Chapter 286: Chapter 286: Did Miss Sherman Ever Love Vincent Grant?
"Faye, Joanna was drugged. I couldn’t just stand by and do nothing, so I took her away."
"I took her to the garage, called her family doctor for her, and then left."
"Don’t worry, I’ve been faithful."
’Is he... reporting to me?’
Sophia Shaw’s finger rested on the screen, and for a moment, she didn’t know how to respond.
If he had sent these words a year earlier, she would have been incredibly moved.
In the days and nights right after Joanna Sherman returned, she felt like she was being thrown into a fryer, tormented over and over.
She dreamed of him offering a few more words of explanation, telling her that he had nothing to do with Joanna Sherman.
She had become extremely sensitive and fragile, starting to chase him with phone calls, checking up on him, and constantly asking his assistant about his whereabouts.
During that time, she came to hate herself.
If only he could have reported to her like this back then, how wonderful that would have been.
Sophia Shaw let out a helpless smile.
In the end, she called the driver, Norton. "Is Vincent Grant alright?"
"President Grant isn’t doing too well. He looks exhausted, but he hasn’t rested yet. It seems he’s waiting for news from someone."
Norton glanced in Vincent Grant’s direction.
He was sitting on the sofa, his finger hovering over Sophia Shaw’s chat window. It was obvious he was waiting for her reply.
"Ma’am, President Grant has really changed a lot recently. He comes home every day, and he personally takes care of the green plants you planted. He doesn’t let anyone else touch them."
"And Cedric misses you a lot too. If you have time, you should come back and see them."
Norton had witnessed the lonely days Sophia Shaw had endured, but he also didn’t want to see a good family fall apart just like that.
Sophia Shaw didn’t answer.
When she left, she had already cleared out most of her things.
Those few pots of green plants were something she, Vincent Grant, and Cedric Grant had picked out together.
It was the fifth year of their marriage. Vincent seemed to be less cold toward her, and he had even agreed to go with her to buy New Year’s flowers.
Sophia Shaw was both shocked and overjoyed, tears nearly welling up in her eyes.
It was the first time their family of three had appeared in public together. She had been so excited that day that she bought many, many pots of New Year’s flowers.
In previous years, the New Year’s flowers were thrown out after the holiday.
But that year, she couldn’t bear to throw them away and kept them.
New Year’s flowers aren’t easy to care for; they die once the season passes. To keep those few pots alive, she had spent a great deal of time and energy.
She always thought that if she could keep the flowers healthy, their relationship would also blossom and get better and better.
But not long after the New Year, Joanna Sherman returned.
Vincent was completely bewitched, and she was thrown into a panic.
Later, Skye Sutton pressured them to have a second child and even tampered with their food.
Vincent became convinced that she had orchestrated the whole thing. The affection that had just begun to warm up vanished in less than a month.
Even so, she foolishly kept tending to those flowers, always fantasizing that her relationship with Vincent might have a second chance to warm up.
Until Vincent took Cedric Grant to see Joanna Sherman, and Cedric became captivated by her as well.
Until she endured ten months of a lonely pregnancy, giving birth with no one by her side, a near-death experience for both her and Bun...
Her heart had grown completely cold by the time she moved out of their marital home.
Those green plants no longer held any meaning for her.
"Norton, please tell Vincent Grant that I didn’t want those plants anymore a long time ago. There’s no need to keep them."
"Was that Faye on the phone?"
The moment Norton hung up, Vincent turned his head and asked.
Cedric Grant also rushed out from his room. "Uncle Norton, what did Mom say on the phone? Did she say when she’s coming back?"
Facing Cedric Grant’s expectant gaze, Norton didn’t know what to say.
Cedric Grant noticed Norton’s hesitation, and the light that had just appeared in his eyes dimmed in an instant.
His fingers curled powerlessly at his side.
’If Mom really wanted to come back, she wouldn’t have only called Uncle Norton.’
His shoulders slumped, and he looked utterly dejected.
Vincent also fell silent, lowering his head.
"Dad, it’s my fault," Cedric Grant suddenly burst into tears. "I shouldn’t have been thinking about playing with Auntie Joanna all the time. I shouldn’t have ignored Mom!"
He had only recently realized that Sophia Shaw worked in Crestfall, three hundred kilometers away from Meridian.
To avoid disrupting his studies and life, she had traveled hundreds of kilometers back and forth in a single day to take care of him.
But all he could think about was how to be nice to Auntie Joanna, without a single thought for her. He was just awful!
"I was so blind, I didn’t even know Mom was pregnant with my little sister, making her travel so far for me while she was pregnant!"
"And Rocket Planet, Mom made it for me, but I didn’t know anything!"
Cedric Grant knew that he would never find another person in this world who loved him as much as Sophia Shaw did, who would sacrifice so much for him.
He was the one who had personally driven his mother away.
Vincent silently gripped Cedric Grant’s shoulders, his lips pressed tightly together, not saying a word.
"Dad, we still have a chance, right?"
After crying for a long time, Cedric Grant looked up at Vincent with tear-filled eyes.
"As long as we reflect on what we did and work hard to make things right, Mom will talk to us again, right?"
"We’re still a family, right?"
Vincent looked at the glimmer in Cedric Grant’s eyes, and that light pierced him to the core.
「At night.」
When Vincent Grant got the call and rushed to the door of the private room, Joanna Sherman was chugging glass after glass of alcohol.
Seeing Vincent Grant, her assistant strode up to him. "The doctor just left and Ms. Sherman started drinking. I couldn’t stop her. I had no other choice but to call you."
She glanced down at her watch. "She’s been at it for almost an hour since she got here, and she’s had a lot. Her body hasn’t recovered yet. She won’t be able to take it if she keeps drinking like this."
Vincent Grant pushed open the door, walked in, and pressed his hand down on her glass.
Joanna Sherman swayed as she looked up. Seeing him, she laughed through her tears. "Vincent, I can’t accept this! Sophia Shaw stole my place back then. I was the victim, so why are you protecting her at every turn?!"
Vincent Grant took the glass from her hand and called the assistant over. "From now on, tell the servers not to bring her another drop of alcohol!"
"Find Joel Hale. Have him help you take her home!"
The assistant froze for a moment before responding, "Okay."
Vincent Grant turned and walked out.
Joanna Sherman stared at Vincent Grant’s departing back in disbelief. "Vincent Grant! You’re just leaving like that? Didn’t you come here for me? Why are you abandoning me?"
Seeing that Vincent Grant didn’t stop, Joanna Sherman staggered out to block his path. "Is it because Sophia Shaw is better than me?"
"She’s a rocket genius, more outstanding and more capable than I am, so now your attention is all on her, and you don’t want anything to do with me anymore. Is that it?"
Vincent Grant gripped Joanna Sherman’s shoulders. "Joanna, she was a rocket genius *before* I married her."
"What... what do you mean by that?"
"He means that Sophia Shaw, a rocket genius, willingly gave up everything—for his reputation, his company, and the entire Grant family—to marry him. Sophia paid a huge price for him."
"And you, Miss Sherman? The moment Vincent had a problem, you immediately fled, playing the victim. You insisted on leaving even though you knew he’d slept with someone else by mistake. Did you ever really love Vincent, Miss Sherman?"
Joanna Sherman turned to see Jaden Rhodes and Jenson Forrest walking toward them side by side.
Jaden Rhodes was watching her with a smirk.
Jenson Forrest’s gaze slid past her before landing on Vincent Grant.
