Luca caught a glimpse of


    Mason’s profile and felt a strange sense of familiarity. He couldn’t quite ce where he had seen it before. Before he could look closer, N had


    already put the mask on Mason. Standing up, N faced Damon, trying to appear


    calm. “Mr. Sumner, Mr. Fleming, what a coincidence.” Damon nodded. “Thepany has an amusement park project, so we’re here to do some researc


    Mason looked up at him, and for a brief moment, their eyes met.


    Damon felt an odd, indescribable sensation. He usually didn’t care for children, finding them a hassle, but there was something


    about Mason that stirred none of his usual annoyance.


    “This child…” he began to say.


    N instinctively pulled Mason behind her but quickly realized how overprotective she was


    being. She forced a smile to maintain herposure. “He’s my son. He’s a bit


    shy… Well, since you’re here on business, I won’t hold you up. Goodbye.”


    Without giving Damon a chance to respond, she immediately pulled Mason away and left quickly.


    It wasn’t until their figures disappeared that Luca, unable to contain his surprise, muttered, “I didn’t know Ms. Kinsey had a child this


    big already… I don’t remember hearing anything about her getting married.”


    Damon pulled his gaze back, his expression indifferent. “Let’s go.”


    Even though Damon


    remained focused on his work that entire afternoon, his mind kept wandering. The strange feeling from his brief moment of eye contact


    with Mason lingered, and he couldn’t shake the memory of those eyes.


    He thought he must be overworked, allowing such irrelevant thoughts to distract


    him. Once the amusement park project in Capitarnia was finalized, he decided he would take a few days off to rest.


    On the other side, N had been preupied and distracted ever since their encounter with Damon.


    Mason noticed her restlessness but remained quiet, though a thoughtful glint shone in his eyes.


    N had been contemting how to prevent Damon from


    discovering Mason’s existence. She even considered sending Mason abroad. In her worry, she didn’t notice how unusually quiet Mason had


    be.


    It wasn’t until they returned home that Mason broke the silence.


    After changing his shoes and heading toward the living room, he suddenly asked, “Mom, that man we saw today… is he my dad?”


    N froze, her body going rigid as her face turned pale.


    Ever since Mason could remember, he had never seen his father. There wasn’t a single photo of his father


    in their home. When he was little and noticed that his friends had dads, he had once asked, in his halting toddler speech, where his own father was.


    At the time, N had told him that his dad had gone far away before he was born and that he might nevere back.


    As Mason grew older and learned to read, he realized that the “far away” ce his mom had mentioned was heaven. He had also learned a word for it–


    dead.


    He hadn’t felt too sad. After all, he had


    never known his father or what it felt like to have one. N took great care of him, and to him, that was enough.


    Still, when he saw other kidsughing while being carried on their dads‘ shoulders, he sometimes couldn’t help but feel a twinge of envy.


    Later, he noticed that when N saw him watching other kids with their


    fathers, she would get sad, her eyes clouding with an emotion he couldn’t quite understand. Although he didn’t fullyprehend it, he could sense her s


    To avoid making N sad, he had stopped looking at other kids with envy.


    &


    Everything changed when he entered kindergarten, and some of the other kids


    began to exclude him They would call him names,beling him “a kid without a dad“. After a fight with those children, N


    had had toe to the school.