From Something To Everything (Bounprem)

192. Son

Boun stared at the baby in front of him blankly. The cute little one's face was red from crying for too long. He had no way of stopping the baby from crying.

He didn't know why he thought that he could take the responsibility of the baby by himself. The previous day evening, he had gotten a call from Merlin asking for a private meeting. He didn't think much of it and proceeded to meet her at a coffee shop.

The meeting turned out to be more awkward than he expected. He had only met Merlin once in his lifetime, that too on the day his brother and father were arrested.

He hadn't interacted with her at all, unlike Prem who had already become friends with her after having met Lyra and Leah. He knew that Merlin used to secretly contact Prem in the past few days to check on her children and didn't mind the interaction.

But Merlin asking him to meet her alone, without Prem made him a bit puzzled.

Pushing all his doubts to the back of his mind, he met her.

Merlin then informed him that she had run from her house and was planning on cutting ties with her family.

Boun was supportive of the decision as he had already seen how toxic her family was.

She then proceeded to inform him that her parents wanted her to marry a widower and had forcefully made her give up the custody of her children as the widower wasn't willing to raise them as stepchildren.

Boun was utterly shocked at the news. He now understood why Saen had been so keen on building a relationship with Merlin's family. Apparently, birds of the same feather flock together.

Merlin was in tears when she told him that she was no longer allowed to keep in touch with her children as her family had stirred up huge trouble in the Dechaphattankhun family in the past few weeks.

The Dechaphattanakhuns had gotten a restraining order against her whole family, including her for their own safety.

Merlin showed him the admission letter to her dream university in Paris. It had always been her dream to be a ballerina. She used to have plans on pursuing it as a career after graduating from university. She had to give it up once she got married.

Alan had burned her dancing shoes and beaten her up when she expressed her desire to follow her passion.

Finally, after Alan's death, she reapplied to the same university and was admitted. The chance to join such a huge university was a golden ticket to her career and she wanted to take it.

But the thought of her children was holding her back. She knew that if she stayed back, her parents would definitely hunt her down and get her married no matter how she hid. The university was the only way out for her.

At the same time, she wouldn't be allowed to bring her children along with her if she were to join the university. It strictly prohibited having and raising children throughout the course duration as a lot of female students dropped out because of their children.

Merlin was struck with a dilemma. She couldn't be of use if she stayed but she couldn't bring herself to leave her children behind and follow her dreams.

She had called Boun over both as a family member and as a friend to ask for his opinion. If she were to contact anyone else, her family would easily figure it out. Boun was the last person they would consider as Merlin had no prior contact with him.

Boun advised her to go ahead and join the university after some consideration. He knew that there was no way his family was going to give her the children's custody knowing that there was a high chance of the kids being abandoned because of her family. So he felt it would be better if at least Merlin fulfilled her dreams.

Merlin wasn't really happy about the advice. After all, in the past few years, her world had been her kids. It wasn't easy for her to move on just like that.

He had to sit down and point out each and everything in detail to convince her to follow his advice.

Merlin reluctantly agreed.

Boun had personally sent her off to Paris that very night as staying in Thailand might be dangerous for her with her parents searching highs and lows for her.

Before departure, Merlin made him promise that he would take care of the kids on her behalf. She didn't want the children to grow under the shadow of their father.

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Earlier that day, Boun got a call from Mintra, asking him to go back to the family mansion for an urgent family meeting.

He was more than sure that the news of Merlin leaving for Paris and his involvement in the matter had reached his grandmother's ears.

When he got there, other than his grandmother, Eric, Jane and Oreo were waiting for him.

Tessa wasn't invited to the meeting as she had already gotten divorced from Saen and was no longer considered a member of the family.

The agenda of the meeting was about the three children. As the three children had the surname 'Dechaphatthanakhun', they became the responsibility of the family as both their parents were no longer around.

Mintra, Eric and Jane were unwilling to take on the responsibility of the children. Taking care of all three children at the same time was no easy job. Old people like them couldn't take care of them all by themselves.

Oreo volunteered to adopt Lyra and Leah. He had already announced his relationship with Yacht to the whole family and told them that he had plans to get married to his boyfriend. As a homosexual couple, they couldn't have kids on their own and adopting the two girls was a good idea.

The girls too had a strong bond with Oreo and Yacht as they had been the ones taking care of them for a long time. They had been helping Merlin take care of the girls by babysitting them ever since she was in the third trimester of her pregnancy.

Mintra was very supportive of the idea as she had already seen how the couple took care of the twins.

But baby Leon was left behind.

It was already overwhelming for Oreo to adopt two children at the same time. Having to adopt another child, that too a baby, could be a bit over the top for him.

Everyone turned to Boun for his opinion. They were considering putting the baby up for adoption.

Boun couldn't bear to do that. Driven by guilt for something that wasn't his fault, he decided to adopt baby Leon as his son.