A Man with Nerves of Steel (Joseph Hart) novel Chapter 30

Chapter 30

Joseph tried calling Cora, but her phone was switched off. He couldn’t reach Fiona, either, so he had no choice but to go down to the precinct.

“Dr. Hart, it’s you? If I’d known Natalie was your daughter, I would’ve sent her to your place.” The pretty policewoman on duty recognized Joseph and greeted him warmly.

Joseph, however, wasn’t pleased in the slightest. He exchanged a few perfunctory pleasantries and went straight into the paperwork. When he saw the intake form and realized Natalie had indicated he was her stepfather, his heart gave another sharp twist.

Natalie had been brought in for theft-or more accurately, for being mistaken as a thief. She’d gone into an upscale private club and had been stopped and detained by security. When she couldn’t produce any ID, they’d handed her over to the patrol officers.

Joseph said nothing on the drive. He kept his eyes on the road as he took Natalie to Bernard and Helen’s place. She was supposed to be attending a night class at this hour, so she’d clearly snuck out. If he sent her back to Cora, she would only get chewed out. Of course, he also had no desire to see Cora again.

“Do you know why I did all this, Joseph?” Natalie finally broke the silence. “I went to look for my real dad. Mom has a cocktail party tonight, but she never came home to get ready. Where else do you think she’d go?”

“And? Did you find him?” Joseph arched a brow and glanced at her.

He hadn’t expected her to be even more determined than he was to track down Cora’s lover. But when he thought about it, it made sense. As their kid, of course she wanted to know who her actual father was. She had that right-perhaps it was even obligated to her.

Natalie huffed. “Almost. I’m confident I could’ve made it upstairs if they hadn’t caught me. Then, I would’ve finally seen the man Mom’s been sneaking around with. We can still make it if we turn back now. Come on, let’s go.”

She checked the GPS and realized they were headed in the opposite direction, yet Joseph showed no sign of turning around.

“This isn’t the way there,” she protested. “You need to turn around up ahead.”

“You can go look for your father all you want, but don’t drag me into it,” Joseph said shortly. “Once you get to your grandparents’ place, you can ask them to take you.”

“Seriously? Joseph, how can you not want to know who Mom is seeing on the side?” Natalie stared at him incredulously. “Don’t you want to know what kind of man she picked?”

“You!” Natalie didn’t expect him to stay so unbothered. His expression remained calm and composed, but it only made him look even more spineless to her.

The rest of the drive passed in heavy silence.

Soon, Joseph pulled up in front of Bernard and Helen’s home. He’d barely pushed open the courtyard gate when he saw Bernard already up and about. The two men came face-to-face.

“I just bailed her out of the local precinct,” Joseph said evenly. “I couldn’t reach Cora, so I’m leaving her with you. This is as far as I’ll go.”

“What the hell, Joseph?” Natalie shot him a murderous glare. They’d barely arrived, and he’d already thrown her under the bus. He was unbelievable!

She turned to Bernard and cried, “It’s not like he said, Grandpa! He’s twisting everything to make me look bad!”

“What a little liar. You really did inherit that from Cora.” Joseph snorted.