So a small warning, mature themes in beginning of the chapter, but it ends fairly quickly and nothing is even really described.. Rest of my note will be after the chapter as per usual.

Chapter 26: What kind of meeting is this!?

“What is it Old Man?” I woke up to hear my phone ringing, so I picked it up after reading the caller ID.

“Want to have Lunch with me? We need to discuss a couple of things. Oh, and it might go into your third and hopefully not your fourth class. But there is always the chance, so I wanted to let you know ahead of time so you could make any necessary preparations. Anyways, I’ll have someone pick you up in front of the school when lunch begins. Please let Claire know, as I do not have the time to tell her at the moment. Thanks, bye.” Without really letting me speak, the Old Man hangs up.

I’m glad that he is nice enough to let me make preparations before the last minute. Spontaneous planning is fun and all, but I prefer to plan long term.

“Fooff ergggrh.” Claire? Was that you?

I turn to look at Claire that had started to eat the pillow she was laying on… um… why? What kind of dream would cause her to eat a pillow?

Should I wake her up? Nope. I’m going to take a picture. I probably will never show it to anyone. Maybe Claire once she is fully awake, just to see her reaction.

I load up the camera on my phone and take a couple pictures from varying angles while being careful not to wake her up. After I was done taking the pictures, I shook her shoulder to wake her up.

“Hey Claire, it’s time to get ready for school.”

“Hn… Go away, I don’t want to wear clothes!”

Okay… I get she’s bad in the mornings, but isn’t this a little much. Okay, fun game time.

“Hey Claire. Wanna go somewhere fun, I’ll have to carry you so don’t fight it.”

“’Kay!” She tiredly raises her arms and I pick her up. I carry her into the bathroom and stand her up in the shower.

I turn on the cold water.

“KYAHHHH!!!!” Claire screams as the cold water makes contact with her. Keep in mind that she is dressed in pyjamas, so they are sticking to her and probably now weigh a ton.

“Ah, welcome back to reality. I didn’t have time to deal with sleepy Claire, so I came up with this moronic idea. Not bad, eh?” I smile mischievously.

“Not bad, but not well executed.” The now awake Claire hugs me and drags me into the cold water that was still running.

“Too naïve!” right before I was put in the cold water, I changed it to hot using my leg, so the water warmed up quite quickly.

“That’s cheating!”

“Using the surroundings to my advantage.” I quickly kiss her on the lips before I get undressed to just have my shower then and there. “Your father called me and said that he was going to talk to me during lunch and that it may go past lunch, so if I don’t show up at the student council meeting, just tell them I’m at a meeting.”

“’Kay.” Claire starts to undress too. “It took my father long enough. I’m just going to warn you, it is probably a business meeting regarding you taking ownership of the Northson Company.”

“Thanks for the heads up.” After I finish putting the shampoo in my hair, I opt to do the same for Claire. “It’s really nice that we can have showers together without getting embarrassed. It was a hassle to have showers separately at first.”

“Hey, I’m not the one who avoided it at first, I was the one who suggested it. Don’t go taking credit for it.” Claire complains as I wash her hair for her.

“Who really cares? The main reason I didn’t was because I am a young man, we have ‘special’ needs after all.” I laugh slightly as Claire’s ears go bright red.

“Hey! You said you wouldn’t mention your needs while in the shower!” Claire yells at me as we both start to wash the shampoo out of our hair.

“Meh, anyways, since we are on this topic, when are we going to take the next step? I mean, we’re both consenting adults… or are you waiting until you want children?” I ask this to Claire, who immediately makes a pouting expression.

“Don’t tease me! If we do that now, there is a chance it could ruin both of our high school studies! I’m just waiting until there is no danger to our studies!” Claire doesn’t blush at all as she says this, which is considerable progress from before, where she would become a stuttering mess.

“Don’t be angry, I was just curious you know. I’m married, and I have been for over a month, yet I’m still a virgin. You can’t stop me from being curious!” I raise my arms in a shout as I stick my tongue out at her.

“Idiot.” She smiles as she kisses me.

……

“I’ll see you later Claire.” I kiss Claire quickly before heading out of the school, “Have fun and if anyone bothers you, ask Saunderson for help. I have already given him specific instructions on what to do in what scenario, if he fails, make sure to let me know. Have fun with your lunch!”

“Okay! Bye Logan! I’ll miss you!” She sticks her tongue out at me as she says that.

“I’ll miss you too, Wifey!” I smile and laugh as I jog towards the butler that was waiting at the school gate. I hope it’s for me.

“Mr. Redwood, right this way.” The butler motions to the car as I get close to him.

“Ah, thank you.” I quickly get into the back seat of the car as the butler sits in the driver’s seat.

“My master asked me to ask you if you would like a beverage before arriving. Would you like water, or will you request something else?” The butler calmly asks as he holds out a bottle of cold water.

“I’ll take the water, thanks. How long have you been a butler for the Northson household?” I make some small talk with the butler until we arrive at the Old Man’s mansion.

“We have arrived.” The butler informs me… even though I could see out the window just fine…

“Uh… thanks.” I open the car door and walk towards the mansion.

Now that I really look, I can see security cameras everywhere. I bet there are even some that are hidden too. Makes me wonder just how stupid I am for thinking I could sneak up to the mansion without being noticed.

As I approach the door, a couple maids rush out.

“Welcome, young master Logan, Mr. Northson is in his study. Would you like one of us to guide you?” The maids all bow slightly and the maid that talks is not looking me in the eyes and is staring just in front of my feet.

“Ah… could one of you guide me perhaps. I think I remember the room, but I don’t want to go to the wrong room by accident and end up in a bad situation. Sorry to bother you.” I smile as I talk to the maids.

“Not a problem, young master Logan. We hope that the meeting between you and Mr. Northson goes well.” The only maid that talked guided me towards the Old Man’s study. She knocks on the door.

“Who is it?” The Old Man asks through the door.

“Logan is here, Mr. Northson.”

“Oh, yes. Have him come right in.”

The maid bows to me as I thank her for guiding me. I open the door and walk into the Old Man’s study. He was sitting with his legs up on his desk.

“You were faster than I expected you to be. I was also waiting for my butler to report you and Claire making out in front of half the school again, but I didn’t get that either. You disappoint me, Logan.” The Old Man shakes his head with a smile on his face. His words don’t match that of a parent’s, nor does his expression. “Anyways.” The old man stands up from his chair and stretches, “Where would you like to go to eat? I never planned on eating here in the first place.”

“Um… why just us?” I make a confused expression as I look at the Old Man.

“Spend some time talking about important things… for example, when am I getting a grandchild? I’m getting old, I won’t live forever.” The Old Man has a large smile on his face expecting me to crumble.

“Don’t even get me started!” I look up at the roof and sigh, “I already talked to Claire. She says she wants to wait until we don’t have to worry about high school anymore. I don’t know if I will be able to wait that long!”

The Old Man starts to laugh as we head towards his personal garage full of what I am expecting to be super fancy sport cars.

However, when we enter all I see are normal cars… wait. Let me correct myself. All I see is a single minivan.

“Old Man, is this really what you drive around? I was expecting just under twenty sports cars. Maybe a bookshelf, filled with knawladge.”

“You said that really weird.” The Old Man shakes his head.

“An old reference that I’m sure almost no one will get.” I sigh as the old man opens the driver’s door, “So, what’s the purpose of bringing me out?”

“We’ll talk about it when we arrive. For now. Let’s talk about a few things.” I sit in the front passenger’s seat. “We need to get things straight. I know you are a good kid and all, but you need to be aware that you have tendencies that aren’t so normal. First things first, your ability to get any math question right. Phenomenal skill that can be used in almost every high tier job. I am happy to say that it will make managing a company so much easier than it would be for a normal person.”

“It makes me happy to hear that you think so highly of me.” The Old Man starts the minivan and starts to leave the garage.

“And that’s where it will end.”

“Oh.” I silently lower my head as we pull away from the mansion.

“Okay. It is hard to evaluate you psychologically without a proper test, but you seem to be normal enough now. I want to know… how many people have been killed because of you?”

I keep my head down, not responding to his question at all.

“Okay then. I see you are going to stay silent. That, or you really don’t know. I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt, and just think that you don’t know.” He sighs heavily. “Moving on. You are aware how much blind faith I have put in you? I mean, I married you to my daughter and have publicly announced that you are taking over the Northson Company when you are old enough.”

“I am aware sir. I don’t understand where this is going.”

“Okay then. Let me ask you this. Why are you normal now? You have no record of ever going to a psychiatrist to help you, and you never used any medicines. You’ve also never touched illegal drugs, which, is a surprising thing nowadays. Sadly, most youths unfortunately experiment once or twice… but I’m not one to lecture. Back on topic. What did you do to be ‘normal’ despite all the shit you went through?”

“I cleared my mind. I knew something was wrong with my way of thinking, so I decided to drop everything I knew, and learn from scratch by interacting with a small group of people. At first, I acted like a quiet and shy kid, but quickly opened up after copying the way they did things. It seems to have mostly worked. My bad habits of stealing have stopped completely. I feel urges every now and then, but manage to keep it down by exercising.”

“I see. That would not normally work for others. Actually, the flaw with that is that you had to forget yourself. I do not even know if that is possible.”

“I did it… didn’t I?”

“Well…” The old man wryly smiles, “I guess you are living proof.” The old man leaves the city limits.

“Wait… weren’t we going for lunch?” I ask the Old Man as he shakes his head.

“Yeah, but first I want to take you somewhere important to me. It may clear a few final things up between you and Claire.”

“Wait… don’t tell me…” I slowly frown as I remember the only thing out this side of town.

“Yes. The cemetery.” The Old Man laughs slightly. “It’s been quite some time since I last went there. I’ve been too busy getting everything ready for your takeover of the Northson Company. You should learn to drive and take Claire here.”

“I’m pretty sure it that would be a horrible date.”

“Ha,” The Old Man starts to laugh. “I’m sure she would appreciate it though.” The Old Man goes silent for a while as we enter the cemetery. He stops the car after going to the far end of the cemetery. “This is tough for me… so please don’t tell Claire what happens here.”

“I promise. Man’s honour.” I put my hand over my heart.

“Thanks.” The Old Man gets out of the car. “One last thing. You’re a good kid, don’t mess up like I did.”

We stay silent as I follow the old man down a small path. After a short walk the old man walks up to a grave stone and sits down onto his knees.

It was a smooth, black marble headstone with many carvings of flowers all over it. I read what was written on it.

‘Here lies Claire Northson.

June 26th 1968 – January 15th 1998

In tough times we suffer. When we suffer we grow stronger. When we grow strong enough, we can truly live our life.’

“It was what she wanted written on here…” The Old Ma-… Greg was letting tears fall from his eyes. “She… was terminally ill when we finally found out she was pregnant with the Claire you know. Doctors gave her two more months at most. That wasn’t enough time for Claire to mature in the womb and they asked if we wanted to keep the baby…”

I walk over and sit beside Greg. I pat his shoulder and he continues.

“We kept the child in hopes that she would live long enough to give birth. Miracle after miracle happened… but her condition never got better. She lived for just long enough to give birth. She was able to hold the child for her last breaths. She told me to name it after her.”

“Does it not hurt to look at Claire and see her mother?”

“I’m over it… but as she gets older, she is starting to look more and more like her mother. It hurts sometimes… but I will live on.”

“If it was natural causes… why did you say for me not to mess up?”

The old man looks to the ground as tears continue to slowly hit the ground.

“I wasn’t there for her when she needed me. I was a workaholic, so I never had time to go visit her in the hospital. I visited once a week. My family yelled at me. My trusted employees said they would forcibly take over the company if I didn’t go see her as often as I could. I messed up and I almost wasn’t there for the childbirth. I’m a failure. I wasn’t there for my wife when she needed me most. I vowed to myself after, that no matter what, I will not have any more children and stay faithful to my one true wife.”

“Then… who came to the wedding as Claire’s mother to meet me and my parents?”

“That is my current wife. I treat her the best I can, but she was past the age where she could have children and was widowed. I took her in as a wife in name, but never have we felt real emotions towards each other.”

“I see…”

Greg and I sit there for who knows how long in silence. Greg stands up after a while and starts to walk back towards the car.

“So… now you know Claire’s birth story. When I told Claire about it for the first time, she cried for weeks on end. Logan. I want you to treat her better than I treated my wife. When she is sick, let others take over for you. Don’t overwork yourself… and do not ever think about running away.”

“I will do my best… no. That isn’t the right answer.” I smile at Greg, “I, Logan, promise on my life, that I will never mistreat Claire, and vow to never be unfaithful in any way, shape or form. I vow to you, Greg Northson, that I will run the company to the highest of my abilities without overworking myself.”

Greg nods with a smile. We both get in the car and start to drive back into the city.

“That took longer than I expected, and went better than I expected. You even call me Greg now.”

“I think you at least deserve to be called by your name after what you shared with me. I have common sense you know.”

“Ha,” The old man smiles as he wipes away the dried tears, “I’m so hungry, what do you say we find the unhealthiest food around and have some of it?”

“I like the way you think Old Man!”

“Back to calling me Old Man already!? I’ll get you back for this!”

“Sure you will.” I smile and laugh as we actually go out for lunch.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello everyone!

Today's chapter had a case of my hands were writing whatever they felt like without consulting my brain. So we got this mess of a chapter. Well... I think it may clarify a few things, but it may only add to the confusion. Oh well. not my job.

Besides that, games are fun and are amazing at distracting me.

Have a great day/night!