Chapter 11

Sebastian quietly pushed open Zeno's door and walked into the room. He stopped beside his bed and stared at his sleeping bruised face.

He's never really taken his time to look at his employee's face, but at that moment, he carefully noted that if it weren't for those bruises and plasters on Zeno's face, he was a beauty to behold.

There was a kind of charm he carried, and Sebastian could not understand how a man could be so beautiful and handsome at the same time.

He sighed and quickly cleared his mind of such stupid thoughts. He concluded that there was nothing good about Zeno, nothing at all, he was just useful because his son was so insistent on having him as his Manny.

He felt the urge to punch Zeno's face again when he remembered that he was staying rent-free in his house without his consent, courtesy of his son and father.

It was one of the things that vexed him. He never let anyone stay close to him and his son, but now, a stranger had suddenly waltzed his way into their lives and proved adamant about staying, no matter what he did to him.

He believed that Zeno was pretending not to know about his reputation, as he had displayed a nonchalant attitude towards him most of the time.

He thought that if Zeno really knew he was, he wouldn't even be able to accept the job in the first place. He smirked as he stared hard at Zeno's sleeping face.

"Don't worry, soon, you'll know who I am. And when you want to leave, it'll be too late for you, Zeno," Sebastian said lowly with an evil smile.

He had stocked up ideas on how to set Zeno up with dangerous situations, and if he wasn't careful, he might lose his life if he kept proving stubborn and loyal to his father.

"Mm, um," Zeno suddenly mumbled in his sleep and unconsciously rolled over on his side, almost falling off the bed as he was lying too close to the edge.

But before he could fall off the bed, Sebastian quickly caught Zeno's upper body and gently laid him back on the bed, swiftly removing his hands from him.

He already felt like he was doing too much, he felt like their roles were reversed.

Zeno was supposed to be the one looking out for him, but there he was, playing his role instead.

"I fucking hate you," Sebastian said coldly.

He was about to walk out of the room when he saw a small note on Zeno's bedside table and immediately picked it up to see two sentences written boldly in Ezra's handwriting.

Note: 'Observe rest, and drink more water.'

He angrily crumpled the paper and threw it on the floor as he walked out of the room.

That morning, Zeno groaned painfully as he finally woke up. He slowly opened his heavy eyelids which had reduced compared to yesterday because of the doctor's medication.

The first thing he realized was that he was lying comfortably on his bed inside his room, and suddenly, memories of yesterday's incidents came rushing through his mind.

He remembered how he was ambushed by the other guards, and how he was punched to a pulp by his boss.

His boss!

He spontaneously sprang up in bed as he thought of his boss, but he immediately put his hand over his forehead as an excruciating headache threatened to blind him.

"No shit," He grumbled as he slowly lowered his legs to the floor.

He listened to his body as he sat down on the side of the bed, trying to figure out the extent of his injuries, and so far; his diaphragm felt bruised, his legs felt painfully strained, and his hands felt like it's been cut into different parts and his wrist felt like someone was burning a hot iron on it.

He looked down at his body and noticed he was only wearing his briefs, he wondered who must have undressed him.

He sighed and rubbed his eyes but quickly withdrew his hands from his face. He slowly stood up on his weak legs and strode slowly to his full-length to his full-length mirror to see the extent of damage on his face.

"Damn," He winced as he stared at his swollen eyelids, bruised lips and cheeks.

Zeno released a painful sigh as he looked himself up and down in the mirror. He knew he was in no shape to go for a fight in his current condition. He wondered what Rico must be feeling now as he had missed a night fighting for him.

He wondered what was going to become the fate of his job in the underground boxing arena as the present job didn't give him any opportunity to spend any time outside of the mansion.

He knew asking his boss for some free time would be asking for trouble, so he decided to take it one day at a time and see if he'd have an opportunity to bring it up to him someday.

*Beep! Beep! Beep!*

The tablet suddenly beeped inside his drawer.

"Ugh, time to work," He groaned and looked at the clock but was surprised to see that it wasn't yet time to wake Ken from sleep.

So what was the damn tablet notifying him by 5? a.m.?

He slowly leaped over to the drawer and took out the tablet, but he surprisingly noticed some oral medications and ointments in the drawer too.

He couldn't remember putting any form of medication in the drawer, but looking at the medications, he knew they were meant for him.

He proceeds to unlock the tablet just for him to see an alarm reminder to take his medications.

He knew for a fact that it couldn't have been his boss who did all this, it would probably have been Butler Nicole, it was a more pictureable situation.

He skeptically took the medications out and took the oral ones according to the prescriptions written on them.

He dragged himself into the bathroom for a shower after which he applied the ointment to his bruises.

When he finished his business, it was already time to meet Ken.

Because of his wounds, he chose to wear very loose-fitted clothes that day, his off-white shirt and black pants were both loosely fitted to his body. He didn't want to risk worsening his injuries

He stepped out of his room and walked towards Ken's room but he was surprised to see the door opened and Butler Nicole trying but failing to get the sulking Ken out of the bed.

"Hey, buddy, what's the problem?" Zeno asked from the door.

"Zeno!" Ken flew like lightning and ran into Zeno's arms.

"Ouch, ouch, easy there, Ken," Zeno winced amidst smiling as Ken speedily ran into his injured body.

"Oh, sorry. Are you not strong enough yet?" Ken asked worriedly.

He remembered what Butler Nicole had told him yesterday about Zeno recovering his strength. But it seemed like Zeno hadn't fully recovered.

"Don't worry about me, I'm stronger than Superman," Zeno flexed his biceps for Ken to lay his emphasis.

"Yay! That means you can still play with me, right?" Ken asked excitedly.

"Yes, but first, you have to take a shower," Zeno said, patting Ken's head.

"Okay," Ken agreed.

Butler Nicole stood beside Ken's bed and watched with disbelief as the boy who had been fighting him a few minutes ago quietly and obediently followed Zeno into the bathroom.

Butler Nicole sighed and left the room, going straight to Sebastian to give the stationary report.

"I don't want to eat vegetables," Ken turned his face away from the dish in front of him.

"Come on, man, your father's going to"

"Going to what?" Sebastian's voice sounded cold as he asked behind Zeno.

"Uh, oh, good morning, sir," Zeno secretly clenched his fist in frustration.

Why did he have to appear so suddenly at the wrong time?

Sebastian slowly looked Zeno up and down, distinctly noting how Zeno was finding it hard to stand upright, probably from the pain he could still be feeling in his body. He couldn't care less.

"Don't think you're free just because your innocence was proved yesterday," Sebastian warned sternly.

Zeno took an unconscious step back away from Sebastian to avoid getting hit again, not because he was scared, but because he didn't want to risk getting hurt again under his condition. He had learned the hard way to always stand six feet away from Sebastian each time he was talking to him.

Not because he couldn't fight back, he didn't just want to get hit, and he knew a time was coming when he might be tempted to hit back, so he was taking all precautionary measures, for the sake of his Nana.

"No, that's not what-how I-"

"Why hasn't he eaten?" Sebastian asked, staring steely at Zeno.

Ken had been sitting on the high chair in the dining all the while, looking from his father to Zeno. He knew his father didn't like Zeno and he felt bad for putting Zeno in trouble for not eating his food.

He wanted to say something but he feared his father may reprimand him for being a bad child.

"I'm sorry sir, I was just trying to make him-"

"Quiet!" Sebastian's voice was low but dangerous.

"Ken, eat," He spoke the words unfeelingly to his son.

"Yes, Dad," Ken reluctantly agreed and started eating his food.

"Follow me," Sebastian said and immediately started walking away.

Zeno knew without question that he was referring to him so he gently patted Ken's head before following Sebastian out of the dining.

He wasn't worried about how Ken would do because Butler Nicole was already standing beside the boy as he left.

Zeno quietly followed Sebastian up the stairs, but when he saw that he had passed the first floor and was heading up to his wing, he paused at the bottom of the stairs remembering the stern and clear warning Butler Nicole had given about the master's wing.

Maybe his boss wanted to test him, to see if he was stupid enough to follow him up to his wing when he knew it was a prohibited area for him, maybe he was looking for something to punish him for.

"Why did you stop, Zeno?" Sebastian asked darkly as he turned and saw Zeno standing at the bottom of the stairs.