Free Web NovelChapter 475: Chapter 475: The Stray Cat
Howard Fletcher was a calculating child, more precocious than other boys his age.
He could tell Zoe Kane despised Nina Summers and realized Nina would compete with him for the family’s resources. So, he resorted to all sorts of methods to bully her.
Taking advantage of his young age, he wreaked havoc every day. He poured water on Nina’s mattress, tore her clothes, spat in her food, and even destroyed the mementos Mindy Walsh had left for her.
Whenever Nina couldn’t take it anymore and wanted to give Howard Fletcher a beating, Zoe Kane would rush over to protect him and run to Caleb Summers, crying:
"My sister is gone, and now her only child is being bullied... If this is how it’s going to be, let’s just get a divorce! I’ll take Chester and Leo and leave... I’d rather starve on the streets than let my children be bullied by others..."
As soon as Zoe Kane threw a fit, Caleb Summers would punish Nina. He completely ignored Nina’s explanations, berating her for not acting like an older sister and only causing him trouble.
Nina had no choice but to swallow her tears and constantly compromise.
This went on until yesterday morning. Nina was sleeping groggily when, in her slumber, she felt a pair of cold hands slip into her pajamas and touch her chest...
Nina awoke with a start, and the first thing she saw was Howard Fletcher’s face.
Howard Fletcher’s young face was filled with an excitement and lewdness far beyond his years. Seeing Nina was awake, he didn’t panic at all. He just gave her chest two hard pinches before scurrying back to his bedroom.
After something like this, Nina couldn’t endure it any longer. She caused a huge scene at home.
After hearing Nina’s tearful account, not only did Caleb Summers not get her justice, he slapped her across the face several times!
Caleb Summers accused Nina of not respecting herself and trying to seduce her little brother, and then told her to get out of the house.
At her breaking point, Nina changed her clothes, grabbed her bag, and ran out of the house.
Hearing this, Grace Sutton slammed her hand on the table in a rage and cursed, "Has Caleb lost his mind?! He won’t raise his own daughter but runs off to raise someone else’s sons! When something like this happens, he doesn’t even stand up for his own daughter... Is he... is he even human?! He’s an animal!"
Grandma, however, stroked Nina’s head with heartache. Her eyes were red-rimmed as she said in a low voice, "You poor child. Your father is no man... You’ve really been wronged..."
Melody Summers was so stunned by Nina’s story that she couldn’t recover for a long time. She thought, ’How can a person be so two-faced? Was Caleb Summers’s good-father persona all an act before? Was he just performing for Mindy Walsh and his father-in-law?’
’If Caleb could really play the part of a good husband and father for decades, day in and day out, all to inherit his in-laws’ assets, then the man is truly terrifying...’
Melody looked at Nina with a complicated expression and asked softly, "So you just ran over here like that? Why didn’t you give us a call? If we hadn’t come back today, were you planning to just sit at the door and wait all night?"
Hearing this, Nina pursed her lips and answered in a small voice, "My phone... Winston Sheffield smashed it..."
"Who?" Melody asked instinctively. Then she remembered the man she had seen at Paige Walsh’s celebration party and said with dawning realization, "Oh, your boyfriend."
At Melody’s words, Nina’s face grew even paler. She was silent for a moment, then shook her head and replied, "He’s not my boyfriend anymore..."
After leaving home, Nina had nowhere to go, so she went to find her fiancé, Winston Sheffield.
She ran, disheveled, to the bachelor pad where Winston lived and knocked on his door, only to find a beautiful young woman inside.
The two of them were acting intimately, looking for all the world like a couple.
Nina felt as if she’d been struck by lightning. She angrily confronted Winston, demanding to know why he was cheating on her.
But Winston just looked at Nina with disgust and said in a low, harsh voice, "Didn’t your dad tell you? I have a new girlfriend. Our engagement is off! Now get lost before Sylvia gets the wrong idea!"
Nina couldn’t accept Winston’s sudden change of heart. She rushed forward to argue with him, but he held her down and beat her viciously.
As Winston’s fists rained down on her, a sudden realization hit Nina in her dazed state: ’Perhaps it was because Winston broke off the engagement and I lost my value that Caleb kicked me out of the house so directly today...’
For the first time in her life, Nina realized that maybe her father had never loved her... To him, she had first been a bargaining chip to control his wife and father-in-law, and later a tool to curry favor with his superiors through marriage. That was all.
Beaten by her father and her boyfriend on the same day, abandoned by the two men she had always seen as her lifelong support, Nina felt like her world was collapsing.
She walked like a zombie through the pouring rain with nowhere to go. Her phone had been smashed during Winston’s assault, and she couldn’t contact anyone.
She wandered aimlessly, and somehow, her feet carried her to The Metropolis Residences.
Returning to this villa after two years, Nina had none of the arrogance she’d had on her first visit. Right now, she was like an abandoned stray cat, her eyes, swollen from crying, filled with sorrow and grievance.
She pleaded with everyone in the living room, "Grandma, Cousin, Aunt... can I stay here for a while? I... I really have nowhere else to go..."
Afraid they would refuse, Nina quickly added, "I can just sleep in the yard! I won’t be any trouble!"
The villa’s yard was enclosed. Right now, Nina just wanted a place to shelter from the wind and rain; she didn’t even mind if it was the yard.
Then she opened the bag she was carrying and said, "I also brought sand vine cakes. I won’t waste your food. I’m begging you, please don’t make me leave. I really have nowhere else to go..."
Looking at the sand vine cakes in Nina’s bag, which had been crushed into a mushy pulp, Melody sighed silently.
Nina’s state reminded her of herself in her past life...
She reached out and smoothed Nina’s drenched hair, replying, "What nonsense. How could we let you sleep in the yard? There’s a guest room upstairs. I’ll go get it ready for you."
Seeing that Melody had agreed, Grace Sutton also quickly stood up and said, "That’s right, there’s a guest room upstairs. You wait here, your aunt will go make the bed for you right now!"
The two of them took Nina upstairs and set her up in a room.
Nina took a long-overdue hot shower, washing away all the filth, and changed into a new set of pajamas Melody gave her.
She had sat outside the villa for a whole day and night. Afraid of thugs, she hadn’t dared to sleep at all. Now, she was utterly exhausted. After her shower, she lay down on the soft bed and quickly fell asleep.
Once Nina was asleep, Melody and Grace Sutton finally went back downstairs.
In the living room, Miss Lowell was still comforting the angry Grandma.
Grandma’s voice was laced with fury as she said, "What a sin! That son of mine! He only got to where he is today because of his wife and father-in-law... How could he treat that child, Nina, like this!"
"For him to mistreat the child of his first wife like this, he’ll go to hell when he dies! Tell me, how did I ever raise such a monster?! I feel like I’ve lived my life for nothing!"
