They were thirty hours away from the launch of the rescue operation.
Theodore called Sydney and Wesley over for a talk in the living room. With his solemn expression, the atmosphere was very tense.
“I called you two over because I have something very important to tell you.”
“What is it?” Wesley asked.
“If I were to die, please take good care of Steve.”
Shock registered on both their faces when they heard Theodore’s words.
“Theo, what do you mean by that?” Sydney asked. “What happened? You’ve been acting so secretively as of late. I don’t see you and can’t even reach you. In fact, I can’t reach Rose, either.”
She sensed that something major had happened, but no one was telling her what it was. She even tried contacting Christopher to understand what was going on, but he refused to breathe a word about it.
The rescue operation had to be kept under wraps. Theodore and Christopher hid it from everyone else for fear of unnecessary complications and information leaks. They couldn’t afford a single mistake.
All the more Theodore couldn’t tell Sydney about it. What if she told Sebastian? He couldn’t risk it.
Theodore glanced at his watch.
“I’ll contact you in three days. If I don’t, you’ll naturally know what happened. If I contact you, you’ll also find out what happened, so I hope you’ll promise me that you’ll take care of Steve if I’m gone. He’s your grandson.”
The only thing Theodore could do was to hand his child over to his parents.
“Does this have anything to do with Rose? She disappeared and you’re going to find her, is that it?” Sydney asked in a trembling voice.
Theodore stood up and said, “Mom, this is all I can say. Before I reach out to you, I’ll send someone to keep watch over you both. I hope you won’t do anything that you’ll regret, or I’ll never forgive you.”
With that, Theodore left the living room.
Sydney had an inkling of what was going on. She stood up and chased after Theodore, calling out to him.
She grabbed his arm and said, “I more or less can guess what’s going on. Can you promise me one thing?”
Theodore turned to look at her. “What is it?”
“No matter what happens, don’t kill him,” Sydney said as she looked tearfully at Theodore. “He’s your older brother, after all.”
Fire burned in Theodore’s chest. “Should I let him live so that he can kill us all? Is that what you want?”
“No, that’s not what I meant,” Sydney cried. “Theo, I…”
“Mom, you can forget about trying to inform Sebastian. I can’t find him and you can’t reach him, either. I’ll also have my men keep you under watch know Sebastian is your son, but you have to make your choice. It’s either him or me. I’m not the one who made things turn out this way. He is!”
With that, Theodore shook Sydney’s hand off and left without any hesitation. Sydney sobbed but she tried to hold it back by covering her mouth with a hand. Wesley was standing nearby. In shock, he asked, “Sebastian is your son?”
Upon seeing how taken aback Wesley was, Sydney turned around and nodded.
“Yes, he’s my son. I always thought
that he was dead, until Geoffrey told
me he was still alive. Are you going
to criticize me? Don’t forget that you have an illegitimate son yourself. We’re quits.”
“I wasn’t going to criticize you,” Wesley said. “I was just shocked to hear that. You
never told me about it.”
“You didn’t tell me about Yerick
either,” Sydney said. “We were both
velo
lying to each other, so there’s nothing more to say about this. I’m leaving-goodbye.”