They sat next to each other chatting as if Callisto was invisible.
The maids awkwardly prepared meals for these two.
Anyone would ask how she could just casually do that? Bringing her lover into her husband's home wasn't enough, she brought him to the dining table too.
'Talking about manners…'
The maids glanced at each other sweating.
The lovebirds started eating and laughing, making unnecessary noise on the dinner table like kids who weren't raised properly. The maids sighed nervously as Callisto kept focusing on the papers in his hand.
"Daddy!" A little version of Callisto but sweeter running in with a smile.
Everyone turned their gazes to him as he made eye contact with a different face man who he had never seen before. Like a kid he is, Daniel asked his father.
"Who is that man… daddy?"
The maids bowed their heads in disbelief. They made their affair openly in front of a child at that... Callisto lifted Daniel and made him sit on his lap. He caressed the child's little ear then responded.
"Nobody. Daniel doesn't have to pay attention to him."
His answer made Jeremy shrug his shoulders. Primrose, who noticed that, got a little offended.
"His name is Jeremy."
"Take him and his meal to his bedroom." Callisto ordered the maids.
"Yes, your highness." They took the child from him then carried him out of the dining room.
After his child left, Callisto turned his cold gaze to the woman who acted like she did nothing wrong.
"You don't have to introduce your whore to my child." His voice sounded completely natural, it was as cold as ice but it burnt both the woman and man. She flinched at how arrogant he was, addressing her lover as a whore. Primrose hit the table as she stood up. Jeremy was clenching his fists.
"What the hell did you just say?! You asshole!"
"Do you really want me to repeat it again?" He glanced at the man who sat in silence then smirked.
"As if you didn't bring any bitches in here... haha! Don't act like you're a good father. You can't live without a clit either!" As angry as she was, she tried to insult him in the worst way possible.
"Right. But I never make them meet with my son neither does introduce them to him. So I suggest you, who aren't even his mother, to not introduce any of your whores to him."
"You bastard…!"
"You crossed the line, your highness." Jeremy interrupted his girlfriend to respond to her husband.
"I'm not doing that sort of work. If you just want to insult me, insult me with the truth."
Callisto raised an eyebrow in amazement as if finding the topic interesting.
"Well then, how should I insult you? Should I say that you're a cheap commoner who can't find a better job other than sticking around a wealthy woman?"
"Shut your trap!" Primrose scowled.
"We've been lovers for years for your information. I don't think your statement about me was right." Jeremy responded in a calm tone.
"You don't have to cover up for your pride since you never had one in the first place. Just accept the fact and go. I kind of understand you to be honest. It's okay to be desperate sometimes."
The enraged woman was about to yell her lung out again but was stopped by Jeremy. He held her hand as if telling her that he would like to deal with Callisto himself.
"Is it a thing for a noble to look down on a commoner?"
Callisto tapped his finger on the table and responded with a light smile.
"I'm not quite sure about the others. Personally, I don't care about how people live their lives. But someone like you? I guess. It is entertaining because unlike female prostitutes who actually admit their reality and deal with it with conscience, you sticked around under the name of a 'lover' just so you can live off their money with that little pride of yours."
"Fuck. You bastard..!"
"You seem to think highly of yourself as you just inherited all the wealth of your family... it is not like you are the one who made this household the way it is yourself, your highness." Jeremy smiled at Callisto.
Primrose smirked as if liking her lover's comeback but that didn't even itch Callisto's skin.
"That's quite a comeback from someone who eats whatever comes from my kitchen and lives in my mansion."
Callisto got up with a light smile. His mysterious eyes went to Primrose before he left.
"Fuck that bastard! I hope he'll die soon!" Primrose growled at the closed door.
"Haha… you can't wish on someone's death like that.." Jeremy grinned.
"It's nobody but that bastard!"
"Let's finish breakfast instead, okay? He left."
"Why do you talk nicely to him?"
"I mean I live in his mansion…"
"Who cares! It's not like we want to come here?"
°°°
Eugene who was feeding Daniel turned her gaze to the man who had just opened the door in.
"He is eating." She affirmed to him knowing that he came to see if Daniel was eating well.
"What about you?"
"Ahh… no, I'm preparing to go back. The carriage has already been arranged outside for me…"
"Are you leaving, mommy?"
Eugene turned to the eating child and smiled bitterly. Well, his father had told her a million times to leave. It was a good thing that he did not kick her out.
"Yes. Mommy will visit Daniel later."
"Why?" The child sulkily glared at his father.
"Daddy must have told mommy to leave again…"
Callisto approached the sulking little guy and patted his back.
"Your mom can't stay here for too long. She has to go back home and do her things there."
"Then can I go with mommy?"
The mother widened her eyes a little. Realized how much the child had missed her, she felt guilty. Eugene hugged him and assured the sulking little baby.
"Mommy will come visit Daniel again soon. Promise."
"No…" he shook his head.
"If mommy goes, mommy takes me too."
Eugene turned to Callisto. She took a while before opening her mouth asking for his permission.
"Then can I take Daniel with me?"
"No." He rejected her.
"It will be too dangerous on the way to the east."
"I came here just fine…"
"No is no, Eugene."
She became silent awkwardly when he objected twice in a row. Callisto let go of the child's hand. His next line surprised her.
"Stay here with him for a few more days."
"Ahh okay."
His mysterious eyes gazed at her silently before affirming in a serious tone.
"Because he loves you, I leave him in your care. Don't ever disappoint me again. If you pull what you did back then, you know what's coming for you."
Eugene's expression hardened. Callisto still found her untrustworthy after all these years. She clenched her fists with her head bowed down, eyes slicing the floor. She felt like crying.
The maids took Daniel out when the atmosphere became intense.
"I had no intention of doing that back then… I was losing my mind. You don't understand how it felt. You never loved me." Tears fell from her eyes. Her hands were shaking.
"I was stuck between not having the guts to ask you directly and being told by that person that you spent many nights with her when you didn't come home… you don't understand… I regret what I have done too.. I really had no idea what I was doing.. I just wanted you to pay attention to me… why am I the only one who is hated by you? She caused everything… if she didn't make the story up.. I wouldn't be so crazy.. I was told that you cheated on me.. How do you want me to feel, Cal?"
"A sane person will ask for confirmation. A sane person will communicate properly and a sane person wouldn't put a knife on their child's throat to get something. If you believed that I was cheating, shouldn't confronting me be the first thing that come to your mind? And what did you do, Eugene Halter? I don't trust a woman who threatened to kill her own child for something she heard from one person."
"Because you always gave me cold shoulders… you don't understand how it felt at all.. to be treated like some decorations."
"You know it so well yet you're still here."
"This is where my family was built. The child I convinced for nine months, gave birth to.., took care of him with my two hands, everything I had with him was buried here." She took a step closer to the man.
"Someone who views emotions as useless like you will never understand, Cal."
All that talk, Eugene still wanted to reconcile the bond. She was really wrong for threatening Daniel's life from the words of another woman. Callisto had never once met anyone else.
He was doing his role as a married man like she was doing hers as a wife. Perhaps, she could understand how he felt a little when he was coming back home to the scene of his wife grabbing their child and pointing a knife at his throat. She still remembered how Callisto looked back then. It was her first time seeing an actual reaction on his face. Full of anger and fear. He was really worried about Daniel's safety that the moment he took the small soul from her, his hands were shaking. She had cut him on the forearm back then. The scar left by the incident is still there scarred on his flesh.