Chapter 242: Chapter 242: Six Years of Marriage Is Enough to Know a Person, Yet You Let the Misunderstanding Continue

Seeing her so indifferent, Timothy Morgan knew she had moved on from the hurt Vincent Grant had caused her.

Naturally... she had also become desensitized to Vincent Grant as a person.

No matter what he did, she would probably never have a change of heart.

Having witnessed Sophia Shaw’s difficult situation and the injustices she had faced, Timothy Morgan naturally didn’t try to persuade her of anything. They chatted for a bit before he left.

When Sophia Shaw got off work, she was surprised to see Vincent Grant’s car parked downstairs.

He was leaning against the car.

’Vincent Grant finished his meeting hours ago. He didn’t leave?’

"Sophia Shaw," Vincent Grant called out softly. "Stella is just staying with me temporarily. Joanna will take her away when she gets back."

’He even knows to report this to me now?’

If she hadn’t taken two hundred million from Joanna Sherman, Sophia Shaw would have been tempted to throw the divorce certificate in his face.

"Also, if Bun is hard to soothe at night, I can take her."

Only then did Sophia Shaw realize he had overheard her conversation with Levin Sawyer.

"President Grant, you should focus on taking care of Joanna Sherman’s child. My child doesn’t need you anymore."

She had stressed the word "anymore."

Vincent Grant froze, hearing the implication in her words.

He opened his mouth to ask another question, but Sophia Shaw had already walked past him and gotten into her own car.

「That night.」

「The marital home.」

Cedric Grant stared listlessly at Stella Grant, who was lying in the baby crib.

"Dad, when is Auntie Joanna coming to pick Stella up?"

For some reason, faced with the Stella Grant he used to adore, Cedric Grant now felt a complete lack of interest. He didn’t even have the urge to play with her.

He really missed his mom right now.

He missed Bun, too.

Looking at Stella Grant, only one thought filled his mind: ’If Bun were here at home, would Mom come back?’

Vincent Grant sat on the sofa handling work matters, the glasses perched on his nose giving him a somewhat scholarly air.

Hearing Cedric Grant’s question, he took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"It’ll be a while."

"Auntie Joanna hasn’t been in a good mood lately, so she’s still away clearing her head. If you can take good care of Stella, Cedric, Auntie Joanna will be very happy," the nanny, who had just returned, told him.

Cedric Grant pouted.

He knew he should be easing Joanna Grant’s burden right now, so he forced himself to play with Stella Grant for a while.

In the past, spending hours with her never felt like enough, but this time, he was tired after just twenty minutes.

Cedric Grant used homework as an excuse to go back to his room.

He sat at his desk and took out his workbook, but his eyes fell on the tablet not far away.

Vincent Grant had always known that Cedric Grant had good self-control, so he didn’t restrict his use of electronic devices.

Cedric Grant picked up the tablet almost instinctively and opened the app.

It wasn’t Friday, so Sophia Shaw wasn’t live-streaming.

Cedric Grant quietly opened her past live-stream recordings.

He had watched every single one of Sophia Shaw’s live streams. Cedric Grant had an excellent memory, and he remembered everything she said with perfect clarity.

Still, he listened with great interest.

When Bun and Sophia Shaw interacted, he sadly reached out to touch Sophia’s face on the screen.

He couldn’t remember the last time he had been this close to his mother.

Cedric Grant tried to video call Sophia Shaw.

What appeared on the other end was a red exclamation mark.

’I’ve been blocked!’

Cedric Grant couldn’t stop the tears from streaming down his face.

After Stella Grant and Cedric Grant went to bed, Vincent Grant went to a private room.

After Justin Hughes went to jail for instigating a kidnapping, the group had gotten together less and less.

Now, he was alone in the spacious private room.

Vincent Grant drank alone, his mind inevitably drifting back to what Sophia Shaw had said downstairs.

She had said, "My child doesn’t need you anymore."

’So, the child *did* need him before?’

He had always thought Sophia Shaw adopted Bun just to spite Joanna Sherman—purely as a rivalry between women.

Besides, the family lacked for nothing, so he never thought the child truly needed him for anything.

’Could he have been wrong?’

He felt as if he had missed something, but no matter how he analyzed it, he couldn’t grasp what it was.

"Drinking alone?"

Jaden Rhodes walked in and asked with a half-smile when he saw him.

Vincent Grant grunted in acknowledgment, and Jaden Rhodes sat down across from him.

Casually grabbing a glass to pour himself a drink, his eyes landed on the half-empty bottle of liquor and he paused, slightly surprised.

"So, the ever-disciplined Vincent Grant has moments where he loses control, too?"

Vincent Grant looked up at him. "The incident back then... where she supposedly climbed into my bed... it wasn’t Sophia Shaw’s design. She was a victim, too."

Lately, he had no idea how to face Sophia Shaw.

That incident was the primary reason for their six years of cold, loveless marriage.

Jaden Rhodes didn’t seem surprised. "Vincent, I don’t believe for a second that she never explained. *You* just didn’t believe her."

CRASH!

The glass slipped from his hand and fell to the floor.

The glass shattered, splashing liquor everywhere.

Vincent Grant looked down, staring blankly at the shards on the ground.

’She did explain.’

’Countless times.’

’Once, she even waited for him for hours in the pouring rain, but he had just assumed she was putting on a pathetic act.’

Because he was close to Joanna Sherman, he knew more about Brianna Shaw’s sordid past.

Yancy Shaw’s relentless pursuit of the Sherman and Jennings families also seemed domineering and unreasonable.

So when Joanna Sherman had indignantly pointed out Sophia Shaw’s hatred and desire for revenge against her, he hadn’t thought twice!

Jaden Rhodes looked at him intently. "Vincent, the situation back then was certainly disadvantageous for Sophia Shaw. It was natural for people to get the wrong idea. But for others, it was because they were outsiders; it didn’t really affect them."

"But you were an insider. Even if you got the wrong idea at first, six years of marriage is enough time to get to know a person. Why did you let this misunderstanding continue for so long?"

Jaden Rhodes’s question made Vincent Grant’s throat go dry, and his face felt as if it had been brutally slapped.

It stung and burned!

"Sophia Shaw came to you with a heart full of passion. If she didn’t love you to the extreme, that love wouldn’t have persisted for six years."

"You completely failed her!"

’If she didn’t love you to the extreme, that love wouldn’t have persisted for six years!’

Those words struck Vincent Grant’s chest like a vicious blow, sending his heart into a violent spasm. A tremor of pain shot through his entire body.

He could almost hear Sophia Shaw’s heart hitting the floor with a crisp sound on countless desperate nights, shattering just like the glass at his feet!

Vincent Grant stubbornly picked up the shards from the floor and whispered, "It’s not too late, right? I can mend her heart, piece by piece. I can definitely fix it, can’t I?"

Jaden Rhodes looked at the piece of glass in his hand.

"About that thing you asked me to investigate... I asked Sophia Shaw about it myself. She told me that from the very beginning, it was never a case of Brianna Shaw stealing someone’s man, nor was it Yancy Shaw bullying the Jennings and the Shermans. It was Chad Jennings who cheated on his wife and got involved with Yvonne Sherman..."

Jaden Rhodes briefly recounted what had happened.

He finished by saying, "Vincent, whether or not it’s too late depends on what you did to the people she cares about most."

"How much you protected the Sherman Family, and how much you hurt the Shaw Family."

Vincent Grant’s hand clenched violently!

The sharp glass shard pierced his palm, and blood flowed from between his fingers, a startling splash of red!

Jenson Forrest had entered at some point and had been standing not too far away.

Only now did he slowly approach.

A faint, sarcastic smile touched his lips. "The ways Vincent has protected the Sherman Family are countless, of course. He gave them money when they wanted money, and people when they wanted people. His main goal was to pour all his efforts into making up for what he owed Joanna Sherman."

"As for the Shaw Family, he didn’t even need to lift a finger. The Shermans could have crushed Yancy Shaw with the money he gave them!"

"But Vincent Grant still took action personally. After the Sherman Family plagiarized a proposal that Yancy Shaw’s entire company had worked on for a year, he resolutely chose to sign the contract with the Shermans!"

"I remember it was raining that day. Sophia Shaw knelt and begged you. She wasn’t even asking you to give the project back to the Shaw Family, just for a chance at neutrality!"

Jenson Forrest’s sarcasm wasn’t just aimed at Vincent Grant, but at himself as well.

Recently, the image of that rainy day had flashed through his mind countless times.

He and Justin Hughes... they had been Vincent Grant’s accomplices all along!

’So, they should all repent.’

’Repent for their past arrogance and irresponsibility for the rest of their lives!’

Vincent Grant’s fingers tensed to their limit. More blood welled up, dripping onto the floor. DRIP. DRIP.

It was as if he couldn’t feel the pain.