But the moment the dirt hit the casket, he was cutting ties with the Darwin family forever.
"But you look like..."
Before Claire could finish, someone approached Noah.
It was his grandfather, Arthur.
Arthur had never achieved anything significant in his life, and his children were equally mediocre.
More accurately, the children he had with his current wife were mediocre.
The son he had abandoned-Noah's father, born to Noah's grandmother had been brilliant, but had died tragically young.
Noah had zero respect for the man.
Back in the day, Arthur had promised to go back to the city, tell his parents the truth, and then return to the countryside to retrieve Noah's grandmother's belongings.
Instead, the coward went home and married another woman.
A woman of equal social standing, a childhood sweetheart-someone who outshined his grandmother in every superficial way.
Naturally, he completely erased his country wife from his memory.
If Noah's dad hadn't been born and eventually managed to contact the General, Arthur likely would have never given his first wife a second thought.
Noah despised Arthur entirely.
He didn't even want to breathe the same air as him.
But Arthur immediately tried to dismiss Claire for him. "You've worked hard today, Claire. You can head home now."
Claire shot Noah a questioning look. If he needed her to intervene, she would.
But Noah subtly shook his head.
His reasoning was simple.
A starving camel was still bigger than a horse.
He didn't want Claire to needlessly make an enemy out of Arthur.
Who knew if his grandfather would try to sabotage her behind the scenes?
"I'll be going, then. Noah, if you feel sick at all, call me anytime."
Claire offered one last reminder.
Deeply grateful, Noah kept his face completely blank.
Once Claire was gone, he followed Arthur out to the corridor.
"What do you want?" Noah addressed Arthur with the chilling distance of a total stranger.
Honestly, hiding his venom was the only remaining respect he had left for the General's memory.
"Noah, I am st
your grandfather.
Refusing to even acknowledge me... are you trying to sever our ties
completely
FindNovel.net
Arthur looked at the boy. In truth, he couldn't even remember the face of the country
girl he had abandoned.
But Noah looked exactly like his father.
And that son had inherited his mother's features.
"Isn't a clean break exactly what you want?"
Noah wasn't buying his emotional manipulation for a second.
"Weren't you always praying you never sired my dad in the first place?"
Arthur fell silent. It was true he never intended to have a child with a rural woman.
But after discovering how brilliant that son was, how could he not feel regret?
If he had just come clean to his
current wife earlier and brought the boy home maybe his son wouldn't have died so young.
.net>
And he could have leveraged that son's brilliance to maintain his own privileged status.
"I am truly sorry about what happened to your father. My hands were tied."
"It wasn't just my fault. It was the era..."
Arthur frantically tried to justify his cowardice.
Noah couldn't care less.
He barely even reacted.
Desperate to get a reaction, Arthur changed the subject to Claire.
young
doctor. You fancy her, bet
you?
He had seen how protective Noah was of her.
Claire was young, drop-dead gorgeous, and brilliant.
Noah was only a couple of years younger than her.
It was perfectly normal for a teenage boy to develop a massive crush on a woman like that.
"No! Shut your mouth!" Noah's face drained of color. "She was Great-grandfather's doctor."
"You have no right to talk about her like that."
"I heard her mentor is closely connected to Dr. Quincy..."
"And she's well-acquainted with Tandy, not to mention she calls Walden from next door her own grandfather."