A Man with Nerves of Steel (Joseph Hart) novel Chapter 112

Chapter 112

“That’s nonsense! My biological father’s an impressive man. That’s why Mom chose to have me. Of course, she knows how brilliant he is! You’re the only one who doesn’t get it? You’re an idiot!”

Natalie refused to back down and snapped back at Joseph. She even went after his sore spots just to make fun of him.

“You really are better than me!” Joseph’s heart ached. He had raised Natalie for over a decade, only for her to turn out to be ungrateful and defiant. All of his efforts had been for nothing.

On the surface, Joseph remained calm. Deep down, he knew acting rashly wouldn’t solve the problem. If anything, he was going to strike back at Cora and her lover.

Natalie was trying to get a rise out of Joseph, but he didn’t take the bait. He remained unnervingly calm, and her jabs seemed to bounce right off him.

“I’ve made no progress here. Tell me what you got,” Joseph said.

“You’re so useless and incompetent. Of course, you didn’t find anything. Someone approached me at school and told me how brilliant my biological father was.”

This time, Natalie chose not to hold back and told Joseph about the woman who had come looking for her a few days ago.

Natalie had her own agenda for telling Joseph everything. So many days had passed, yet the woman never reached out to her again.

She still hadn’t found her biological father either. With Cora keeping her at the Girls’ School, she had run out of options and turned to Joseph. Since Fiona had brought her to his laboratory today, she decided to share everything with him.

“Oh? So someone noticed your little stunt at Meridian Group after all. Do you think she was telling the truth?”

Joseph felt a flicker of surprise, followed quickly by relief. He had chosen to tell Natalie the truth not only because she was old enough to deserve the facts, but because he had anticipated that Cora’s lover would eventually take notice of her brilliance.

Now that Cora’s lover had finally sent someone to make contact with Natalie, it wouldn’t be long before he stepped forward to acknowledge her as his daughter.

Watching the pieces fall into place, a dark satisfaction took root in Joseph. The truth of Cora’s nature was finally surfacing, and her facade was on the verge of shattering. He couldn’t help but wonder, with a mix of disdain and morbid curiosity, just what kind of man had managed to entangle her so thoroughly.

Were there really other such wealthy families in Jenton besides the Lowells? But if Cora’s lover truly came from such a powerful family, that at least helped narrow things down.

Natalie watched Joseph scan the sketch into his computer and began retouching and adjusting the colors in the photo-editing software.

She said, “My phone broke. Otherwise, I could’ve just sent you her photo. You wouldn’t even have to go through all this trouble.”

While he was editing the image, it suddenly hit him. He felt as if he had recently encountered someone very similar. It was even possible they were the same person.

Joseph stared blankly at the image, his mind replaying every moment of the past few days like a movie.

Seeing Joseph remain silent and nothing interesting happening, Natalie lost interest and left. After getting into the car, she asked Fiona, “You were so kind to bring me here. Are you up to something?”

“I’m loyal to your mom, and she completely trusts me too.” Fiona smiled at Natalie. “Could you tell me what you talked about with your dad?”