Where Petals of Vengeance Bloom

Chapter 4

As Ethan's words hung in the air, a heavy silence filled the car. He glanced at Claire in the rearview mirror, his frustration evident.

"Claire, I'm talking to you. Did you hear me?"-

Finally, Claire turned to face him, her voice steady as she spoke the longest sentence she'd uttered since her release.

"According to the National Prison Act, Article 48, inmates are entitled to meet with family or guardians during their incarceration."

"Inmates typically get a visit once a month, each lasting from half an hour to an hour."

"I served five years, a total of sixty months. I was supposed to see my family sixty times. Yet, not once did I get a visit."

"If your parents missed me so much, why didn't they visit? Were they so busy they couldn't spare even half an hour each month?"

Her voice was calm, but every word pierced through Ethan's fabricated story like a sharp blade.

anger he had been ready to

piercing gaze, Ethan's grip on the steering wheel

and Dad thought it was best for you to stay there and learn to mend your ways. They were thinking of your

own

of her best interest" meant taking the fall for Vanessa, enduring the

energy to care anymore. She turned her gaze out the window, not wanting to

car pulled into the Linwood family estate's

pleased, grabbing a shopping bag from

He stopped abruptly, as if remembering Claire, and turned back with an

change into something appropriate for the party," he

house still felt alien to Claire. It had never felt like home, lacking even the smallest hint of

room with others. Sunlight would flood the space each morning, creating a cozy atmosphere. She

should have been her home, she realized it wasn't the sunlit warmth she

door

The only furniture was a folding