Escaped My Ex, Got Snatched by His Rival - Chapter 407

Chapter 407: A scheme that started years ago(2)
‘Welcome home, honey,’ Mrs Dickinson greeted her with a bright smile on her lips. She was wiping her hands on a kitchen towel as Samuel handed his school bag to the maid, who took it without saying a word.

‘What’s wrong, Mom?’ A young Samuel asked his mother, who for a change was at home instead of having a little get-together with her friends, which she did almost every day.

His mother beamed at him, as she swooped down and kissed Samuel on his cheeks. ‘A real good thing, sonny. You will know —your dad, he has finally found a way to secure our family and stop us from going bankrupt.’

Samuel’s eyes brightened when he heard his mother’s words. He asked Mrs Dickinson, ‘Are you sure, Mom? That was a big loan that Father took, is someone willing to pay it for us? Is it the real deal?’

‘Yes, yes and yes…’ Mrs Dickinson answered, continuing to smile without the slightest change in her smile as she took her son by his shoulders and manoeuvred him around like her little puppy which she had brought to a pup show.

As the two of them arrived in front of the coffee room, Mrs Dickinson said to Samuel in a stern voice, ‘Now sonny, be very polite with the nice uncle inside alright? No matter what he says, just answer ‘yes’, don’t forget that whether your dad’s company and our family recover from this will rely on you.’

Samuel felt a sense of foreboding rise in his heart even before his mother pushed open the door. A feeling so profound that it turned even more intense the second the door came to a halt and Samuel’s gaze fell on a man.

A man with a neon stitched mask on his face. There was a freaky skull embroidered on the black fabric.

If he were one of his friends, his father would have asked him to break any form of communication that Samuel had with a boy who wore masks like that.

And yet at that moment, his father was trying his best to entertain the masked man without showing an ounce of contempt to him.

Something he would have certainly never done to any of his friends, who were not well acquainted or didn’t have any sort of connections in the city.

‘And this is my son,’ said Mr Dickinson as he introduced Samuel to the masked man. ‘Sammy, this is Mister Ronald. A very well-known personality in our city, come —sit down and have a biscuit or cookie.’

He then turned to look at his wife and said to her, ‘Go and see if the turkey has been roasted. Mister Ronald doesn’t like his meat well done or raw. Just around the medium.’

‘Of course—’

‘There is no need,’ the masked man called Mister Ronald, turned to look at Mr. Dickinson. ‘I am rushing today, Mister Dickinson. There is something that I wanted to say and ask your son to do for me.’

‘Just say the word—’

‘Alone,’ said Mister Ronald. ‘I would like to say this to him alone.’

Mister Dickinson looked rather uncomfortable with this request as if he didn’t trust his son to not mess things up for him, but — He also knew that Mister Ronald would not change his mind easily.

His eyes flickered as he nodded before pulling his lips in a flattering smile, ‘Sure as you wish, Mister Ronald. Just give me a few seconds.’

‘Alright.’

As soon as he received permission from Mister Ronald, Samuel’s father stirred him out of the room, where he clasped his shoulders with his hands and said sternly, ‘Now listen here, Sammy. I have no expectations from you—never had any.’

‘But this man?’ He pointed inside the coffee room, where Mister Ronald was now studying the mantle and the decorations on top of it. ‘You better not offend him, no matter what he asks of you, say yes…’

‘But—’

‘Samuel,’ his father called his name sternly, and this time around Samuel suppressed his worries and nodded.

‘Good. Now go inside and make me proud,’

** *** **

‘Fascinating,’ Mister Ronald said without looking at Samuel, and yet somehow he seemed to know that it was Samuel who had entered the room. ‘I really like how your father has encased these bugs.’

He was staring at the bug collection of Mr Dickinson.

‘Do you collect bugs as well, Mr Ronald?’ Samuel asked curiously as he took a bold stab at the conversation.

Upon hearing his question, the man shifted on his feet such that he was looking at Samuel sideways.

‘Sorry,’ Samuel apologized, and Mister Ronald waved his hand dismissively. ‘It’s alright boy. You are right, I do like collecting bugs— it’s just that in my case they are shaped and in the form of humans.’

Like humans? At first, Samuel didn’t understand what Mister Ronald was saying and when he did, he was terrified. He stepped back and looked at the man in front with a horrified expression.

‘Are you scared?’ Mister Ronald asked as he turned on his feet. He walked over to where Samuel stood and raised his hand to clasp his shoulder before saying, ‘It’s fine boy.’

‘Fear is the correct answer while standing in my presence, your father nearly ate my head with his chatter and I swear, I was an inch away from blasting his head off his shoulders.’

Samuel gulped nervously as he peeked at the door of the room, he wanted to run out but couldn’t as the man was holding him by his shoulders.

‘Now, did your father tell you why I asked for you?’ The man asked.

‘Y—you want me to do something,’ Samuel answered as he used every ounce of courage that he was born with.

‘That’s right, boy,’ said the man. His grip was now painfully tight as he explained, ‘And what I want you to do is —I want you to go and propose to this girl named ‘Ariana Harlow’, and when she says —no, which she will as I know my darling really well…’

‘I want you to do something extreme. It could be anything like smashing open your head or much worse. Make her feel guilty, make her life a living hell if you have to —until she realizes that she shouldn’t have refused you.’

‘So the next time a man proposes to her, she will accept him however reluctant she is to do so.’

** *** **

And as Samuel came back to the present he sobbed and spoke, “That man wanted to prepare her for something. He told me that I needed to fill Ariana with fear of rejecting any man’s proposal.”

“Create a trauma and fear in her heart such that she would never refuse another man who informs her that he loves her. Of course, I failed as that woman is much more stubborn than what that man expected.”