Chapter 0140
Hannah
The kids all looked up in unison at the sound of the voice. One little boy gasped: “Alpha Drake!”
Indeed, there he was: Drake, in all his glory, standing against a nearby wall with his hands in his pockets. He had
a grin on his
face as he pushed away from the wall and approached.
“Hannah,” he said, stopping a few feet in front of me. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”
| rose and wiped my hands off on the front of my pants. “I could say the sthing about you,” | said, walking a
little ways away with him so we could have sprivacy and avoid riling up the kids even further. “I wouldn't
guess you'd take part in something like this.”
Is it really so surprising?” Drake raised an eyebrow, but the smile on his lips remained, “I saw the advertisements
for this and decided to contribute to the fundraising efforts.” He held up a bag of mu***ns.
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| couldn’t help but smile in return. “That's very kind of you.”
Drake merely shrugged and reached into the bag, breaking off a piece of a mu****n and popping it into his
mouth. “I'm really just being selfish because | wanted something sweet for breakfast. Want some?”
| shook my head and held my hand up to stop him. “Thank you,” | said, “but I'm alright.”
Peering past me, Drake nodded his head toward the children, who were now busy making paper turkeys using
the outlines of their hands for the bodies. “You seem to be good with kids. Not that I'm surprised, after how you
treated Adam at the acceptance ceremony.”
“I love kids,” | said, following his gaze. “They're... innocent. Untouched by decades of misery.”
Drake co***d his head at me. “Spoken like an angsty teen,” he teased.
Rolling my eyes, | waved my hand at him dismissively. 1 didn’t mean it like that,” | said. “It’s just... It’s nice to
have a positive impact on children-to give them those happy memories so that our next generation can be better
than we were.”
Drake paused, seemingly absorbing my words for a moment, before he nodded. “Well... You're certainly doing a
good job of that,” he said. “With Adam, too; he loves that Optimus Prtoy you gave him. It's like his favorite
thing. | never got to thank you on his behalf.”
“Zoe is letting you see him?” | asked, tilting my head to the side.
He shrugged, and for a moment, his eyes took on a faraway look as a muscle ticked in his jaw. Occasionally. Not
enough.”
| opened my mouth to speak, but no words would come. It wasn’t just that | felt bad for Drake since he couldn't
see his son as much as he liked-it was also that, someday, Noah might be in the ssituation. But Noah
deserved it, | kept telling myself. He would only view our child as a key to his lineage, anyway, and besides... If
he was really sleeping with Zoe, then | wasn’t obligated to feel sorry for him. Not now, not
ever
“Well... You know he’s with his grandparents right now, | said.
Chapter 0140
+25 BONUS
Drake's eyebrows shot up. “He... Why?” he blurted out.
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“You didn’t know?”
“No,” Drake said, slowly dropping the second piece of m***n back into the bag with suddenly-slack fingers.
“What, did something happen?”
“Nothing too serious.” | shrugged, “Zoe had her appendix out the other day. She had Adam sent to stay with his
grandparents while she recovers.”
Drake's mouth opened and closed a few times like a fish out of water, his eyes swiveling back and forth. | could
see a look of hurt pass through his gaze, followed by anger.
“And she wouldn't askto take him?” he growled. “His own father?”
| didn’t know what to say, | hadn't expected Drake to be so hurt, but then again, | supposed that was naive of
me. Of course he would be upset that the mother of his child wouldn't reach out to him in a situation like that. If |
were in his position, | would have been furious.
Finally, with a huff, he folded his arms across his chest. “You know, | really thought we might have been getting
somewhere at that competition,” he said softly. “I thought she was finally beginning to caround. | guess I'll
have to double my efforts.”