Chapter 2 Hapless Bastard
What kind of look was that?
It was a look that despised all living beings!
Leo looked so calm to the point that he seemed to be looking at a corpse!
“Scram.”
His voice was ice-cold. “I won’t say it a second time.”
“Leo! Stop right there!”
Leo’s insistence on entering the villa angered Caroline. “My dad is very sick! Do you still want to agitate him?”
Leo looked at her indifferently and ignored her.
Raymond got up from the ground pathetically, his eyes filled with malice. “If you don’t want to leave, you don’t have to,” he said. “Break his legs and make him kneel in front of William’s bed to apologize!”
His six bodyguards emerged from both sides and had Leo surrounded in an instant.
“Leo, run!” a panicked Gary shouted.
Leo pretended not to hear him. He continued to walk calmly with his back to the bodyguards.
“Idiot.”
Raymond sneered. Meanwhile, Caroline remained unmoved and watched without doing anything.
Two bodyguards flanked Leo from left and right, attacking him from both sides.
Just as their hands were about to touch him, Leo turned his head and threw a quick, fierce fist.
His fist hit the face of the bodyguard on the left straight on.
The bodyguard flew backward as if he had been hit by a truck, knocking his colleague behind him, and fainted.
A pin-drop silence fell over the yard.
Caroline and Raymond widened their eyes at Leo in disbelief. They looked like they were staring at a monster.
Gary was too terrified to move and his lips were trembling. He wanted to say something but no words came.
The other bodyguards stopped and looked warily at Leo. They gradually closed in around Raymond out of fear that he might attack their boss next.
Leo did not.
He looked as composed as ever, as if he had merely swatted a fly. He did not even look at them before turning around and continuing to walk to the living room.
Raymond came to his senses by then, and a trace of panic crossed his eyes. Caroline even shouted in a sharp voice, “Leo, how dare you!”
At this moment, she finally understood why Leo had the nerve to come back.
She did not know what he had experienced in the past five years, but she could tell that he had gotten stronger.
“Why is it so noisy!? Argh!”
The commotion outside attracted the attention of others in the villa. A well-dressed woman who resembled Caroline walked out. When she saw the expressionless Leo walking toward her, she stopped talking and screamed in horror.
Her scream alarmed everyone inside the villa.
“What’s wrong?”
“What is it?”
When the rest saw Leo, all of them closed their mouths and looked at him with grim expressions without exception.
“I thought this hapless bastard died. Why did he come back?”
“Did he cause the commotion earlier?”
“What does he want?”
Leo stopped after hearing these voices and his expression softened. “Everyone, I’ll explain what happened later,” he pleaded. “Let me go in and see my dad first.”
“Stop right there!”
When Leo was about to walk past his relatives, a harsh-sounding scream stopped him.
He turned around to see Caroline’s mother, Rebecca, pointing at him and scolding him in a hysterical voice. “You hapless bastard! How dare you come back! Haven’t you harmed us enough already?”
“Mom, it’s not what you think…”
“Shut up!”
Rebecca cut him off ruthlessly. When she saw the two unconscious bodyguards outside the door, she immediately understood what was going on. She became even angrier. “And now you’re stirring up trouble in our house too!”
“I think he just wants to kill us!”
Patricia, Caroline’s second aunt, also pointed at him and said in a voice dripping with sarcasm, “Of all the time in the world to come back, you came back when William is about to die. What are you scheming?”
“I think he has something to do with William’s sudden unconsciousness. He might be the one who caused it!”
Marla, Caroline’s eldest aunt, cut in. “Look at how perfect his timing is. This means he’s been back for a while now, and he’s been spying on us from nearby!”
“Call 911 now! Get the cops to arrest him!”
Suddenly, Leo became the target of the Fords’ resentment.
It was all due to his poor timing. William had just collapsed from his severe illness and was on the verge of death. It was hard for anyone not to be suspicious of Leo’s auspicious arrival at this time.
Leo did not argue and remained silent in the face of the heated accusations.
Raymond’s pale face gradually regained color when he saw this scene. He laughed as though he had taken his revenge. “Looks like William adopted a complete good-for-nothing.”
Caroline’s expression turned dark and she glared at Leo. “I didn’t expect him to turn out like this.”
Suddenly, Leo broke his long silence and said, “Mom, Caroline, everyone.”
He looked at everyone sincerely and said in a deep voice, “I know that I caused the collapse of the Fords five years ago. It was all my fault. I’ll make it up to you eventually, but now isn’t the time.”
“You’re going to make it up to us? How will you do that exactly? Confess and turn yourself in?”
Caroline’s aunt looked disdainful. “Let’s get this straight. Even if you die again, you won’t be able to atone for your sins!”
“Exactly!”
Caroline’s uncle echoed, “Besides, the hospital said that William won’t live past tonight. How are you going to save him?”
“Uncle, auntie, stop it. My mom is here.”
Caroline felt tears stinging in her eyes at the thought of her father dying. She looked at Leo with unreserved hatred.
He was the one responsible for her father’s imminent death!
If he had not run away from his wedding five years ago, her family would still be standing strong and her father would not have been so furious that he suffered a heart attack.
“You’re cursed! I’ll kill you!”
Rebecca suddenly lost all sense of reason and screamed. She picked up the fruit knife on the nearby coffee table and charged at Leo.
“Mom, stop!”
“Rebecca, this man isn’t worth it!”
Caroline and Raymond were so frightened that they stepped in to restrain Rebecca at once.
Rebecca screamed hysterically as she struggled to get out of their hold and brandished the knife at Leo. “You deserve to die! Don’t you remember how well William treated you? Like you were his own son! I told him you’re a Cohen, not a Ford. I told him not to pamper you, but he wouldn’t listen. Now he gets what he deserves!”
“Mom, that’s enough…”
Rebecca’s words seemed to have jogged Caroline’s memories. Her eyes turned red as well.
The deeper the memories, the deeper the hatred.
For a moment, sorrow filled the villa.
“Mom.”
Leo looked at Rebecca calmly and said softly, “Dad saved my life. Let me have a look at him. Maybe, just maybe, I can save him.”
“You…”
Rebecca was about to say something when Raymond cut her off.
“Since he’s back, let him take responsibility for what happened back then.”
He then looked at Leo and said, “You can visit William, but you must admit to all your crimes.”
“Crimes?” A dangerous gleam appeared in Leo’s eyes.
“Correct.”
Raymond did not explicitly say what the so-called crimes were. He just said provocatively, “Lost all your nerve?”
Leo was silent.
He knew Raymond’s purpose very well. Everything would be fine if his father survived, but if he did not, he would be the scapegoat.NôvelDrama.Org exclusive content.
However, he had to find out what was going on first!
“Okay,” he said.
His swift agreement surprised Raymond. He clapped his hands and said, “Great, a man should have the guts to admit his mistakes. Come in.”
Leo strode in.
This time, no one tried to stop him.
Rebecca looked anxious. “Raymond, what are you doing?”
Raymond gave her a reassuring look. “Trust me. Just let me handle this.”
Once he pacified his girlfriend’s mother, he walked to a quiet corner and dialed a number.
“Who is it?”
The sound of a man panting and a woman’s moaning came from the phone.
“Mr. Lawson, I’ve completed your request, with a little bonus attached to it. I’m sure you’ll be interested,” Raymond said in a fawning tone.
The woman’s exulted panting on the other end of the line became louder, and the man sounded more and more impatient. “Say what you have to say. I’m busy.”
“Leo Cohen is back. Should we call some men over…?”
A cold look appeared on Raymond’s face and he made a cutting gesture at his neck.