Chapter 277 - 277

Henry's primary school class had been such a comfort bubble to him as the pieces of his parents fading relationship was exploding all around him.  There he could be anyone and be excited about anything as he was protected by all of his adoring teachers. The care that he had been shown was hard to find reciprocated in his new surroundings.  First he had lost everything he had known. Afterwards, only letters that were written mechanically in his father's business dialect that he had difficulty understanding. They were like lectures hand delivered to him in his cold dorm in Canada.  They did little to warm his already bitter heart that was dealing with so much loss.

It was strange too that his uncle would know so much about these events.  Henry felt curious enough that he had to ask the question. "Although you were the middle person in all of this, it's almost as if you took both sides.  How did you accomplish such a feat without being entangling in their fight? If you're explaining this to me as I see it, you should have become a weapon too like I was?  How did you manage to not be?"

"Covertly.  On the outside I was your father's man through and through.  But you know the emotions never leave you if someone had truly gone out of their way to understand you.  She was truly one of my family members as if I had brought her with me from home. To lose such a vital friendship was torture so of course I didn't.  Sheng Mei understood my feelings so I used her fashion friendships to be discreet. Sheng Mei knew her brother best so there was a relationship until she passed on.  She got a lot of the letters you wrote to me about how much you hated Canada and the little stories about your friends. She got all your report cards and mischief slips.  Even when business took us further away Sheng Mei was there to make sure she knew what was going on with you. She would sometimes get a little angry that you never wrote about her . . . asking how she was doing." Nadius smiled at the door where he knew his wife had gone off. "We had a handwriting specialist write her a note in your handwriting where you wrote a poem to her. It wasn't true of course and we were careful in making in vague so it wasn't something she could use in court.  It made her more determined which is what we silently wanted."

"What you wanted?  What about what I needed?  You know I would have loved to meet her.  I really did wish to see her when I came to the city for breaks, but I knew if I asked my father it wouldn't end well." Henry looked immensely saddened.

Nadius's arms tightened as he pulled away.  "You know you had nothing to fear. You should have asked when I was around."

Henry looked out the window as he realized the drama he had always imagined in his little nuclear family had affected so much more in his life than he had previously imagined.  "He sent me so far away from everything I knew that I was worried I would go somewhere worse. He always spoke about a retired general who had a boarding school in the Russian mountains where I would become a man."

"My old stomping grounds?  Oh he used that! How funny!  Also, not a school that takes foreigners.  I would have to adopt you to get you into that which as his heir, Conrad would have never allowed that." Nadius touched Henry's shoulders. "It was just a tough love such that he wanted you to make him proud at that school.  It wasn't cheap for you to go there. Some people express love in different ways. He was trying to look after you. Conrad had his own trials that haunted him.  He didn't want you to suffer in New York while the families were all talking about it. He was hoping that since ou were so young you wouldn't have formed a strong attachment.  You never really spoke up about wanting her and your letters were for more part chipper, though forced he thought it was the best idea. His intent was for you to be as strong as possible so he tried."

"Strong?  I'm the opposite.  I'm so far from what he wanted from me and my life . . ." Henry chuckled darkly, there was a strange manic quality as the sound echoed off the walls.  It chilled Nadius in an unpleasant way. "I've done nothing my whole life but run and hide from every mention of their separation.  It's haunted me like I've been followed by something I can't control."

"Stay with me here, Henry.  It's alright. If you have bad emotion, you much let it out or it'll fester and you'll end up in a worse place.  We didn't know that you were affected like this or we would have done something. I didn't know until now that you were even bullied about it." Nadius got up slowly onto his knees and mȯȧnėd in a bit of discomfort as his age was catching up to him. "I tried as hard as I could to make sure there were people around you who you could turn to.  I never had any of that. We tried to love you, but Conrad was limiting. Once you got to a point where you could help run the company, he just dropped all romance and put all of his time into making you into a competent heir."

"I thought it was all for torture because I'm so much like my mom. I thought he liked showing what he could do for women which is why he had so many. He could choose who he wanted to do every night like a sick vending machine." Henry's face looked at Nadius with cold indifference. Nadius realized that this too had of course affected Henry into believing he too would have to have a mistress maybe. His view of the world was skewed between his own idea of what he would like it to be and what his father had shown him. The strength in Henry was divided into Conrad and Mingxia. Henry shook his head. "It's impossible to me that a man can just have one woman. Haven't you heated on Sheng Mei at some point?  There's so much temptation around us to touch. You know you want a backup in case she leaves you.  Nobody stays forever Nadius, not even you."