Chapter Two

After breakfast, everyone was sitting around in the tea room, having their second cup of tea for the day. Neil had a cup of strong coffee in front of him and a large slice of chocolate cake. The scent of it held a sweetness into the air around him.

Beside his seat on a large green cushion, Alice was rocking the almost asleep Theo in her arms. Her eyes were staring at Theo's sleeping face in pure adoration but he could see her attention wasn't completely on Theo. Her back was facing everyone else in the room, as if wanted to avoid being there.

She wasn't the only one who looked on the edge. The rest of the tea room also held a tense atmosphere. The shifty eyes between each of them held a hidden discomfort but Neil simply leaned back on his seat patiently waiting for the expected to come.

"Father, what did you want to talk about?" Oliver asked, seeing his father had no plans to speak or to say, he was stalling to speak.

Benjamin Crestwood put down his cup of tea and looked around the room. His eyes measured the expressions on everyone's faces, pausing for a few more seconds on Neil's face. He probably didn't see what he was looking for and frowned.

"You mother and I have decided to go our separate ways."

The room went deadly silent.

Neil gave out a crooked smile.

His parents have slept in separate bedrooms for decades now so he didn't see how that was surprising.

"....are you talking about divorce, father?" Daisy asked. The shaking in her voice was like childlike fear. Her eyes moved to her silent mother who sipped on her tea as if what was happening was not a concern to her but Neil could see the tremor of her hand holding the cup.

"Yes. Your mother asked for it and seeing that you all have grown old enough to take care of yourself now. We can finally peacefully divorce."

"Nobody is buying your family affection nonsense, father. If this was all, there was no need for official divorce. You want to remarry?" Neil laughed, his eyes still not looking at his father. He could also assume what is to come.

Benjamin stared at his second oldest son and frowned. His harsh tongue has gotten worse as years pass.

"Yes. Lily and I have decided to get married."

Neil noticed Alice being shaken out of daze. Her eyes stayed on Theo but he could see her tightly clenched fist.

Neil frowned.

"You are leaving our mother for….her!?" Daisy screamed and stood up in anger.

"Quiet down now girl, I am not seeking your permission. I am informing you." Benjamin scowled, the heaviness in his voice increased by a notch.

Neil could tell it wasn't just Daisy's reaction that angered him but there was a slight sense of shame in his admission towards wanting to marry Lily and being questioned on exactly that had agitated him.

For a man who had always forced his children to choose partners who matched their family name and gave them lectures on how children of distinguished families should behave to select a maid's daughter as his wife would become a joke. Neil knew that even after divorce, the manor's duties will never be handed to Lily nor will his father ever take Lily out to any important gatherings to introduce her to his friends.

William grabbed Daisy's arm and made her sit down again. His intelligent eyes flashed with unknown emotions.

"I have called the lawyer in the evening."

"Father…..are you going to change your will?" Charlie demanded.

"You can't! Even if you want to, you can't! Crestwood inheritance can't be given out to anyone outside of the family." Oliver added but Neil knew how much courage it would have taken for him to raise his voice like that in front of his father.

His business must be in real trouble for him to be that desperate.

"What I do with my inheritance is my business. Crestwood inheritance has nothing to do with anything." Benjamin silently said.

Neil noticed Lily's eyes shining brightly. He could see the greed as clear as the sky outside but his father was either ignorant of it or had decided to ignore it.

Neil didn't think it was either. His father had held Crestwood in his palm for the last 4 decades. He wasn't that big of a fool to ignorantly believe a woman or maybe he was just getting old now.

There was once a time when Neil also believed Lily to be decent after all.

"What about mother? What will she get? How will she get on?" Oliver asked but there was no concern in his voice for his mother. Neil knew he was worried who would be stuck with taking care of her.

"You seem very concerned about your mother, why don't you start giving her an income from your money?" Benjamin asked and seeing as both Oliver and Charlie stayed silent without meeting his eyes he laughed darkly and continued, "You don't have to worry, she gets an income from my money till my death. Also, Crestwood manor is her home. She will remain here."

Neil could see the relief on both of his brother's faces alongside the frown on Lily's.

He knew neither of his brothers had enough money left. Oliver's issues weren't clear to him because as far as he knew, Oliver was very cheap with his money spending and his brains weren't that bad either but Charlie was a drunk gambler. Forget money, he probably was broke. Which was probably why Oliver has been living at the manor for the past one year and Charlie agreed to marry Emma.

Emma Campbell belonged to another distinguished family like theirs. Their money didn't run as deep as Crestwood did but they had roots in both England and India where Emma had spent most of her childhood and alongside her father, learned about trading and after her marriage, she was set to take over her father's company.

Charlie was her third fiance in the past five years. Neil had no interest in knowing why she chose Charlie of all people. The Campbell family wasn't facing any money issues for them to be desperate to be linked with The Crestwood family.

She was probably keeping Charlie around to appease her father who set a condition for her to be married to be able to inherit and there was no harm in being connected to The Crestwood family.

His father and Lily left the tea room together and their mother was soon occupied with the housekeeper for the lunch menu. It seemed like her divorce from father didn't bring any change in her duties as the mistress of the Crestwood manor which Neil had a feeling his father was counting on.

The rest of the Crestwood siblings and their partners left the tea room soon after to probably discuss things among themselves. They understood that there was more to their father's announcement than he let on.

Neil along with Alice and sleeping Theo were the only one left in the tea room in the end. Neil had to study a few papers which he had asked to be brought down from his room and Alice was holding a novel in her hand. The rustling of paper was the only noise in the room for a while.

"Alice, can you ask for another cup to be brought? Give Theo to me. It's about time he wakes up too or he will get fussy later on."

"This was already your second since this morning." Alice reminded him without looking away from her book.

"....what about another slice of cake?"

Alice looked at him and laughed, putting down her book she gave Theo to him and stood up.

"I'll bring a small piece." She said and with almost dancing feet, left the room.

Neil smiled but before he could wake Theo, Henry, the butler arrived.

"Master Benjamin wished to see you in his study."

Neil frowned in annoyance and put aside the papers to follow Henry.

"Should I ask Linda to take care of Master Theo?"

"There is no need. I can hold him. Ask the kitchen to prepare his bottle and inform Alice I am in the study."

"Yes, Master Neil."

Neil made his way to his father's study. Before he could knock, he could hear the angry hushed voices from inside. He paused for a few seconds before knocking.

The voices inside went silent and then the door was opened.

Lily's red face came into view. The frustration and anger was still present on her face but Neil pretended to have seen nothing and entered.

The large study was dimly lit and covered in books which he knew were never touched by anyone in the house other than maids to clean. It had wall length windows which despite it being daytime were still covered by heavy curtains to block the light. The room held no memories of him as he had only been inside this room three times before.

All three times weren't pleasant. He was only ever called to this room to be roared upon or scolded.

"I will excuse myself now." He heard Lily say and the door was closed behind her.

"Take a seat. Why did you bring him? Leave him to maids. It's not your job to take care of a child. Why do you never bring her nanny with you?" Benjamin vented as if he has been waiting to say these words to him since his arrival.

"He is my son, I can take care of him myself." Neil said and sat down in front of the large study table. Theo was starting to shift around, starting to wake up.

"You can at least tell me the truth! Who is his mother? It wasn't enough that you had a child out of wedlock but you refuse to tell me who the damn woman is! You broke your two year engagement with Emma and moved all the way to London. Left your old father to deal with all the business alone. Do you not care at all? What was the point of raising you?" Benjamin barked, his son's attitude angered him further.

Neil had always been like this, so arrogant, so damn ignorant of everyone except himself. There was a time when Benjamin believed Neil to be the perfect candidate for his position. Someone who could be trusted with the Crestwood family. This was why he suggested the engagement between Emma and him. Emma would have set perfectly in the mold of The Crestwood expectations. Neil had been unwilling to the point he still doesn't admit that there was any engagement to be broken. Decided on his own to study law and moved to London to open his firm and then one day, brought back a child who was a carbon copy of himself. It would have been impossible to suggest that he simply adopted the child to disgust him.

Benjamin couldn't even use money to control this damn son of his.

The noise made Theo slowly open his eyes and Neil could see he was going to open his mouth to start howling for milk.

He quickly started to rock him around, completely ignoring his father. Rubbing Theo's back, he started to get him back to sleep again.

This wasn't the right time to wake him up.

"Are you listening to me?!" Benjamin hollered, smacking his fist on the table in anger. His widened eyes glared at Neil in pure annoyance.

"Father, just say why you called for me? I have work waiting for me and Theo needs to be fed."

"Neil, do you not care about the Crestwood family at all?"

Seeing that Theo was falling asleep again Neil looked at his father and softly said, "Are you talking about our family or our name, father?"

"Our name is the reason our family exists!"

Neil remained silent, just staring at his father.

Benjamin took a deep breath and pulled out an envelope, throwing it in front of him.

"This is Eva Hughes, second daughter of David Hughes. They are living in London so you don't have to worry about moving back here. She has agreed to marry you on condition that Theo would be taken in by us. Lily believes Alice can take care of him very well here."

Neil stilled. His free hand grabbed his trousers tightly as if that would stop him from hitting his father.

"Who gave you permission to take my son away from me?" Neil's voice was dark, he didn't try to hide his fury.

"You can meet him when you come here! Do you want to remain unmarried for the rest of your life! No decent girl will agree to marry you with this child around, you should be grateful David agreed for the sake of our friendship!"

Neil stood up and secured Theo, holding him tightly to his chest as if afraid someone would grab him.

"Father, Theodore is my son. No one, and I will repeat, no one is allowed to take him away from me and if you tried, then you can forget I was ever part of the Crestwood family. Take this as my final warning." Neil said and without waiting for his father's reply, walked out of the study.

He could hear his father roaring behind him but his own wrath was also just about to burst. It took everything in him to not turn back and beat his own father to unconsciousness.

Mindlessly he was making his way to the kitchen. His steps were heavy and his face was covered in thick frost. The maids working around kept their heads down, not wanting to be at the end of his rage which seems to be hanging on the edge.

The kitchen was busy preparing lunch. The scent of food was heavy in the air and in this busy surroundings, Alice was silently standing beside the stove, heating up the milk for Theo.

"Alice." He called out, his rage draining out of his body as her name left her lips.

"Master Neil. Just give me a few more minutes. It's just about ready." Alice's blank face lit up on the sight of Theo, raising her arms to take him and then she frowned, "You still haven't woken him up?"

"I thought it better to have his food on hand." Neil said and handed Theo to her.

Seeing that the milk was warm enough, he pulled it off the stove and put the saucer in cold water, cooling it down.

Alice walked on a nearby seat and started to work on waking Theo up while Neil put the cooled down milk in the bottle.

Checking the temperature on his wrist he waited beside Alice and handed her the bottle to feed Theo who vigorously started to suck on the bottle, his eyes were still not fully opened.

Alice laughed silently, brushing Theo's messed up hair from his nap.

Neil stared at the sight for a few minutes and the urge to smoke rose.

"Find me when he is done and ask Henry to send my papers back to my room. I'll be out in the front yard."

Alice nodded at him while smiling which made Neil pause as if wanted to say something but decided otherwise and started walking outside.

The front yard was filled with seasonal flowers. Multiple gardeners were working on making further beds to plant more flowers.

It was probably Lily's idea.

Lightening up a cigarette, he slowly inhaled the smoke in. His hyperactive mind slowly started to become a blank sheet of paper.