Chapter 356 - 445: A Frustrating Son, Better to Have None
The hair on Nina Sinclair’s arms stood up, and she instinctively hid behind Joseph Shaw.
"Joseph Shaw, did my words go in one ear and out the other?" the old man asked, his eyes darkening.
He snorted, his eyes filled with contempt. "Scared, are you? And you still dared to come?"
Nina Sinclair said nothing, but anyone could see the jealousy in her eyes.
The old man understood perfectly. He snorted again, not sparing Nina Sinclair a single glance.
Nina Sinclair’s face was livid. She wanted Joseph Shaw to speak up for her.
But when she looked up, she saw the man staring at the floor, looking utterly spineless.
She angrily pinched the small of his back, but that was all she could do.
From her seat at the dining table, Chloe Sinclair watched Nina Sinclair and sneered to herself.
"Dad, if there’s nothing else, Nina and I will head upstairs."
Joseph Shaw knew he had no say in his own home, so he tried to defuse the situation.
He put his arm around Nina Sinclair, ready to lead her upstairs, but then he heard the old man forcefully strike the ground with his cane.
"Did I say you could go upstairs?"
The old man slowly walked over to Joseph Shaw. "Joseph Shaw, take your mistress and get out."
Hearing the word "mistress," Nina Sinclair’s face went pale. She instinctively wanted to object but realized she didn’t even have the right to speak.
"Say something!" Nina Sinclair urged Joseph Shaw.
Resentful at being targeted by his own father, Joseph Shaw retorted, "This is my home, too. What’s wrong with me bringing my girlfriend back?"
Joseph Shaw had married young and was now only fifty. Despite his age, he was much more handsome than most men his age.
"Nina is my girlfriend now, and in the future, she’ll be my woman!"
A flash of disgust crossed the old man’s eyes. He couldn’t help but scoff, "Heh. Is there any woman you *haven’t* said that about?"
His words were aimed not only at Joseph Shaw, but at Nina Sinclair as well.
Sure enough, Nina Sinclair’s face grew even paler when she heard him.
But the old man was blunt, and he detested Nina Sinclair, so he didn’t hesitate to rub salt in the wound.
"And you. A young woman in her twenties, with so little self-respect."
He refused to believe that a relationship with a man thirty years her senior could be what people called love.
The old man’s gaze seemed to pierce right through her. Nina Sinclair felt as if she were being scorched by a blazing fire that burned a hole straight through her heart.
Her eyes stung, and tears began to stream down her face.
The old man, however, was thoroughly impatient. "Enough. Your little act won’t work on me."
When he saw the pair frozen to the spot, the old man’s expression shifted in an instant, and he struck them both with his cane without a moment’s hesitation.
Don’t be fooled by his age; the old man was still hale and hearty.
Joseph Shaw and Nina Sinclair cried out in pain.
He drove them both to the entryway. The old man stood in the doorway, and the sharp CRACK of his cane hitting the floor made the pair flinch.
"Can’t you see we have a guest today? All you do is bring shame on me!"
The mere thought of this troublesome son of his was enough to drive the old man mad with irritation.
If it weren’t against the law, he would have disowned him long ago.
’He’d be better off without a son like this!’
His grandson had been single for twenty-nine years and seven months and had never had a girlfriend before.
Now, he’d finally found a young woman as talented as she was beautiful. Of course, she had to be cherished!
But this good-for-nothing, not content with ruining other people’s lives, was now trying to ruin things for his own son.
’What if Chloe decides our family is a mess and wants to break up?’
As this thought crossed his mind, a fresh wave of fury surged through the old man. He glared at the two eyesores before him and growled in a low voice, "Get out!"