Justin Battleson paused slightly, his gaze slowly shifted onto Charlotte Thompson, his eyes revealing exhaustion.
As if looking at his precious treasure, his usual cold face became extremely soft.
Upon hearing this, Charlotte became nervously aware of a sudden thump in her heart. She quickly became embarrassed and touched her hair, her eyes unnaturally casting towards the distance.
"Mr. Battleson, are you joking?"
"Charlotte, I’m not kidding, ever since I learned the truth, I’ve wanted to apologize to you and I hope you can forgive me," Battleson’s gaze became serious. He reached out and took Charlotte’s hand, staring at her intensely.
"Mr. Battleson, you..."
Before Charlotte could finish speaking, she heard Hank Thompson’s excited voice.
Charlotte looked behind Justin, to see Hank beaming as he ran towards her, pulling Cyrus along.
"You..." Charlotte was astonished, she glanced at Justin only to find him unaffected, as if he had expected everything.
"Mummy, you’re so late, Big Brother and I have been waiting for you for so long!"
Hank tilted his head towards Charlotte as if he was puzzled. Charlotte was slightly embarrassed thinking how Justin had so suddenly become close with these children.
Charlotte pulled her children aside, squatted down, and looked at Hank a little angrily.
"Didn’t mummy tell you to stay home? How did you get here?"
Cyrus looked gravely at Justin not far away, noticing that his attention was all on Charlotte. His eyebrows were raised and his eyes full of tenderness.
"Actually..." Hank spoke nervously, tilting his head to look at Cyrus beside him.
Cyrus seemed lost in thought, ignoring Hank’s gaze, appearing distant.
"What do you mean, ’actually’? Didn’t mommy tell you not to talk to this person?"
"Mummy." The usually silent Cyrus suddenly spoke, his bright eyes firmly fixed on Charlotte, a childlike yet firm voice asked,
"Yeah, yeah, mummy, isn’t this man my daddy?"
Hank looked at Charlotte with relief, his round eyes darting back and forth between Charlotte and Justin.
"Let’s talk about this at home," Charlotte didn’t want the children interacting with Justin and took charge of the conversation, managing to sound a bit more calm.
Before Hank could say anything else, Charlotte took his hand and rushed him away.
Cyrus, trailing behind Charlotte, looked thoughtfully at Justin, who was standing there with a faint smile on his face.
When their eyes met, Hank lowered his head almost instinctively.
Just as Charlotte was about to exit with Hank and Cyrus, she noticed Michael Richard standing not far away.
He was holding an ice cream cone in one hand, and clumsily wiping cream off Olivia’s face with the other.
Grace, Chad, and Jack were following behind him, each holding a little ice cream in their hands.
Surprise flashed across Charlotte’s face. She halted in her tracks for a while before Hank pulled her to go over to Michael.
Michael gave a nod towards Charlotte, his face holding a respectful grin. He seriously explained:
"Miss Thompson, good day. Mr. Battleson instructed me to wait here with your children. Here are the keys to your car."
As he finished, Michael reached into his pocket, pulled out some keys, and handed them over to Charlotte.