Adrian woke up that morning to find his wife missing.

Since he slept at one of the guest's rooms, he first thought that Cassidy was still sleeping back in her bedroom. But after Cecile informed him that she already had her breakfast half an hour ago, he began looking around for her inside the mansion.

​​

"Excuse me, President. If you don't mind me asking, aren't you going off to work now?" the head maid asked after he ordered some of the houseworkers to continue searching.

"No, I'm not. I'll be taking a break from work for three days," he simply replied, taking her aback.

'Three days? So, he means he's gonna be around here until they go back home? That's definitely rare. He can hardly stay put for even at least an hour before...' Cecile thought silently before making a convinced expression.

'I think it's as good as reality now. Ma'am Cassidy is really starting change the President - now that he's putting her above his precious work and everything else, that is."

---

After minutes of looking for Cassidy, Seven steps right up and informs Adrian about her text message earlier that morning - about her playing somewhere around the beach, that is.

Instead of sending out people to confirm that, he decided to go there himself. He puts on a plain white chino and a pair of grey pants with a brown leather belt before eventually taking off.

"Why did she have to text her bodyguard first instead of sending it straight to me? What's the use of giving her my contact number, then...?" Adrian muttered underneath his breath, a little annoyed.

"And what's up with her telling me to refrain myself from flipping over the whole mansion?"

It's not like he wasn't about to do just that, though.

He almost made a commotion first thing in the morning after learning that his wife was nowhere to be found. His anxiety would really tend to skyrocket whenever she's not around. It's giving him the impression that she's beginning to hold his emotional state captive, especially at the rate of how this is going.

"I just hope she didn't go past our private beach. There's no one with her. Though there are gates around, I bet she's sneaky enough to jump over them or something."

Fortunately, Cassidy had stayed near the mansion.

Adrian eventually found her after a brief while of walking around. Much to his surprise, she turns out to have some companions too. He didn't expect that their nephews would be out in the beach this early.

"Now that I think about it, Edward did say that his sons would like to visit Cassidy. Looks like they already met up here by coincidence," he mused out loud as he only continued watching the four of them all the way from the shore.

At the moment, Cassidy is teaching Hugo how to swim while his elder brothers are giving him moral support from the sideline.

For their youngest brother's sake, Damien and Joshua decided to hold their playtime and watch him for now. Since it's their ever vivacious aunt who's instructing him, it's nowhere near boring to simply stall around. It's actually pretty fun, and they're learning a few tricks that they're not able to learn from their respective swimming instructors before.

"So, I guess you really gotta learn to float first, huh?" Joshua pointed out with a deadpan look on his face.

"Yes, of course. You have to feel comfortable enough that you can float on the water. You shouldn't flail around and start breathing quickly if you can't swim. Simply lie back as flat as you can, and let the water carry you while you regain your composure," Cassidy explained like a true swimming teacher while she assisted the toddler in getting the right position.

"The thing is, I manage to get the whole floating right at the first get-go for some reason, though I'm nowhere near as calm as you say. Because of that, my instructor went ahead and started teaching me how to tread the water. He told me that I learned fast, but at that time, I really had no idea what's the floating all about."

"And because of that, you swam like a dog instead of a human since you're still not that calm on the water, right?" Damien teased with a mirthful laugh.

"Yeah! And even when I myself knew that I obviously looked like a dog, that instructor just kept praising me! He praised me so much that I felt like I was a genius in swimming!"

"That's probably because he's after your favor more than he's worried about your safety. Father should've replaced him and hired another one."

Hearing how heavy Damien sounded all of the sudden, Cassidy took a moment to look at him through the corners of her eyes. While Joshua just continued ranting about being lied to that time, completely oblivious of his brother's change in tone, she could tell that something was going on.

It's as if Damien is seeing the fact that people are often after their favors above anything else as a recurring and unfortunate matter. Others would treat them so kindly yet rarely genuine. Just like what Cassidy thought, being a Millicent could be quite rough on these kids.

"Aunty, I think you can let go of me now," Hugo chimed in, catching everyone's attention again.

"Oh, are you sure?" Cassidy asked, hesitant to remove her hands from his back.

"Yeah. I'm calm enough now."

"It's not just being calm, Hugo, but alright. I'll slowly let you go. Don't panic, okay?"

"Okay."

With that, she pulls her hands away from under him while he proceeds to float by himself.

His elder brothers are astonished to find him doing quite good for his first try. Their aunt can't help but clap her hands in delight after seeing him floating well on his own.

Feeling proud by this accomplishment and from getting praised, Hugo then sticks his nose up and smirks conceitedly as if bragging to his brothers. While Damien only makes an incredulous expression, Joshua feels a little annoyed.

"That's great, Hugo. Keep it up!" Cassidy cheered, making the toddler want to boast even more.

"Wow, who knows that this ever shy Hugo can be this big-headed just from floating...?" Joshua deadpanned before he suddenly came up with a mischievous idea that made him smirk playfully.

"Hey, Hugo, there's a shark under you!"

"Gyahhhhh...!!!"

Almost instantly, Hugo threw away his composed facade.

He jumped right back to a standing position and thrashed about in panic, splashing water everywhere and throwing everyone off guard. After a moment of flailing about and doing the exact opposite of calm, he goes ahead and clings back to the redhead once more, burying his face on her chest and hugging her as if hanging on for dear life.

"It's fine, Hugo. There's no shark," Cassidy reassured the toddler while patting his head.

"Joshua, why did you do that?!" Damien chided his brother angrily.

"What? It's just a test, a test...! But it's also partly a joke," Joshua muttered with a shrug.

"You're so mean, big brother!" Hugo bolted out before proceeding to sob on his aunt's chest.

All Cassidy can do at that point is smile awkwardly and comfort him. She just recalls that kids like them can be quite scary too. As much as she didn't want to admit it, for a second there, even she herself thought that there's really a shark.

"Hmmm? Hey, isn't that..." Damien said all of the sudden after noticing someone from a distance.

"Uncle Adrian?"

At that, the three swerve their heads to the direction of the shore and end up finding a lone man in white there.

Taken aback, they all just look at him for a moment longer as if convincing themselves that he's not some kind of a mirage. Yet as soon as he sees him waving at them, they eventually snap out of it.

"That's weird. I thought he had work," Cassidy mumbled to herself before telling the boys to swim back to the shore with her.

She can't just leave the three of them here and go meet Adrian there. With the stunt they just pulled earlier, staying this far from land is as dangerous as drowning or getting eaten by a shark.

"Oh, seems like playtime's over," Adrian thought out loud, smirking after seeing them making their way to him.

At the very moment they got out of the water, though, he found himself coming to a pause out of nowhere.

With a look of surprise, he couldn't peel his gaze off of his wife. Time and again, she keeps striking him astounded and speechless. He's afraid that he's not going to get used to that any time soon.

Although Cassidy is not wearing any typical revealing outfit that people at the beach often wear, her top is sheer enough to display her curvaceous figure while her shorts show much of her skin. Adrian isn't even sure if her bottom is still thigh-lengthened or much shorter than he will allow.

Good thing is that this is a private beach - otherwise, Adrian will definitely lock the whole place up.