Dumped Then Claimed By A Billionaire (Nerissa and Owen) novel Chapter 15

Chapter 15 Cutting Ties

Winifred was a very practical woman.

When Nerissa was still Owen’s wife, of course, Winifred had gone out of her way to flatter her, careful not to offend her in the slightest.

But now that Nerissa had divorced Owen, there was no longer any value in currying favor with her.

Winifred was, after all, a proper city woman. There was no need for her to suck up to Nerissa anymore.

And so, her tone became less respectful.

Winifred was not afraid of offending Nerissa at all. ‘She’s just a divorced woman, Winifred thought. ‘Is it possible she could ever marry into a blue-blood family again? Absolutely not.’

For Nerissa to have once married into a blue-blood family at all was already a blessing carried over from a past life.

Hunter never expected Winifred to be treated with such an attitude. He froze for a moment, then said, “Who says Nerissa isn’t a studying type?

“Which exam has she ever placed outside the top ten? Even her teachers said getting into a good university wouldn’t be a problem for her.”

If Nerissa had not lost her way back then and dropped out of school to get married, she would already be attending a top- tier university now.

As her grandfather, Hunter had complete faith in her.

“Who knows if she cheated?” Winifred said with her arms crossed, her face full of disdain, and her tone openly hostile.” Yiorlian School? Don’t make me laugh. In her dreams.”

‘That’s Yiorlian School, Winifred thought. ‘Even Ivy didn’t get in on her own. We had to beg and pull strings just to get her admitted. What right does Nerissa have to go there?’

Hunter frowned slightly, finally catching the implication behind her words. “Winifred, after all this, you mean, you don’t want Nerissa staying in your house, right?”

Winifred rolled her eyes and wondered, ‘Hunter is unbelievably slow. Only now did he finally understand what I meant.’

“Hunter, I’ve made myself very clear. Do you really want me to spell it out for you?” she said bluntly. “The five of us are living just fine. If some outsider suddenly moved in, wouldn’t you find that uncomfortable too?”

Hunter had not come today to argue with his daughter-in-law. All he wanted was for Nerissa to have a good environment to study in and a promising future ahead.

So, even though he understood what Winifred meant, he still swallowed his pride and said, “Winifred, Nerissa isn’t an outsider.”

“Not an outsider?” Winifred cut him off sharply, pressing the point. “Does she share blood ties with Dylan? With Ivy?”

Hunter froze, unsure how to answer.

When it came to blood relations, there truly were none.

“Since there’s no blood relation, then she is an outsider,” Winifred continued coldly. “Hunter, if you want to raise an outsider yourself, that’s none of my business.

“But if you think you can dump her into our home, that’s absolutely impossible. Our house isn’t a trash can.”

In Winifred’s eyes, both Nerissa and Hunter were trash.

No, they were worse than trash.

At least trash knew to stay in a trash bin. The two of them, on the other hand, had no sense of their own place, especially Nerissa.

She had already divorced the Calloway family, yet she still had the nerve to show up here. Such a divorced woman truly had no shame.

“W-Who are you calling trash?” Hunter asked, disbelief filling his eyes.

“Who’s trash? Don’t you have any self-awareness?” Winifred sneered, “Do you really think I am that easy to bully?

“You show up at my house every few days tryint Successfully unlocked! have anywhere to live, go wander the streets. Do you think our family runs a charity? Want to equal in my house? Dean on.”

Hunter took a deep breath. As the elder, he knew that in a situation like this, it was best to avoid direct confrontation with

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Chapter 15 Cutting Ties

Winifred if at all possible.

Hunter turned to Dylan instead. “Dylan, you say something. Do you also refuse to let Nerissa stay here?”

Dylan avoided his gaze and spoke evasively. “Dad, y-you know our family has always been run by Winifred

Hunter was so angry that his chest rose and fell violently. “Dylan, search your conscience and tell me, do you really think what you’re doing is fair to Nerissa?

“Don’t forget how you and your family ended up living in such a nice house. Who did you benefit from? If it weren’t for Nerissa, your family of five would still be crammed into that small, old apartment.

“Now, Nerissa is only asking to stay here for a short while, and you still refuse. Is this how you conduct yourself as an uncle?

“I scrimped and saved to put you through school for all those years, and in the end, did you just study everything into a dog’ s stomach?”

The more Hunter thought about it, the angrier he became, to the point where he could barely keep his footing.

His wife had passed away early. In those years, he had been both father and mother, raising his son alone. Even if he ate poorly and dressed himself cheaply, he still saved every cent to pay for Dylan’s education.

And now, this was what it had all amounted to.

Dylan looked at his father, whose hair had already turned partly gray, then glanced at his wife. He seemed as if he wanted to say something, but the words stopped short and were swallowed back down.

Winifred let out a cold snort. “What do you mean, we got this house thanks to Nerissa? You raised Nerissa for all those years. This is what she owes us.”

If it weren’t for Dylan, Nerissa would have died long ago.

Hunter’s eyes widened. Suppressing the fury in his chest, he said, “I’m the one who raised Nerissa. I’ve never said she owed me anything. On what grounds do you get to say she owes you?”

Winifred smiled as she spoke, “You’re Dylan’s father. When other people’s sons get married, their parents help buy them a marital home.

“When Dylan and I got married, may I ask, did you prepare a house for us? Not only did you fail to do that, but you also couldn’t even come up with 3 thousand.

“Do you really deserve to be called a father? You raised Nerissa, and without you, there wouldn’t be the Nerissa of today. What you owe us is the same as what she owes us. Isn’t that reasonable?”

Winifred twisted right and wrong into a neat, logical argument.

Dylan felt that his wife made a lot of sense.

These days, when young people got married, every parent didn’t buy them a new house.

So, this was what his father owed him.

And since his father owed him, having Nerissa repay it wasn’t wrong at all.

“That’s right,” Dylan said, nodding along. “Winifred is right, Dad. This is all something you owe us. Since you raised me, you should be responsible for me.”

“Fine,” Hunter laughed in extreme anger. “Dylan, you really are something. I can still be fine now, and this is how you treat me. If one day I got sick and couldn’t move, would you just pretend I died?”

Winifred shot Hunter a sideways glance and said sarcastically, “Don’t you still have Nerissa?

“She’s planning to go to college and make something of herself. When you’re old and can’t move anymore, your precious Nerissa will naturally take care of you.”

She added, “Besides, Dylan married into our family to begin with. Since he’s a live-in husband, that means he has nothing to do with your Jamison guys anymore.

“If he’s going to support anyone in the future, it can only be my parents.”

Winifred had no intention of taking care of Hunter in his old age.

Some of these words had been bottled up inside her for a long time. Back when Nerissa had married into the Calloway family, Winifred had hoped to benefit from it, so she kept quiet.

But things were different now. She had to say everything.

Dylan nodded along. “Dad, since you agreed to me marrying into the family back then, you should’ve thought about the consequences. Once a son marries into another family, he becomes part of their family.

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Chapter 15 Cutting Ties

“If you still expect me to support you, that just doesn’t make sense. Besides, didn’t you raise Nerissa? Whoever you raised should be the one to take care of you. Why are you clinging to me?”

Hunter felt a chill spread through his heart.

In the past, he had only thought that his son, as a live-in husband, held little standing in his wife’s family. That was why Hunter rarely came to him, and why he carried every hardship on his own whenever trouble arose.

Only now did he finally see the truth. It was not that Dylan had no status in that household; it was that he had no conscience.

After a long silence, Hunter let out a sigh. For Nerissa’s future, he decided to endure it for now. “Dylan, in all your years of growing up, I’ve never asked you for anything.

“This time, I’m begging you, just this once, all right? No matter what, Nerissa helped you move into this bigger house. For that alone, can’t you help her?”

As long as Nerissa could enroll smoothly, Hunter was willing to do anything.

“Grandpa, don’t beg him,” Nerissa said as she spoke up. “Grandpa, I’ll take care of you in your old age. I’ll get into Yiorlian School on my own, and I’ll buy the school-district apartment myself. Let’s go home.”

Dylan and Winifred both let out cold laughs. ‘Get into Yiorlian School? Buy a school-district apartment? What outrageous arrogance, they thought.

Hunter looked at Dylan. “Dylan, are you really refusing to help?”

“Dad, I’m a member of the Holloway family now,” Dylan replied coldly. “I have nothing to do with the Jamison family anymore. It’s not that I don’t want to help. I can’t.”

Dylan knew very well that his father and Nerissa were bottomless pits. If Dylan agreed to help this time, there would be no end to it.

So Dylan had to keep his distance.

“Fine, a member of the Holloway family, indeed.” Hunter pointed at Dylan. “Dylan, I’m severing our father-son relationship.”

Dylan froze for a moment, clearly not expecting his father to say that.

For a split second, he could not describe what he was feeling.

Although Dylan and Hunter were not particularly close, they were still father and son by blood.

Even Nerissa was surprised.

She turned her head slightly and looked at Hunter.

The elderly man, already past sixty, stood there like a withered tree battered by wind and rain, clearly lacking the strength to resist the storm, yet still standing upright, his gaze firm and unyielding.

Winifred, on the other hand, was delighted.

Nerissa was already a stone at the bottom of a latrine with no chance of ever turning things around, and Hunter had completely lost any remaining value.

Winifred could not wait to cut ties with people like them, so they would not drag her family down in the future.

“Then cut ties,” she said smugly. “It’s totally perfect. Anyway, with or without you as his father, Dylan is no different.”

Hearing Winifred’s words, Dylan instantly felt emboldened.

She was right. Having a father like this brought him no benefit at all, only trouble and burden.

And now Hunter even wanted to shove Nerissa onto them.

If he did not sever ties now, he might not even be able to keep his house in the future.

Indecision only led to disaster.

With that thought, Dylan stepped forward and met Hunter’s gaze directly. “Since you’ve already taken it this far, there’s nothing left for me to say.

“From now on, I am a Holloway family man. I won’t be entered into the Jamison family registry even after death. Let’s never have anything to do with each other again.”

Hunter had thought that once he said the words cut ties, his son would at least try to stop him.

Hunter never expected this.

Dylan had long wanted to sever the relationship.

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Chapter 15 Cutting Ties

This was exactly what he wanted.

This was the son Hunter had raised with such hardship.

‘How Pathetic. How Absurd, Hunter wondered.

Hunter nearly lost his balance. Nerissa stepped forward and held his arm, her gaze icy as she looked at Dylan. “You’ll regret cutting ties with Grandpa.”

‘Regret? Nerissa is giving herself far too much credit.’ Mockery filled Dylan’s eyes as he wondered.

Winifred shot Nerissa a sideways glance and spoke without the slightest restraint. “Cutting ties with dirt-poor country trash like you? We’d be happy about it. Why would we regret anything?

“Do you really think you’re some precious prize? Ridiculous.”

Nerissa nodded slightly. “In that case, let’s sign a formal severance agreement, so you guys won’t shamelessly come crawling back to Grandpa later on.”

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