A Man with Nerves of Steel (Joseph Hart) novel Chapter 68

Chapter 68

Cora felt that Joseph’s presence was doing more harm than good. Not only was Ite offering no useful advice, but he was also upsetting Bernard and Helen further. So, she told him to go back upstairs and rest.

Joseph couldn’t be bothered dealing with them anyway. He took the bottle back to the bedroom, poured himself another drink, then washed up and went to sleep.

Outside, Helen asked Cora, “I heard that ever since Joseph came back, all he’s done is eat, drink, and fool around without doing anything useful. Why bring back such a useless man?”

Cora answered, “Mom, don’t badmouth him. Everything he’s been doing is just a deliberate act. Deep down, he’s not like this. After all, there’s no way he just suddenly changed so drastically after almost 20 years.”

If she couldn’t even tell that Joseph’ was acting on purpose, she wouldn’t deserve the position and success she had now.

Helen retorted, “But time reveals a person’s true nature.”

Cora shook her head. “I’ve shared the same bed as Joseph for years. No one understands him better than I do. If you just treat his recent behavior as an act, then he doesn’t seem nearly as awful.”

Cora still insisted on defending Joseph. After all, there were things she could obtain from him that were on a deeper level. Those were things that no amount of status or wealth could replace.

Bernard pressed. “Cora, I think you should make a clean break before this turns into an even bigger disaster. That ungrateful brat is trash. Keep letting him stir things up, and he’ll drag the Lowell family through the mud.

“What happened to Jackson should serve as a warning. We need to cut our losses quickly and get that bastard out of Jenton for good.”

After seeing her parents out, Cora returned to the bedroom and found Joseph already asleep. She didn’t wake him. Instead, she slipped into bed beside him, nestled into his arms, and drifted off sweetly.

The next day, Joseph did not go to the hospital. Walt had already effectively fired him. Instead, he stayed home and studied, planning to finish his doctoral coursework as quickly as possible and submit his dissertation so he could secure his doctorate.

After all, that degree would prove useful wherever he worked in the future.

At noon, he deliberately found fault with Mary over the food, trying to suppress the arrogance she had developed from believing Cora would always back her up.

That evening, Cora came home unusually early. But the moment she opened the door to Joseph’s study, a thick wave of cigarette smoke hit her so hard she staggered backward, coughing repeatedly.

Cora said, “Joseph, Walt has been calling me nonstop today, saying your phone’s been switched off. Are you really just ignoring everything happening at the hospital now?”