“Okay,” Ryan replied obediently.

Adrian turned off the light again.

This time, he didn’t leave immediately. Instead, he stood in the darkness for a moment.

Just as he thought.

“Dad, what delicious thing are you making me for breakfast tomorrow?”

“…Ryan!”

“I’m asleep,” a little voice chirped quickly. Then, he burrowed under the covers and went completely still.

Adrian stood in the darkness for a few more seconds. Once he confirmed that the boy had finally settled down for real, he opened the door and left.

As he passed through the living room, he saw Caroline Whitman leaning against the sofa, a cup of herbal tea in her hand. The TV was on, but the volume was turned way down.

Seeing him come out, she asked, “What took you so long to put him to bed tonight?”

Adrian sat down beside her. “I was just asking him a few things.”

“What about?” Caroline asked, curious.

Adrian just gave her a deep look, not saying anything for a moment.

At this, Caroline hugged his arm and gave it a little shake. “What is it? C’mon, tell me. Don’t keep me in suspense. What did you ask him?”

Feeling the soft press against his arm, Adrian said nonchalantly, “Nothing much. Just that when our son saw you talking with Jane Lawson, he wanted to chime in, but I stopped him.”

He briefly recounted the babbling things their son had said before he finally came out.

Caroline’s curiosity was piqued. “Speaking of which, do you really have enemies?”

As far as she knew, the only person who could be considered a rival to Adrian was Vincent Fuller. But Vincent was still in the early stages of building his own company and wasn’t worth worrying about. ‘So who is it at this stage?’

Adrian replied, “It’s a shame, but I don’t currently have any worthy rivals in the business world.”

It wasn’t that he was being arrogant. The “enemies” line was just an excuse he’d made up for Ryan.

These so-called enemies were really just the other branches of the family. He’d been worried they might find out about Ryan and try to pull some dirty tricks behind their backs.

Back then, he hadn’t been sure of his grandfather’s attitude, and the time when Ryan first appeared coincided with a critical period for his company’s shareholding transition.

But now that Gavin Grant knew about the boy, and the changes in Grant Group’s shareholding were nearly complete, he naturally had nothing left to worry about.

Hearing this, Caroline felt relieved.

“I hope I get to see this arrogant, untamable side of you forever.”

Adrian was speechless. “…”

He chuckled. “I’ll do my best.”

As he spoke, he pulled her closer into his embrace. Caroline leaned into him, closing her eyes in comfort.

Adrian idly stroked her hair. “My grandfather and your father spoke to me about the plans for Ryan’s birthday.”

“Mhm, they told me about it in the last couple of days, too.”

According to them, Ryan’s birthday party should just be a simple dinner between our two families.

As for the location…

Gavin Grant’s manor was out of the question. Members of the Grant family’s other branches were always coming and going, and since both Caroline and Adrian were unwilling to make their relationship public, the manor was ruled out.

But Gavin Grant didn’t want the first birthday he’d ever truly celebrated with his great-grandson to lack a certain degree of fanfare.

Who could possibly understand the plight of an old man who desperately wanted to show off his adorable great-grandson but couldn’t do so publicly?

After much consideration, Gavin Grant had to compromise.

They would celebrate it together at the Whitmans’ old family home, but the food would be prepared by Gavin Grant’s personal chef.

Both families had already agreed on this point.

All that remained was to get Adrian and Caroline’s opinions.

Caroline had no objections.

Adrian had just returned to the country. After learning about the plan, his first instinct was to ask Caroline what she thought.

Since she didn’t have any objections, neither did he.

The two of them snuggled on the sofa in silence for a while.

To them, these quiet moments were pleasant and comfortable, even without a word passing between them.

Of course, for Adrian, if he didn’t know about the situation with Sean Winslow, he might have been thoroughly enjoying this moment.

But now… just as he was about to nonchalantly bring it up, Caroline suddenly sat up, stretched, and said, “I’m getting sleepy. I’m going to take a shower and head to bed.”

“Okay.”

When Caroline went to the walk-in closet to get her clothes, she saw Adrian’s suitcase and decided to help him unpack.

She opened the suitcase and saw neatly folded shirts and suits. For a multi-day business trip, his clothes weren’t messy at all.

She took them out, sorting them as she placed them in the wardrobe. When she reached the bottom layer, her fingers brushed against a small velvet box.

‘Another jewelry box.’

Caroline picked it up. It was a square, dark blue box, smaller and a little heavier than any of the other jewelry boxes she had received from him before.

She opened it and saw two rings nestled in the black velvet. Judging by their size, it was a matching pair for a man and a woman, with one of them even set with a diamond.

She picked up the larger one and tried it on her own finger.

Then, she picked up the smaller of the two, turning it over and over in her hand before casually slipping it onto her left ring finger.

It was a perfect fit. The size was exact, down to the millimeter.

‘Why does this man love buying so many rings,’ she muttered to herself.

Last time it was a pair of couple’s rings, and now he’d bought another set.

That made three in total.

Caroline held her hand up to the light, turning the ring slightly before taking it off. As she did, she noticed something seemed to be engraved on the inner band.

Leaning closer, she saw they were the initials of her name and Adrian’s.

Caroline froze.

She thought back to the other two rings Adrian had given her. Neither of them had been engraved with their initials.

No, to be more precise, the previous rings hadn’t been engraved with *both* of their initials together.

The first two rings he gave her had been possessively engraved with only his name.

She had discovered this by chance one day when she took one off to shower.

And that secretly intense man had also taken the ring she gave him and had it engraved with her full name.

“…”

She looked down at the ring on her finger.

Caroline’s heart began to beat a little faster.

She took it off and tried it on her middle and index fingers, but it didn’t fit either of them as perfectly as it had on her ring finger.

A sudden realization dawned on her.

Caroline’s heart began to race for no apparent reason.

She quickly put the rings back in the box.

She took the clothes she’d just put away out of the closet and carefully placed them back in his suitcase.

Then she closed the suitcase and returned it to its original spot, exactly as she had found it.

Once that was done, she grabbed her pajamas and nearly walked into the bathroom in a stiff, uncoordinated daze.

After that one time at the hotel when she felt like she’d showered for a century, this was the second-longest shower Caroline had ever taken.

It was so long that Adrian started to suspect she might have fallen down or fainted from the steam.

And so…

With a slight frown and a serious expression, Adrian walked up to the bathroom door.

Hearing the sound of the shower still running inside, he pushed the door open without a second thought.

“Are you alri—”

As he pushed the door open and stepped inside, Adrian’s voice died in his throat.

The air was thick with steam. Caroline, standing in the shower, was startled by the sudden intrusion. She instinctively threw her arms up to cover herself and spun around, leaving him with only the sight of her back.

The water was still running, and the steam had given her skin a faint pink flush. Droplets trickled down the delicate curves of her shoulder blades.

“…Why did you just barge in like that?! You scared me,” she said, her voice a mixture of embarrassment and annoyance.

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