Waylen returned with two kids by then.

Spotting Shawn, Waylen's mind drifted to Roger. When Roger phoned, he spilled everything Marcus did, in tears.

Waylen felt torn.

Only Marcus could pull off such stunts.

But with the cheerful vibe around, it didn't feel right to bring the past up again. So, Waylen politely started a nice conversation with Shawn, who was as smooth as butter.

After a bit, Waylen headed to the kitchen.

Marcus, busy cooking, mistook his dad's footsteps for Melissa's and scolded, “What are you doing here? Didn't I say rest up and chat with Mom? It's rare you all see each other these days."

Waylen loomed behind Marcus.

Hand on his hip, he pulled out a cigarette, lit it, and snickered.

"You can't even recognize your own dad's footsteps? Your wife got the same stomp? You're losing it, boy."

Marcus killed the stove's flame.

He faced his father, reading his stoic expression. Marcus wasn't one to be trifled with. Turning back to the stove, he muttered, “Roger ratted me out, didn't he?"

Marcus wasn't trying to deny it, so Waylen let out a relieved string of curses.

"Marcus, what the heck have you done? First off, Shawn's tight with Melissa. Even if he's got quirks, you have to respect that. You can throw cash to hush Shawn, but now his missus knows. How you going to smooth that over? Melissa hasn't got much kin left. The one blood relative she had's long been cremated."

In a calm, gentle tone, Marcus replied, “I just brought Shawn's family issues to light early. There is no harm in that."

Waylen erupted, "You're slick with those weak justifications. I reckon Melissa's just being fooled by you."

With a smile, Marcus countered. "Melissa isn't naive. She figured I did right after weighing it all."

Waylen struggled to roast Marcus.

Taking a long drag from his cigarette, Waylen continued, "What about Roger? He's a big-shot VP, and you got him doing some absurd task like that for you. Now that it's out, you want to shuffle him off to the boonies. Listen up, Roger's got a family. You can't just toss him aside like that."

Marcus kept cooking, unfazed.