The CEO's Seductive Doll-Chapter 143: Royall Family
"When was the last time you visited me, son?" Mr. Royall asked, his eyes fixed on Evan as he forked a piece of filet mignon and brought it to his lips.
"More or less a year ago," Evan answered, taking a sip of his wine. "Why’d you ask, Father?"
"You look... different since the last time I saw you," Mr. Royall said, hesitating before finishing his sentence.
"Do I look older?" Evan meant it as a joke, but much to his surprise, Mr. Royall nodded in agreement.
"Yes, exactly!" the Royall patriarch exclaimed. "You look like you’ve aged a decade in just a single year!"
"Ah," Evan replied dryly. "Freiheit said something similar when we last saw each other."
They were currently eating dinner inside the Royall Mansion, specifically in its unreasonably large dining room. The room was designed to accommodate at least a hundred people, yet tonight, only two of them, Mr. Royall and Evan, sat at the massive table.
Evan glanced around, taking in the grandiosity of the room.
Although he grew up in this mansion, it always felt like it was his first time seeing the place. There were chandeliers, expensive antique pieces of furniture, and portraits of Mr. Royall and kids when they were children, teenagers, and adults on the wall.
Back in the day, this room would have been filled with the laughter and chatter of Mr. Royall and his three children. Now, it was completely empty.
’Even though Father has his attendants and other workers living here,’ Evan thought as he gracefully sliced the meat on his plate, ’how sad it must be living alone in such a huge mansion.’
"Speaking of Freiheit," Mr. Royall said, thankfully changing the topic because it was greatly bothering Evan that two people told him he looked older. "You know what you did earlier was something your brother would do."
"But the difference between Freiheit and me," Evan began. "Is that if he were the CEO, that press conference wouldn’t be about admitting to a relationship with a co-worker but the exact opposite."
He rubbed his chin, humming to himself. "Even worse, I would imagine that the press conference would happen at least once every month."
Evan wanted to laugh and tell his father that it was one hell of an exaggeration, but after a moment of contemplation, he realized that Mr. Royall was probably right.
"Did you make that guess because you did the exact same thing while you were the CEO?" Evan teased.
Mr. Royall laughed. "I only bedded one co-worker throughout my years as the CEO!"
"Freiheit’s mother?" Evan forced himself to ask because he didn’t exactly want to know about his father’s sexcapades, but curiosity got the best of him.
"Oh, no," he denied. "Though that woman was the reason why Freiheit’s mother and I divorced."
"You had a divorce?" Evan gasped. "I didn’t know you got married in the first place!"
"So all this time, you thought Freiheit was my son out of wedlock?" Mr. Royall frowned.
"Not exactly," he said as he continued eating his food. "More of that, I never gave it much thought. All I knew was that I never met a Mrs. Royall growing up in this mansion."
A tired smile formed on the patriarch’s lips. "And now I deeply regret it," he said in a low voice, yet Evan was able to hear it. "Anyway, I’m glad that you’ve started to venture out of your serious, no-nonsense personality that you instilled in yourself since you were young."
"It’s because of Eternity..." Evan smiled before realizing that he had yet to verbally introduce her to Mr. Royall. "Eternity Doll, that’s the name of my fiancée. Many people have told me that I’ve changed ever since I’ve met her."
The founder nodded, returning Evan’s gentle smile. "I can see that you’ve changed for the better."
"Truly," Evan chuckled, feeling warmth spreading in his chest whenever he was asked about Eternity.
"You still haven’t told me how you two met," Mr. Royall reminded him. "Can you tell me the tale of how a girl with an odd name managed to snatch the heart of a woman-hater of a CEO?"
Evan froze, his icy blue eyes widening in shock.
Disregarding the fact that his father called Eternity’s name weird and implied Evan was a woman-hater (which was true), he should’ve expected that Mr. Royall would soon ask this question. But for some reason, Evan didn’t prepare himself for this moment.
Of course, there was no way in hell that Evan would admit that Eternity was a sex doll, originating from the mysterious island of Manika. He also contemplated feeding Mr. Royall the same story he gave Cynthia, but there was a high chance that Mr. Royall might accuse Eternity of being a golddigger if Evan used that cover-up.
"Evanescence?" Mr. Royall called out, furrowing his eyebrows. "You look kind of sick. Did the food make you feel ill?"
"Ah, no, no," he said, shaking his head and taking a bite out of his filet mignon to prove his point. "It’s quite delicious, if I were, to be honest. Give my regards to the chef!"
The patriarch beamed as if he were the one who cooked the meal himself. "I’ll tell Chef Rugie your compliments."
Evan sighed in relief, expecting his father to finally give up on the topic.
"So?" But much to his dismay, Mr. Royall still persisted. "How did you meet?"
’Here goes nothing,’ Evan thought, internally preparing himself to make up some random story on the spot just to get this conversation over with.
Just as he was about to open his mouth, the phone inside his trouser pocket started ringing loudly.
"Excuse me, father," Evan fished out his phone, only to see his brother’s name as the caller. "Freiheit is calling."
Mr. Royall wrinkled his forehead, a look of surprise in his eyes. "What a coincidence! Go ahead, take it."
Evan nodded gratefully and stood up from his seat. He went outside of the dining room and answered the call.
"Freiheit, perfect timing," he said, trying to mask his relief. "What’s wrong?"
"WHAT’S WRONG?!" Freiheit shouted on the line, causing Evan to pull his phone away from his ears. "YOU TELL ME WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU!"
Evan frowned in confusion. "What do you mean, Freiheit?"
"WHY THE FUCK DID YOU PROPOSE TO A SEX DOLL IN FRONT OF THE FUCKING WORLD TO SEE?!"
