Instead, he asked a different question.
“What will you do next time you want to shove someone?”
Jax shrugged.
“Could you talk to someone?” Ba’sh coached him.
“Sure,” Jax said, in a way that made it clear he would do no such thing.
“What was the best part of your day, Jax?” Pia demanded.
“I think it will be chilling after dinner,” he said with a smile. “There’s a new mission in my game.”
“You can play it tomorrow,” Ba’sh said decisively. “No games tonight after what happened at school.”
Jax’s face went pale, but he merely looked back down at his dinner without arguing - a small mercy, maybe only because the new nanny was here.
It wasn’t fun to punish the boy, but there had to be consequences. When your father was ruler of the planet, people looked at you as a sort of role model.
He would have said so, but Jax had heard it so many times already.
Actions speak louder than words, Ba’sh’s mother had been fond of saying. He hoped that the boy’s punishment might speak to him since he didn’t like listening to his father drone on about responsibility and proper composure.
“What about you, Daddy?” Pia asked.
“The best part of my day is spending time with you and your brother,” he said, turning to her.
He could practically feel Jax rolling his eyes on the other side of the table but chose not to acknowledge it.
“The worst part of my day you already know about,” he said, glancing at Jax. “Now what did we learn today?”
“What about Yasmine?” Pia asked plaintively.
“Oh, no, Pia, that’s okay,” Yasmine said quickly. “This is a family tradition, and I’m not part of your family.”
The way she said it set off protective instincts in him, though he wasn’t sure why. Everything she had said was accurate. But something about her tone of voice went beyond what she said. It implied penance. But what could this bright-eyed young girl have ever done to feel in need of penance?
“Go on,” he said to her. “You’re sharing meals with us now. Might as well share the traditions that go with them. What were the best and worst parts of your day?”
“The best part of my day was playing hide and seek with Pia and getting to meet Jax at the same time,” she said with a smile.
Ba’sh’s comms went off.
He swiped to ignore them, wondering why they had gone off at all. He set them to ignore while he was eating.
“And the worst part of your day?” he asked a little distractedly.
But his comms went off again before she could answer.
And again.
“Cursed rings,” he muttered.
“Why don’t you check it?” Yasmine asked quietly. “It could be important.”
Hurried footsteps approached from the hallway.
“My Ruler,” one of the butlers gasped, bowing. “There’s something happening—”
Ba’sh stood and swiped his comms.
Fury filled his chest when he saw what it was.
“I have to go,” he said curtly. “Enjoy your meal.”
He tousled Jax’s hair and brushed the top of Pia’s head with his lips before striding out of the room, his rage blossoming further with each step he took away from his kids.