Chapter 83



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Hayden couldn’t believe his eyes. Noah was such a little boy and he was supposed to be at home. How could he suddenly appear in front of her?

The hotel clerk came over to check on them. With gestures, he asked what was wrong with the child. Hayden took Noah in her arms and explained to the staff in fluent English, “He is my friend’s son, he must be staying at this hotel. I will bring the boy to you later, please don’t worry.”

Seeing that Noah had become attached to Hayden, the hotel staff didn’t hesitate any longer. Then he left relieved.

As soon as the employee had left, Hayden put Noah down.

Crouching down, she asked, “Noah, why are you here? Where’s your father?”

Noah glared at her and responded briskly in sign language.

Considering he couldn’t speak, Hayden changed the way he asked. “Did your dad come here with you?”

Noah nodded.

Hayden frowned. “You and your dad stay at this hotel?”.

Noah nodded again.

“So, why are you here alone?”.

Hearing his question, Noah immediately pouted, unhappiness written all over his face.

Hayden wondered if he would be suffering some aggravation.

He felt helpless. Since he didn’t understand her sign language, he pulled out his phone and dialed Joseph’s number directly.

“I’m sorry. The number you have dialed is unable to take the call at this time. Please…” The call did not connect. Only a mechanical voice could be heard on the other end.

Hayden frowned, wondering what was wrong with Joseph. How could he leave his son alone here? And he couldn’t even reach him on the phone.

As he wondered, he saw out of the corner of his eye that Noah’s neck was all red.

“Noah, what’s wrong with your neck?”

Hayden rushed to open his neck to check. Then he saw that not only his neck, but also his chest was red. It was obvious that he had been sunburned.

After a long while, Noah took his phone and typed in his explanation to show her.

“[Yesterday afternoon, Dad took me to play by the seashore. It hurts burns].”

Hayden couldn’t believe Joseph had arrived yesterday afternoon.

Now it didn’t matter much to him. When he glimpsed those sunburn marks on the little boy, he felt terribly sorry for him. “Your dad didn’t even know how to do anything to protect you from the sun.”

Noah curved his lips, looking pitiful.

Hayden felt sorry for him, so he decided to take care of his sunburn first before thinking about how to find Joseph. Otherwise, Noah would have peeling skin in two days.

Back in his room, as he was applying Noah’s after-sun medicine, the doorbell to his suite rang.

“Noah, hold still. I’ll go get the door.”

From the peephole, Hayden saw Joseph’s ever expressionless face. Then he yanked the door open and blurted out, “Why are you here?”

“Is Noah with you?” Joseph asked firmly.

“Shouldn’t you be with your own son?”.

“Isn’t he here?” Joseph asked again.

Hayden was almost furious. “Joseph Beckham, what kind of father are you? You brought Noah along on vacation, but why can’t you pay more attention to him and take care of him? Don’t you know he was sunburned?”

Joseph’s expression changed slightly. “Let me take a look.”

“Of course.”

As he spoke, Hayden unconsciously motioned to let him into the suite. However, she didn’t realize that the man had a spark of cunning shining through his eyes as he entered.

Joseph tugged on one of Noah’s chubby hands and carefully observed the sunburn marks on his body. With a frown, he told him, “Don’t go out today.”

“What do you mean, ‘don’t go out today’?” Hayden shot her a look and said in an angry tone, “Don’t you know there’s something called sunscreen? Even if you don’t know, you should know about hats and T-shirts, right? I just asked Noah. Yesterday afternoon, under such a strong sun, you let him play with the sand alone with a swimsuit on the seashore. Why didn’t you go with him?”.

Joseph looked at her and solemnly explained, “First of all, it’s too easy to turn the sand into the Great Wall, so I wasn’t interested. Secondly, the sun was too strong.”

“Ho!” Hayden was completely speechless: “You know the sun was too strong, but why did you let Noah play under it?”.

She just felt that Joseph was a father who wasn’t very capable of taking care of his son.

Seeing that Hayden was still scolding Joseph, Noah tugged on her sleeve and showed her what he had just written.

“[I’m starving].”

Only then did Hayden come to his senses. He frowned and said, “Noah’s hungry and you probably didn’t know it. You’re too busy with your job – isn’t your son more important than your job?”

“I understand what you’re saying. A moment ago he was begging for food downstairs, but…”. Joseph’s eyes darkened, his gaze settling on Hayden, “In the blink of an eye, Noah was gone.”

Hayden heard that and her heart clenched. She gaped and realized what she had just done.

If Joseph was downstairs and if she hadn’t taken Noah with her, the hotel staff would take care of the boy and return him to Joseph. However, she decided for herself by taking the child upstairs with her, so she made Joseph look for her son for a while.

Remembering her attitude of a moment ago, Hayden felt his heart rise in his throat. Awkwardly, she coughed and awkwardly explained, “Well…I saw Noah was sunburned, so I took him upstairs to apply some medicine. I didn’t know you were downstairs at the time, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Joseph seemed as distant as usual. He didn’t seem to take her reproach to heart. Extending his hand to Noah, he said, “I ordered lunch downstairs. Noah, come eat with me.”

Noah hesitated a moment. He tugged on Hayden’s sleeve, hinting at Joseph with his eyes.

Joseph looked at him and then at Hayden.

He said, “Noah wants you to join us.”

At that moment, Hayden was alone in the hotel. She didn’t know when Freddie and Stella would return from the sea. Compared to eating alone, she preferred to have lunch with this little fellow. Therefore, she did not refuse.

During lunch, Noah asked where Stella had gone.

“Oh, she went sailing with Freddie. They went to a nearby uninhabited island.”

Hearing this, Noah made an envious face and looked at Joseph expectantly.

Joseph took a sip of tea. Then he said in a flat tone, “You can’t swim. If you go there, you can only play with the sand on the beach. So it doesn’t matter what sand you play with.”

“Why, Noah, you want to go there, too?” Hayden asked.

Seeing Noah nod, he suggested, “Mr. Beckham, why don’t you take him there? I hear that island isn’t far from here, it’s only a ten minute boat ride from the dock.”

Joseph stood thoughtfully for a while. Looking at Noah, whose eyes were full of anticipation, he thought for a moment and nodded, “All right, let’s go there after lunch.”

“That’s right. Since you’ve taken him out for fun, you can’t let him stay at the hotel all the time, can you?”

Hayden was quite pleased with Joseph’s attitude. Even though he wasn’t capable of taking care of his son, he was willing to listen to others with an open mind. It seemed he wasn’t desperate.

After lunch, Hayden pulled a bottle of sunscreen out of his wallet and handed it to Joseph. “Take this with you. Apply some every hour to Noah. Don’t let him get sunburned again.”

Joseph took no notice and said seriously, “Noah means you’re coming with us.”

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