novelraw Chapter 655: The Perennially Cold Heart Is Gradually Softening
Chapter 655: The Perennially Cold Heart Is Gradually Softening
Benjamin returned to Southeast Asia, and the unfamiliar climate combined with his trouble sleeping quickly made him ill after two days.
"My head feels heavy, like someone hit me," the little girl said in a tearful voice over the video call. "Mommy, Benjamin feels terrible. Please come and hold me."
"Where’s your Daddy?" Delphine’s heart sank the moment she saw the little girl’s flushed face on the screen. She worried it might be a fever and asked Ignatius anxiously as she fidgeted nervously.
"Daddy doesn’t care about Benjamin." Benjamin’s large black grape-like eyes shimmered with tears, and she fought hard to keep them from falling.
"Then go find Grandpa Butler and tell him you’re sick, okay?" Delphine started pacing back and forth in the living room, unable to calm her racing thoughts.
"Alright, Benjamin will go downstairs now." Holding the phone tightly, the little girl’s footsteps tapped against the floor as she made her way downstairs. Soon, the call ended.
Delphine couldn’t sit still as she pictured her child navigating the old wooden staircase of the Leclair estate. What if she tripped and fell? Her mind raced as she hurriedly dialed Ignatius’s number.
After returning to Southeast Asia, Ignatius had been overwhelmingly busy. His chest injury hadn’t fully healed, yet on his second day back, he conducted a press conference to stabilize public sentiment. That afternoon, Jocelyn Yeager led a group demanding the reopening of the ancestral Qin Memorial Temple to reestablish the ranking of the noble families.
Ignatius sneered coldly, thinking that Reginald Yeager probably wasn’t aware of Griffith Squire’s return. However, he couldn’t be bothered to focus his energy on such matters and dismissed them for later, planning to deal with the issue after the New Year.
In the tea room, Ignatius busied himself sorting through a pile of critical work when he saw Benjamin strolling downstairs, phone in hand.
The little girl clutched a fluffy rabbit doll unhappily and stood outside the tea room, peering at him with her big, shiny black eyes.
Feeling a headache come on at the sight of the pouting child, Ignatius pushed aside his papers, sighed, and said, "Come here, Daddy will hold you."
Just as the words left his lips, his phone rang. Seeing Delphine’s name on the caller ID, his sharp phoenix eyes deepened. He gestured to Benjamin to remain quiet before answering the call.
"Benjamin’s sick! Find a doctor to check on her right away. She’s so small—how can you let her navigate the stairs alone? Go check on her immediately!" Her soft, anxious voice flowed through the phone. Ignatius reached out to caress Benjamin’s head gently, his lips curling into a faint smile.
Perhaps it was because he was getting older, but ever since he became a father, he found his long-hardened heart slowly softening.
Over the years, it was rare for her to call him. While this fact made him secretly happy, his tone remained indifferent as he responded, "Benjamin is already four years old. She’s a big girl now. This is just a minor issue; she probably caught a chill by kicking off her blanket. Nothing serious."
Delphine was speechless with rage. She slammed the phone down and sat on the couch, trembling with anger.
A four-year-old child is still a treasure in her mother’s arms. If catching a chill and getting sick isn’t a big deal, then what is? Is this how he has been raising their daughter all these years? Somehow, Benjamin turned out mature and lovely despite everything.
Frustrated and upset, Delphine got up, began packing, and then took Nicholas in her arms to purchase tickets for a flight to Southeast Asia.
"Mommy is mad," Benjamin murmured softly as she hugged her rabbit doll and nestled against her Daddy. "I cried to Mommy earlier on the phone."
Ignatius’s phoenix-like eyes grew darker as he smiled faintly, stroking his daughter’s fuzzy little head. In his deep voice, he asked, "Benjamin, do you love Mommy that much?"
Benjamin nodded firmly.
With a slow curve of his lips, the man leisurely remarked, "Then when your Mommy arrives in Southeast Asia, hold onto her leg tightly. Don’t let her leave. Got it?"