He Saved the Heir, Then Won His Heart novel · Chapter 22 of 56

Chapter 22: Father Walks Out

The prison gate opened at dusk.

Shen Yan had imagined this moment for six months, on the bus to the hospital and in the storeroom behind the stall.

In his head his father had walked out tall.

The man who came through the small door in the big iron gate was thinner than the one in his memory.

He carried a canvas bag, and his hair had gone white at the temples.

But his back was straight.

Shen Yan took three steps forward and could not take a fourth.

"Baba," he said.

His father looked up.

His face changed.

Then they were holding each other in the road under a sodium light.

Shen Yan cried into a rough prison shirt that smelled of soap and cold.

"I'm sorry," his father said into his hair. "I should have seen it."

"Baba."

"I did see it, and I had no way to prove it. And I let her put you out."

"You were in prison."

"I was in prison because I was a fool."

"You were in prison because she lied." Shen Yan pulled back and wiped his face with his sleeve. "It's finished, Baba. It's over."

His father held him at arm's length and looked him up and down.

"You are taller."

"I'm exactly the same."

"No." His father's eyes moved past him. "Who is that?"

Xiao Chen stood a little way off, beside the car.

His bandaged arm was in a clean white sling.

He had not come closer.

He had given them the road.

"That's Xiao Chen," said Shen Yan. "That's my lawyer."

"I know who he is. He is the man who stood up in a courtroom and said I did not do it."

Mr. Shen walked towards him slowly.

"The day they sentenced me, a clerk told me someone had filed a brief and then vanished. I thought about your name every night for six months, Mr. Xiao. I did not know why."

"I was in a coma, Mr. Shen."

"So I'm told."

Mr. Shen stopped in front of him.

He was an inch shorter than Xiao Chen, and had been a very large man once.

← Chapter 21 · All chapters · Chapter 23 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend