He Watched Me Shine Without Him novel Chapter 81

Houston pushed open the door to the study.

Noah sat in silence, unmoving in his chair. The room was steeped in darkness, not a single light turned on. When the door opened, the corridor’s soft light spilled inside, framing Houston in a halo of sharp contrast. Standing tall, still, and composed, he looked like a sculpture chiseled from shadow and steel.

Noah’s heart stirred unexpectedly. “Houston… you’ve finally come home.”

Houston walked in, calm and poised. He pulled out the chair opposite Noah and sat down, crossing one long leg over the other. His straight posture, lean frame, and commanding presence seemed to eclipse even his father.

“You wanted to see me?” he asked.

“I heard you got married.”

“Mm.” His handsome face was cast in shadow, unreadable.

Noah’s refined features grew pained. His son—his own flesh and blood—had gotten married, and he hadn’t even known. “Marriage is a major life event, Houston. You didn’t even tell me? Do you still think of me as your father?”

Houston replied coldly, “Do you think of me as your son?”

Noah had no retort.

He’d never been a father to Houston. After his birth, it was Houston’s mother who raised him. After her death, it was an aunt. Later, it was their grandfather who finally took him in and raised him under the Clarke name.

Noah had done nothing.

“Who did you marry? Which family’s heiress?” Noah’s voice was hoarse now.

Houston said nothing.

He wasn’t ready to throw Rose into the Clarke family’s viper pit.

Noah pressed, “You can protect her for now, but not forever. The old man has decided to put you in charge of his birthday celebration. If you accept, she’ll have to show her face.”

Houston was momentarily stunned.

He hadn’t expected such a clear show of support from his grandfather.

But he quickly understood—this wasn’t just favoritism. The old man was pushing him forward to force the family’s tensions to a head. He wanted to resolve, before death, the rift between Houston and the Clarke legacy.

Yet what the old man likely didn’t understand… was that this “resolution” would cost the Clarke family dearly. He might not survive the outcome.

Noah looked at him. “You’re not planning to reject the old man’s decision, are you?”

Houston’s smile was thin and mocking. “Is that what you’re hoping for? That I’ll back out, so I’ll never reach the Clarke family's inner circle? That way, you get to keep controlling me for life?”

Noah flinched. His son’s words were like arrows—deadly, precise.

But Noah only loved his younger son—the one born from another woman. He protected him, planned an easy life for him, gave him security. And Houston? The one with the heart condition who had been advised to avoid stress and competition? Noah wanted to shove him into a war-torn business empire.

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