The Bodyguard's Duty ✅

Chapter 4 - A Second First Impression

*Extended chapter

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Ethan pulled up to his family's estate, sloppily parking his car as he let himself through the front door of the prestigious Shelton manor.

Ethan took several long strides as he passed numerous pearly white archways, giving his jacket to the head maid as he adjusted his shirt one more time before entering the diner room.

His smile was dazzling as the remaining Shelton family turned their heads towards Ethan. Ethan bowed his head at them as he slipped into the usual seat besides his dad - avoiding the glare from his mom.

"Just once... I would like it for you to make it on time." Camilla Shelton sighed, as she continued cutting the ribeye on her plate without acknowledging her son.

Ethan apologised as he explained his lateness to the routine family dinner tonight. "Work was super busy, so I had to stay behind and catch up on it whilst I was around."

"Maybe if you didn't leave everything to the last minute..." Kristen whispered as she ended up giggling slightly once she saw Javier knowingly smile after hearing that.

Javier gave an apologetic look to his son when Ethan exaggerated a hurt expression on his face. This was soon glossed over as Ethan described the troubling night he had.

"Where should I start..." Ethan laughed for dramatic effect.

All of the cutlery clinking on the plates were silenced as they all paused their actions for Ethan.

"Half of the clothes for the upcoming show suddenly disappeared after we wrapped up the practice shoot. The cameraman forgot to put his memory card in his camera, so none of the amazing photos were saved!"

"Oh crap..." Javier added in between Ethan's list of frustrations.

"Skyler harassed Tamsen into giving her my new number. So now she's barraging me with texts to get back together, and to use her as one of our models!"

Kristen recalled the last bombshell Skyler dropped before they officially broke up. "How can someone be so shameless to lock themselves in your office, and threaten to smash the window with a chair?!"

"She what?" Javier asked perplexed.

Ethan nervously laughed it off as he glared at his sister for sharing too much information. Kristen only ducked her head as an apology before keeping her lips sealed.

Camilla laughed to herself as she reasoned, "She was always such a fun character. And so pretty too!"

Ethan quickly changed the subject because he knew that his mom was going to shift the conversation into getting himself a wife.

"But the worst thing that happened tonight was some back chatting corporate spy, impersonating one of the underwear models, and testing my patience to not throw him out of the building myself!"

"There's a spy!?" Camilla screeched, "We need to get this sorted - quickly!"

Kristen interrupted her mom as she went on to say, "I'm almost positive Ethan's being dramatic like always..."

Ethan vigorously shook his head no because he was certain the guy he met earlier was shifty. "I'm pretty sure that this bastard was the one that stole half of our clothes!"

Camilla grabbed her phone from her Louis Vuitton bag. "I'm calling someone to deal with him. The security footage will surely have captured him in our building."

Javier was certain that he sent Thomas to the office before he left the bodyguard in his apartment. Given that Ethan hadn't directly mentioned him yet, Javier had a hunch that this 'spy' was Thomas.