantly. She crouched down and wiped the tears from his face. As she wiped, she started crying too.
Hayden froze and stopped crying.
"Why are you crying too?" Hayden worried. Did he make her cry?
He hadn't meant to make her cry. He just didn't want to take his things back home. If his stuff stayed here, he could come back later.
He lifted his little hand to wipe Scarlett's tears, trying to comfort her. "Don't cry. I won't cry either."
Scarlett didn't know why, but she just felt like crying.
Standing at the door of the study, Ambrose saw the mother and son hugging each other and crying. He rubbed his forehead, feeling both a headache and heartache.
Yara ran over as well. Seeing Scarlett crying, she got scared and started crying too.
"Mommy, Mommy, what's wrong?"
The scene was chaos.
Ambrose frowned and walked over, ready to calm all three of them down. But Hayden jumped out and blocked Scarlett, glaring at him angrily.
"Dad, you are not allowed to come over. It must be you who made Scarlett angry. That's why Scarlett asked me to take the clothes away, and that's why she's crying."
Ambrose looked at Hayden darkly. "You want a beating?"
Hayden shrank back. Whenever he saw that expression on Ambrose's face, something bad always happened. Scarlett, who was busy wiping her tears and comforting Yara, noticed Hayden's fear and turned to glare at Ambrose.
"Why are you being so mean?"
Ambrose, who'd just been yelled at, froze.
"Ambrose, you made Mommy angry. You should say sorry to Mommy," Yara said too.
Ambrose, unwanted by everyone, fell silent.
It was three against one. He was the one being blamed.
Nobody wanted him around.
In the end, Ambrose walked out of Scarlett's home carrying his suitcase, while Hayden's suitcase stayed behind.
Father and son walked toward the elevator. Hayden finally felt relieved that his things were still there, so he could still come back later. But Ambrose couldn't come anymore.
Hayden walked with a swagger.
"Dad, what did you do to upset Scarlett? She really doesn't like you now. You're going to drag me down with you," Hayden deliberately needled Ambrose in the elevator.
Ambrose snorted coldly. "You only got to stay because you cried and made a scene."
Hayden, caught out, wasn't bothered. He just said, "Well, at least I didn't get kicked out."
Then he bragged proudly, "Dad, Scarlett likes me more than she likes you. I could put in a good word for you with her, but you can't just give me the cold shoulder whenever you feel like it."
Hearing the first part, Ambrose felt uncomfortable. Without him, there wouldn't even be a Hayden, but the fact was right there in front of him, she really did like Hayden more than him.
Especially when Hayden shed just two tears, she softened right up. If she ended up taking care of the kids in the future, she'd spoil them rotten.
"As a man, you cry at every turn. Aren't you ashamed?"
"I'm still little, so of course I can cry. When I'm as old as you, then I won't cry." Hayden was sharp.
The elevator reached the first floor. The father-son bickering paused for now, and they headed back to Silver Oak Heights.
In the days that followed, Scarlett continued going back and forth between the construction site, home, and the kindergarten. Things at the site were gradually running smoothly, so she didn't need to watch over it constantly anymore. Usually, she'd check in the morning, and if nothing was wrong, she'd leave.
This gave her more free time, which she used to work on designs for Kenna's friend, Soren Turner.
Soren wanted to open a boutique hotel in Luminous City, deep in the mountains. She needed to visit the site in person, which meant taking time off.
Since it wasn't convenient for Scarlett to take time off during the week, she arranged to check out the location over the weekend.
Another Saturday came. Scarlett had a morning flight and would go with Finnian and Soren.
While checking in at the airport, Scarlett got a call from the construction crew.
"What happened?" Scarlett asked while getting her boarding pass.
"It's hard to explain over the phone. You need to come take a look right away, or we might do it wrong," Dash Foster, the crew leader, shouted on the other end.
It was noisy at the construction site. Scarlett wanted to get more details, but they couldn't explain clearly. She had no choice but to stop checking in.
"Finnian, there's a problem at the site. I need to go check it out. I'll have to change my flight. Why don't you guys go ahead, and I'll join you after I'm done."
Soren nodded. "Okay, we'll go first. When you're done, come meet us. We'll wait for you at the airport."
So Scarlett left the airport alone, caught a cab, and rushed to the construction site.
When she arrived, she saw Ambrose was there too, giving Dash a harsh scolding. "Is this how you're supposed to do this shape?"
Scarlett hurried over and looked - sure enough, they'd built the wrong shape. She took out the design plans and explained to Dash.
"You really did get this part wrong. You need to lay the bricks this way to get that curve." Scarlett demonstrated the direction.
Dash nodded, wiping his sweat and apologizing. "Ms. Mellon, I'm really sorry. This is our first time doing something like this, and we had no idea how to lay it out. Now that you've explained it, I get it. I'll tear this down and redo it."
"You're just wasting money," Ambrose said coldly.
Scarlett took a glance and saw that indeed a lot had been built. Tearing it down and starting over would waste labor and materials, but things had come to this point, and there was no other way.
"Mr. Boleyn, this was our mistake. I'll have Ms. Mellon stay here and supervise for the next couple of days to make sure nothing goes wrong. Can you forgive us this time?"
"Deduct this from the project payment. I won't say anything else, but if there's a next time, I'll replace you," Ambrose said.
"Yes, yes, we'll definitely be more careful," Dash said, very apologetic.
Then Ambrose turned to look at Scarlett. "Why didn't you come check the site today? Good thing I came. If I hadn't, could you afford to pay for the consequences?"