The Billionaire Ex-Wife and the Beggar He Became novel Chapter 401

Old Mr. Shepherd at the door was a wreck. His face was grim and unshaven, his clothes were on backward, and the stench of cheap liquor rolled off him in waves as he clutched a bottle in his hand.

He was a terrifying sight.

"Joy, no, Nona, I just want to be with your grandmother and you. I…" Old Mr. Shepherd's words dissolved into sobs.

The sound of a man in his seventies weeping was profoundly desolate.

Winona Perkins felt no sympathy. "Old Shepherd! New Year's Day is the most joyous day of the year for our family. Please don't stand on my doorstep mourning like it's a funeral! I'm calling the police!"

Without hesitating, she pulled out her phone and dialed. "911? There's a drunk man at my front door. Could you please send someone to remove him immediately? I have children and an elderly woman in the house, and they're frightened!"

"Nona, you don't understand… I truly regret everything," Old Mr. Shepherd pleaded.

"You regret it?"

Winona let out a cold, bitter laugh. "My grandmother spent decades collecting scraps, wandering outside the Shepherd family gates through every season, dressed in rags. Sometimes she was sick, sometimes she went a whole day without a decent meal. For all those years, I never saw a shred of remorse from you. But now that your precious family is living off someone else's charity, now you regret it?"

"And what about me? When I was sixteen, I practically lived outside your gates like a stray dog. Once, I went five days and nights without food. Did you, my so-called grandfather, ever offer me a single bite? In the end, it was Mia who carried me back to her place and saved my life!"

"Nona… I truly know I was wrong…"

"Get lost, you old coward! If you bother my granddaughter again, I'll kick you to death!" Her grandmother, wearing a pair of sharp-heeled shoes today, lifted her foot and kicked Old Mr. Shepherd without a second thought.

"Don't you have that bastard from the Nicholson family to back you up? Go find him! Go on, get out of my sight!"

She shooed him away with disgust, as if he were a maggot.

But Old Mr. Shepherd didn't move. "Living on someone else's dime isn't easy. Mr. Nicholson took his precious daughter out early this morning. It's just us Shepherds left in that villa. The housekeepers have the day off, so there's not even anyone to cook for us."

When, she wondered, would she ever be able to laugh like that when she was happy, or wail her heart out when she was sad? It felt like she could never truly let go.

She could be Mia's rock.

She could be Zane's rock.

And she was certainly her grandmother's rock.

But for as long as she could remember, she had never dared to lean on anyone else.

Perhaps she had been disappointed too many times.

She once saw Julian Nicholson as her home, her everything, her rock. After Tiana was born, she finally felt she had a stable family of three.