The Retired CEO's Guide To Being Spoiled-Chapter 87: The Mastermind

Seeing that the boy had woken up, Ethan Caldwell lowered his voice to give Helen Lloyd a few more instructions before ending the call. Afterward, he climbed onto the bed and gathered Julian Sterling into his arms. Julian buried his face in Ethan’s chest, rubbing against it a couple of times in discomfort. The sensation of those soft cheeks brushing back and forth against his chest made Ethan’s blood stir significantly more than usual.

However, it seemed he had used a bit too much force, affecting the wound on his cheek, causing Julian to let out a very soft "ah." Ethan Caldwell hurriedly lowered his head to look at the person nestled in his chest: "What’s wrong, dear?"

Julian shook his head, once again presenting his slightly swollen and red cheek for him to see. He said nothing, only pouting his lips. Seeing this, Ethan Caldwell felt endless heartache, and could only plant a gentle kiss on the boy’s cheek.

"I’ll ask Kieran Talbot in a bit to see if there is any medicine to apply to your cheek." After saying that, Ethan Caldwell feared that the boy had been hit too hard, affecting the mucous membrane inside, so he said again: "Open your mouth, let me take a look."

Julian also knew what he was worried about. In truth, it wasn’t severe enough to cause internal damage, it was just that the skin on the outside stung a little. Nevertheless, he obediently opened his mouth, allowing Ethan Caldwell to examine him thoroughly.

"Fortunately, it hasn’t affected the inside."

Ethan Caldwell muttered, one hand stroking the boy’s cheek, the other hand slipping down to massage his waist. He performed this task with such frequency that his hands had become overly accustomed to it. As for Julian, he narrowed his eyes, thoroughly enjoying the service provided by President Caldwell. A while later, he finally used his hoarse voice to ask: "Is something the matter?"

Ethan Caldwell let out a hum of affirmation, recounting the story of how his bodyguards had subdued Aaron Sterling and taken him away to be locked up. Then he asked Julian: "How do you want to handle this?"

"Handle it according to the law, of course." Julian yawned, lazily stretching his body: "I am a very law-abiding person, you know."

Ethan Caldwell said nothing, only gazing at him intently. Although the lighting in the room was poor, Julian could still feel the burning hot stare of this man. Puzzled, he asked again: "What are you looking at?"

"I am waiting for you to continue speaking."

Julian raised an eyebrow, asking back: "Say what?"

"I don’t believe that before handing him over to the police, you won’t have a hand in any of this."

"Him" here was obviously Aaron Sterling.

Hearing this, Julian couldn’t help but burst into laughter; he truly understood him too well. They hadn’t known each other for that long, yet he understood the other’s personality so clearly—truly worthy of being the person who shared his pillow and blanket day and night.

"I don’t think he has the guts to prepare this entire plan by himself." Julian said. Obviously, this was something both of them had guessed. Aaron Sterling had his tricks, certainly, but not to the extent of being capable of constructing such a perfect scenario like this. As for knowing how to prepare for emergency contingencies, he did not have the ability to do so.

Moreover, before being captured, he had gone to meet Gabriel Cole. If one were to say this matter was unrelated to that man, Julian wouldn’t believe it even if he were beaten to death.

Julian weighed his thoughts for a moment, but still decided to tell Ethan Caldwell. After all, even if he didn’t say it, Ethan would investigate and find out anyway.

"I think the person standing behind this is Gabriel Cole."

Ethan Caldwell raised an eyebrow, and seemingly afraid that Julian hadn’t seen it, he let out a "hmm" sound.

Julian slowly spat out a few words: "Before I was captured, I met him."

He keenly sensed Ethan Caldwell’s mood sink. It seemed he wasn’t very pleased with this matter. Julian thought for a moment and seemed to understand why.

The last time that man was mentioned, Ethan Caldwell had shown a very clear attitude of repulsion.

Although the original novel made no mention of any friction or disputes between him and Gabriel Cole, it was obvious—for the most part, talented people tended to envy one another.

Not to mention that Gabriel Cole was a man of many schemes and was cruel in his methods. Surely, on the business battlefield, the two of them had clashed not just a few times, and furthermore, Ethan Caldwell’s situation was not very optimistic.

It was possible that he lost more often than he won, and there was a high probability that the losses were due to that man playing dirty tricks.

That was why Ethan Caldwell disliked him so much.

So, Julian quickly took the man’s hand and planted a kiss on the back of his large hand, his tone full of reliance: "He claimed that he knew me from before so he asked to meet, mainly using Seraphina Cole as a shield. You know, I’ve forgotten some things, so I wasn’t entirely sure about him."

Speaking of this, Julian chuckled: "Perhaps he thought that I didn’t know much, so he even fabricated that the relationship between him and Seraphina was very good. You tell me, if we told Seraphina about this, what would happen?"

Ethan Caldwell said nothing. Julian then leaned his body up, kissed him on the cheek, and cajoled: "Alright, don’t sulk like a child."

In reality, Ethan Caldwell wasn’t sulking. He was just pondering the problem of this matter. He didn’t understand why Gabriel Cole would do this. He wouldn’t create a plan like this just to break the relationship between him and Julian, would he?

After all, to the outside world, Julian Sterling was just an unloved child of the Sterling family, a subject of a commercial marriage with Ethan Caldwell.

Moreover, Gabriel Cole would not set a trap as crude as this one. It was too simple; although there were many backup moves, it did not resemble the way he usually operated. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Gabriel Cole was a person who, once he plotted, would absolutely not leave any loopholes, nor would he leave clues for others to detect him.

The plan this time looked perfect on the surface, but looking anywhere, one could see holes.

Ethan Caldwell spoke of this matter to Julian, and the boy also fell into deep contemplation.

Julian had never had deep contact with this person; at most, there was the conversation from that afternoon and a few descriptions in the original novel. He had always thought that the reason that man had such smooth sailing was because he was the main character. But now it seemed that the character setting itself wasn’t bad.

Very intelligent, and also extremely sinister.