Chapter 153 Future Paths

“And you, go over there!”

Lyla looked straight into Mark’s eyes before he could even finish his sentence.

Mark was stunned for a moment before he looked at Lyla in disbelief. He pointed at himself. “Me?”

Lyla impatiently nodded and ordered him to go over. “Go!”

“You…”

“Now!”

Mark was speechless.

“Daddy, just come over here.” Hansel took pleasure in his daddy’s misfortune.

Mark glared at the boy before he reluctantly stood up and walked over.

Lyla crossed her legs on the couch and said nonchalantly, “Tell me, what happened.”

The father, son and daughter trio looked at each other awkwardly and did not say a word.

Lyla pointed at Gretel, “You, you first!”

Gretel said, “Mommy, I don’t know what happened. This has nothing to do with me, you know I love you!”

Lyla was speechless.

Gretel was good with her words to distract people’s attention, shift the topic away and play dumb.

Lyla did not expect the girl to speak the truth anyway, the girl would submit whenever Hansel gave in.

She then looked at Mark but Mark answered her gaze with an annoyed look. Before he could speak a word, Lyla shifted her attention to Hansel, “You, speak!”

Mark was rendered speechless.

“Mommy…” Hansel found himself in a difficult situation. ‘Should I tell her? Should I?’

“SPEAK!”

Hansel puckered his lips before he finally opened up, “Okay… Daddy and I went out last night to deal with some matters and the police wrongly took us in. After the misunderstanding cleared up, the police officers sent us back.”

“Matters? What kind of matters?” Lyla sharply captured the point in his explanation.

“Uhmm... tiny matters?”

“What kind of matters requires you to go out in the middle of the night and stay out for the whole night?” Lyla asked nonchalantly.

“Uhmm…” Hansel was a little hesitant.

“I will only ask this once. If you don’t want to tell me now, I won’t listen to what you have to say later!” Lyla said word by word. She might not be loud but it was deterring.

Hansel knew his mommy was angry.

He was never afraid when others were mad at him, except for his mommy, he was truly afraid of her.

“Mommy, don’t…”

“Not speaking? Okay!” Lyla feigned standing up.

“Okay okay!” Hansel gave in.

Lyla stared at the boy before leaning back on the couch.

Hansel knew he could never keep it a secret forever. His daddy already knew his secret and unless he planned to keep it from his mommy forever, which he did not plan to do, he had to come clean.

He had always been looking for the perfect timing to tell them but no matter how he planned or how long he waited, he was defeated by fate. It was time for him to unveil his secret.

Hansel looked at Lyla. “Mommy, I can tell you, but promise me you won’t be mad.”

“We’ll see.”

Hansel took a deep breath before he said, “Mommy, you should know that your son, me, is good with computers right?”

“Then?”

“When I was in L.A., I joined a hacker competition.”

“Go on.”

“And… I accidentally got first place.”

Lyla had a feeling that Hansel’s ‘accidentally’ actually meant ‘intentionally’.

Deep down in her heart, she was proud of her son.

“I made two hacker friends in that competition. We quickly became close friends since we spent a lot of time together researching and practicing.”

“Cut to the chase!”

Hansel looked serious and decided to go straight into the point. “I then found out that the two of them are actually affiliated with gangsters, and I… got in.”

Lyla furrowed her brows. ‘What? Gangsters? Did I hear him right?’

She looked at Hansel in disbelief. “What did you say?”

Hansel looked at her with a nervous look, “Mommy, you said you wouldn’t be mad.”

“No, wait, hold on a moment. Come here.” Lyla waved at him.

Hansel shook his head and refused to comply. He dared not go over.

“I said COME HERE!”

Hansel was shocked. He took a step forward.

“What did you say?”

“Mommy, you promised me you wouldn’t be mad!”

“I said we’ll see!”

Again, Hansel was rendered speechless.

Lyla took a deep breath to try to calm herself down.

“Are you kidding me?” Lyla asked.

“Mommy, I swear to God I am not lying to you this time!” Hansel raised his hand.

“So you are telling the truth?”

Hansel nodded seriously.

Lyla was trying to wrap her head around the revelation, she was thinking about how to accept it.

Her son was 7 years old and he was in a gang? Who would believe her? Or him?

If she did not know Hansel well enough and knew that the boy would not lie to her, she would never believe him.

She looked at Mark. “You knew this already?”