The Illegitimate Heir

Chapter 3

“Really?” Adrian muttered in annoyance as he turned to face the man he rescued.

“Don't be silly, Edward. He helped me. I was taken from the park and would have probably met my end if he had not stepped in,” the old man said tiredly.

Rushed sounds came from the hospital doorway as nurses and a doctor hurried out with a wheelchair and stretcher in tow.

“Who dared to do this?” Edward wondered furiously as the chairman waved aside the stretcher and opted for the wheelchair.

“Young Master Scott. That's what they called him,” Adrian muttered tersely as he remembered. “Can I go now?”

He stopped when he saw the ashen look on the chairman's face.

Not even when the man had been sweating from the effort of trying not to show his pain had he looked that defeated.

“What's going on?”

Adrian wondered as Edward shook his head at the chairman's dazed look, saying, “Maybe there is a mistake, sir.”

“Are you sure?! You can't joke about this,” Edward snapped at Adrian.

Glad he had decided to record earlier in case the men caught him, Adrian simply played the recording.

The chairman heard clearly when the thugs mentioned Young Master Scott and money.

“See? I really need to go now.”

“No!” Chairman Hex's hand shot out, grabbing painfully onto Adrian's hand.

Remembering his earlier thought about how minding others’ business leads to trouble, Adrian raised his brow at the Chairman. For a moment, he thought the man looked familiar, but he could not place it yet.

The man's look was faraway, though, as he spoke in a dead tone. “He knew. He knew I was going to change my will today.”

“Chairman, maybe…”

“Enough, Edward! Enough excuses for him!” The man's voice broke as he continued, “I had thought this would wake him up. Make him change his ways, but no. He is too lost to change. I almost died today because my son values money over my life.”

“Son?”

Adrian's anxiety about time was immediately forgotten in his shock.

A son did this?

Maybe Edward was right. There must be a mistake.

“Bring it.” The chairman's voice pulled him out of his thoughts.

Sad-faced, Edward looked towards the only black-suited man who stood separate from the bodyguards.

He had a briefcase in his hands.

Edward gestured for him to come over, which he did immediately.

“What's your name?” the chairman asked Adrian.

“Adrian Cross,” he answered, still wondering what was going on.

“Gideon, change everything to his name. Everything apart from the ones meant for the foundations.”

Shock showed on Edward's and the lawyer's faces, while Adrian grew more confused.

“Chairman, surely…”

“One question, and you will immediately stop being Lancaster's lawyer,” the chairman said woodenly.

Lancaster. The name echoed in Adrian's chest as his eyes widened. Was that not…?

“Sign here, Chairman. I will properly have it filed once I get back to the office. I only have this ready because I know you are still contemplating the will change.”

The Chairman signed without delay, and the lawyer turned to Adrian.

“You can sign here too, Mister.”

“What is going on?” Adrian muttered in confusion.

Chairman Hex smiled sadly as he patted Adrian's arm. “What is going on is that I am handing what is mine to you. You look like an honourable young man. More deserving than my heartless son.” His gaze grew solemn as his hands tightened on Adrian's and he asked, “Do you promise to take care of it and make sure my efforts don't go to waste?”

The man's penetrating gaze pulled an automatic nod out of Adrian.

“Your word, young man. Your word.”

“I promise,” Adrian declared.

The Chairman's stern face relaxed into a smile and he said, “Thank you for today.”

“I only did what I should.”

The Chairman shook his head, saying, “Not all would.”

“Let's go,” he said to the nurses and doctor who stood aside, and they immediately sprang into action.

Edward nodded at Adrian, then gave him a card, saying, “You will need this.”

The Chairman's embossed card.

“And mine.” He gave him a plainer one.

Then he followed the man being wheeled inside.

“Your signature, Mister,” the lawyer prompted, just as Adrian remembered once again that he was running out of time.

He immediately took the pen to sign.

His eyes quickly scanned the content of the document, and his heart thumped.

He was right.

Hex Lancaster was the chairman of the leading game company in Aurion.

And had just willed his company to him just like that?

There were other things in the document, but that company was significant for Adrian.

He looked up to see the door being opened already for the chairman's wheelchair.

Normally calm and stoic, Adrian’s voice rose to stop the Chairman.

“Thank you for this trust, Chairman Hex. I will not fail you.”

The chairman turned around to see the young man bowing to him in respect.

Different emotions flickered on his dignified face as he remembered when he too had once been a young man given an opportunity.

He nodded at Adrian and said to Edward, “He is the right one.”

“I think so, Chairman,” Edward responded with approval in his tone.

It turned out the Chairman had been second-guessing his decision to cut his son out of his will.

Though he wanted to change his will to teach the boy a lesson, he had told his men to stop the car on the way that evening.

And he had gone alone to his favourite park to think.

Who could have thought the boy he was considering would have men drag him away brutally just to get their hands on the will?

As Hex Lancaster was wheeled into the hospital that evening, he was sure he had done the right thing.

“Now, Scott will have no reason to act out again,” he thought.

If only he knew it was too late.