The Resilient Lady Collins

Chapter 107: Power (1)

"Our son has been acting unlike himself since that bastard came around and I seem to be the only one interested in what is happening to Victor. Would it hurt you to be a parent for once?" Layla questioned, looking down at Hank.

Hank wished at this very moment he could lose his hearing. "Leave the boy be. You should be glad that he is going out more. He has been cooped up in this house long enough."

"Because he has been unwell. We can’t have him going all around the town and I don’t know where he is. Do something about it," Layla pleaded with Hank. Why was she the only parent concerned about what was happening to Victor?

Everything felt out of order since Ian returned. Life was going so well before then and now she had to be worried about her son. Why couldn’t Ian just crawl back to wherever he had been hiding all these years?

"You want me to stop our son who spent plenty of days, even weeks trapped inside our home because he wasn’t well, from going outside?" Hank asked, wanting her to say it in those words.

Hank liked that Victor wasn’t stuck with his mother here. The more Victor went around the town, the more believable it was that he was no longer sick.

"You know as well as I do that he is leaving to go see that bastard son of yours," Layla argued.

That was the only problem. The legitimate son should not be seen with the bastard.

"That is his brother. Isn’t it time that you stop referring to him as a bastard? You wanted a son so bad that you pushed me into his mother’s arms now you act like Ian’s birth was only my fault. You can’t forget your role in it and keep pushing the blame on me," Hank said.

He was tired of Layla forgetting that he only started the affair because she believed she could not have a child. Layla had pushed him into the arms of another woman and acted like he went behind her back to do it.

"When I said to stop seeing her, you should have stopped. You knew that your only duty was to have a child with her and then pay her off to leave. Yet I ended up with that whore still being here-"

"She is not a whore," Hank corrected Layla.

"You make me sick," Layla sneered, disgusted by the man before her. Years later he was still defending a woman who was no longer in their lives.

"Then leave," Hank proposed. She was complaining so much that he wouldn’t care about the bad attention it would bring to their lives and just wanted silence.

"And let you bring her here to enjoy what I have created for you? I would rather stomach seeing your face every day than let you bring her here. You agreed with that plan because you had always wanted her. I saw the way you looked at the maids before," Layla said, knowing that he always had it inside of him to be a cheater.

"And yet you came up with the bright idea to have me sleep with one to get you a child," Hank replied in a dull tone. "I never wanted her before you sent her to me. I have apologised for my interest that followed but I will not do so anymore. Not until you acknowledge your role in this all."

Hank stood up from his chair, giving up on reading the paper. He couldn’t get any reading done with Layla being in his ear about Victor, Ian, and now a woman he hadn’t seen in years.

Layla followed Hank, not done with their conversation. "I have no fault in that matter. I told you to stop when I didn’t like it but you continued. Had I not become pregnant with Victor, who knows how many bastards we could have had running around here."

"You were perfectly fine with having bastards when you could not have a child of your own. You were doing everything you could to please me so I wouldn’t send you out of here. For the last time, I am with the woman that I love," Hank said for what would be the last time.

Hank didn’t feel the need to keep reminding Layla of this. She should know that she was the one he wanted since she was still here. What more did she want from him?

"You only love me now because I sent that woman away," Layla replied. If that whore was still present, Layla did not doubt that Hank wouldn’t be claiming to love her. He would have long tried to chase her out of there.

Hank stopped walking after hearing Layla’s wrong assumption. "Let us make one thing clear today, if I loved that woman as much as you claim, what makes you think I would have allowed you to drive her out of here? You don’t hold that kind of power, Layla."

He continued, "Just sit quietly with a pretty smile and help our son be better than he is now."

Layla’s hands shook with anger. What Hank said didn’t end her thoughts about who he loved. It only upset her as she realised that he could bring back Ian’s mother at any point. "Hank!" She yelled, storming after him.

It would be over her dead body that she didn’t have any kind of power to keep anyone out of this home.

She would forever be Layla Kingsley and that name alone gave her power.

"Please find somewhere to sit, Layla. This behaviour no longer suits you at that age," Hank said, looking over his shoulder at the mess behind him.

She was only forcing him to lose interest in her with the way she acted. What man wanted to always be answering these questions and putting up with the yelling?

"Oh, Victor. You are home just on time. Your mother has had a little too much to drink so take care of her for me before she gets the servants talking," Hank said, patting Victor on his back just as he passed him.

Victor was deeply confused as to what was happening with his parents right now. When he left they were both in a good mood now his mother was chasing after his father like she wanted to hit him. ’I don’t want to care for her in this state,’ he thought.

Whenever his father made his mother angry, why did they turn to him to be the one to fix it?

Victor regretted coming home early as he could have avoided the mess that was before him.

Layla tried to hide her anger now that Victor was present but there was still some left as she wanted to know where he had been going off to. "Are you trying to upset me like your father does? Do you plan to follow in his footsteps that way?"

"No mother," Victor answered. "Let us get you to bed so you can get some rest." freēwēbηovel.c૦m

"Your father, you mustn’t inherit his terrible side. Do you hear me?" Layla asked.

"Yes, mother."