Just then, Julian Grant and Miles Grant walked over.

Old Mrs. Grant rarely lost her temper so spectacularly. The two men hurried over to restrain Vincent Grant.

Julian Grant kicked the back of Vincent’s knee hard, forcing him to the ground.

The floor was concrete. His kneecaps hit it squarely with a sickening THUD.

The pain must have been excruciating.

Miles Grant winced, sucking in a breath through his teeth, feeling the pain for him.

Vincent, on the other hand, didn’t even make a sound.

He just clenched his jaw, the muscles in the back of his neck bulging from the strain.

Shane Grant also walked out of the house. With his hands in his pockets, he watched the scene from a distance.

"Quickly, send someone to drive Faye home!" Old Mrs. Grant said, gasping for breath.

She was worried about Sophia Shaw returning to Crestfall so late at night.

Julian Grant glanced at Shane Grant. "You go!"

Shane Grant quickly chased after her.

Only then did Julian Grant turn to his mother. "Mom, what’s going on?"

Old Mrs. Grant pointed at Vincent on the ground. "Ask him yourself! All he does is bully Faye."

Vincent felt wronged, but his voice was as steady as ever. "I didn’t bully her. I just saw she was here and planned to stay one more night with her before leaving."

"And you say you didn’t bully her!" Old Mrs. Grant looked at Vincent as if he were a mindless beast.

’You’re divorced, and you still want to spend the night with her?’

Old Mrs. Grant’s cane slammed down on his back again. "How could the Grant family have produced a shameless bastard like you!"

"You listen to me! From now on, you stay far away from Faye! Don’t you dare get in her way again!"

Vincent stubbornly straightened his back, allowing Old Mrs. Grant to strike him again and again with a THWACK, but he refused to nod in agreement.

Unable to watch any longer, Miles Grant stopped Old Mrs. Grant. "Grandma, please don’t harm your health over this. Let me talk to Vincent."

Old Mrs. Grant lowered her cane. "Lock him up. Don’t let him out until morning!"

Miles could only call over two guards, who helped lead Vincent to the confinement room.

Julian Grant remained silent the entire time.

Only after Miles had led Vincent away did he ask, "Mom, what’s gotten into you tonight? Shouldn’t you be happy that Vincent is willing to be in the same room as Faye? Why... are you so angry?"

Old Mrs. Grant pounded her chest. Sue, unable to bear it, said, "Faye and Vincent... they’ve already finalized their divorce."

"What?!" The color drained from Julian Grant’s face at the sudden news. He was speechless for a long moment.

Old Mrs. Grant jabbed the floor with her cane. "Look at the beast you raised! When Faye’s heart was full of love for him, he wouldn’t even spare her a glance. Now that they’re divorced, he actually wants to live with her!"

"Isn’t that just humiliating Faye? Of course she’d be angry!"

Julian Grant had to agree that his son deserved a beating.

"Go tell Vincent that if he dares to bother Faye again, I’ll have him locked up until his company goes bankrupt!"

Old Mrs. Grant turned and walked back into the house, her back hunched, her steps heavy and unsteady.

She pounded her chest as she went.

Julian Grant suddenly realized that the valiant and heroic mother of his memories had grown old.

Just as Sophia Shaw jumped into her car, Shane Grant caught up.

"Sister-in-law, it’s late. Let me give you a ride."

Sophia Shaw didn’t have a bad impression of anyone in the Grant family except for Vincent and Cedric Grant, but she still said politely, "Vincent and I are divorced. You don’t have to call me sister-in-law anymore."

Shane Grant’s eyelids twitched, unsurprised by their ending.

"Even if you’re not my sister-in-law, I can’t let a girl like you drive for so long this late at night. Besides, Grandma was the one who told me to see you off. We can’t have her worrying about you, can we?"

It would be rude to refuse Old Mrs. Grant’s kind intentions.

Seeing Shane open the driver’s side door, she voluntarily moved to the passenger seat.

When Shane’s tall, athletic frame settled into the car, Sophia’s small MINI suddenly felt cramped.

As Sophia watched him deftly adjust the seat and start the car, it occurred to her that no other man had ever been in her car before.

Shane and Vincent were about seventy percent similar in appearance, but Shane had a more languid air about him. His almond-shaped eyes, which tilted up slightly at the corners, always gave off a flirtatious vibe.

It was hard to imagine a man like that being a soldier.

In fact, Vincent’s disposition was a better fit for the military, and his original goal had been to attend a military academy.

Sophia had been taken away by Yancy Shaw during her senior year of high school.

During her most helpless days with the Jennings Family, she had supported herself by writing love letters to him. But her situation back then was so terrible that the letters remained locked in a drawer, not a single one ever sent.

After her uncle brought her back to the Shaw family, she spent half a year receiving medical treatment and completely lost contact with him.

By the time she recovered and went to the school to find him, intending to confess her feelings, she discovered he already had a girlfriend.

At the time, Sophia didn’t know he was dating the person she despised most. Though disappointed, she accepted reality and voluntarily withdrew from his world.

When she first started college, she even mistook one of the military training instructors for him, only to learn later that he had dropped out of the military academy halfway through and transferred to another school.

Their mutual friends didn’t hide the facts about Vincent and Joanna Sherman. After she married Vincent, Justin Hughes tirelessly and repeatedly told her the reason Vincent had dropped out of the military academy and transferred: for Joanna Sherman.

Justin Hughes had also reminded her: she would never win Vincent’s heart.

’If I can’t win it, then I won’t try.’

She wasn’t very familiar with Shane, and Sophia wasn’t good at building rapport, so for a moment, she didn’t know what to say.

Silence fell in the car.

Shane smiled faintly at her. "A four-hour drive is a bit long. If you’re tired, you can take a nap."

Sophia hummed in acknowledgment.

The final calculations for the project she was working on weren’t finished yet, so she simply took out a pen and paper and started working on them right there in the car.

Once she was immersed in her work, she forgot everything around her.

The lights sliding past outside the car flickered across her face, alternating between light and shadow. Without a trace of makeup, her skin was fair and supple, her lips red and teeth white—even more beautiful than if she had been styled with cosmetics.

The girl’s long, beautiful hair fell over her shoulders, swaying gently by her slender waist, exuding an indescribable gentleness and charm.

Her eyelids were lowered, revealing long, curled lashes. Her lips were pressed together, her breathing shallow, so focused that she seemed to have forgotten the world.

An image of a similar scene couldn’t help but surface in Shane’s mind.

Only the locations were different: the school library, the athletic fields, the flowerbeds, the cafeteria.

That year, he had gone to Treston University to be a freshman training instructor, when a girl had unexpectedly tugged on the corner of his shirt.

The girl’s skin was fairer than snow, her eyes sparkled with life, and the beauty mark under her eye seemed to dance playfully.

He thought she was just another one of those girls who lived in a pink bubble, full of romantic fantasies about soldiers. He was just about to scare her off with a few sharp words when he heard her call out, "Vincent Grant."

When he turned his face fully toward her, the girl suddenly took a step back, let go of his shirt, and fidgeted awkwardly.

Then she said, "I’m sorry."

Before he could even ask how she knew his younger brother, she turned and ran away.

After that, he would always catch sight of her on campus at unexpected moments.

Every time he got closer, he would find her reading a book or working on problems.

He would greet her, but she’d show no reaction. For a while, he thought she might be hard of hearing.

Later, someone told him that the girl was so focused when she worked that once she was lost in her own thoughts, she wouldn’t hear anyone calling her.

He sighed, speechless, and became even more interested in her.

He waited and waited for a moment when she wasn’t busy to go and greet her.

But then one day, she suddenly disappeared without a trace.

He asked many people about her, but no one knew where she had gone.

The next time he saw her was several years later, at the family dinner celebrating Vincent’s marriage.

She sat quietly beside Vincent, the life in her big, bright eyes deliberately restrained. Her hands were clasped, and her legs were pressed tightly together.

She had respectfully called him, "Fourth Brother."

She had absolutely... no impression of him whatsoever.

That "sister-in-law"... he had to use all his strength just to get the words out.