It made a lot of sense, actually.
But it didn't apply to her and Van.
Tilda knew Van wasn't an ungrateful jerk.
And if he ever tried to be, she would show him exactly what hell looked like.
"You make a fair point, Silas, but I'm not listening to a word of it."
"Huh?" Silas sputtered.
He froze, completely blindsided.
Noah chimed in from the side. "Tilda, please don't listen to his nonsense."
"He's got a lot of years on him, but zero brains. Just a head full of bad intentions."
Silas exploded in an instant. "You little punk! I'm just having a conversation. What does this have to do with you?"
"How dare you speak to me like that!"
Noah wasn't intimidated in the slightest.
His voice remained entirely flat. "I didn't say it. Harrison did."
Silas snapped his mouth shut, swallowing the curses he had been about to spit out.
Every organ in Harrison's body might be failing, but his hearing was still terrifyingly sharp.
Silas was genuinely afraid that if he screamed at Noah in the hallway, Harrison would hear him.
He thought Harrison was entirely blind to reality, treating Noah—an illegitimate brat -like some precious treasure.
Out of all the legitimate grandchildren in the family, Harrison only cared about the bastard.
Most of the Darwin family didn't even view Noah as real family.
But Harrison's blatant favoritism was enough to make everyone else treat Noah as public enemy number one.
Nobody liked him!
But Noah didn't need their affection.
The only opinion that mattered to him was Harrison's.
"Harrison can say whatever he wants, but you can't."
"You're still the younger generation, Noah. Did all your education go completely to waste?"
Noah couldn't be bothered to argue.
"Silas, if Harrison finds out you have inappropriate intentions toward Claire, he'll strike you from the inheritance in a heartbeat. You might want to think about that."
The moment Noah weaponized the inheritance, Silas crumbled.
He was a man with zero actual skills.
He planned to live off his family's wealth for the rest of his life.
If Harrison cut him off, how would he survive?
Rely on his wife?
His wife was just as useless, and her side of the family wasn't exactly powerful.
Back in the day, Silas had slept
aroundne
much that no woman
from a respectable equal net
family would agree to marry him.
He had been forced to settle.
Regretting it now was entirely pointless.
"Silas, get in here."
Harrison's weak voice finally echoed from inside the room.
Tilda aske Claire to run the
thermos
into Walden's room for
bet
mentioning that she wanted toer * content:
her respects to Harrison
Silas's immediate reaction was to block her. "That really isn't necessary."
"He's incredibly weak right now. He shouldn't be seeing visitors."
He didn't want Tilda in there, but Noah was already pushing the hospital door open.
"Go right ahead, Tilda."
"He's actually in much better spirits today."
For some reason, hearing that made Tilda immediately glance at Claire.
But Claire was already walking away to deliver the food, unaware of Tilda's gaze.
If she had seen it, she would have instantly understood Tilda's underlying concern.
Harrison looked completely
emaciated. Seeing him like this
Vel
made a lump form in Tilda's throat,
despite the fact that she didn't evens,
particularly like the man.
She didn't like Harrison because she felt he had done a miserable job raising his descendants.
The Darwins were an incredibly unlikable bunch.
But Harrison was still a hero, and his legacy was something that could never be erased.
"Please take care of yourself, Harrison."
Beyond that, Tilda didn't dare say a single word.
She was terrified that one wrong sentence might aggravate him and send him into a
fatal decline.