Where Petals of Vengeance Bloom

Chapter 14

It was time for her to leave.

She stood up and reached for the door.

Before her slender, pale fingers could touch the handle, the door swung open from the other side. Standing there was a woman in her late fifties.

The woman was momentarily taken aback upon seeing her, but then her face broke into an uncontainable smile. "Miss Claire, you're really back?"

Claire paused for a moment, "Nanny May?"

Looking at May, a whirlwind of emotions surged within her.

In the entire Linwood household, only Nanny May treated her as the true lady of the house. The other staff were cold and distant, acknowledging only Vanessa as the Linwood's rightful daughter, referring to her merely as Miss Claire.

On sweltering summer days, when she was covered in heat rash from the stifling utility room, it was May who bought her a fan with her own money. During the freezing winters, when she shivered from the cold, it was May who got her an electric blanket for warmth.

Thinking of these moments, Claire's eyes welled up with tears beyond her control.

gaze fell on the plastic

her mouth, unsure of what

of persuasion to stay lingering on her tongue, yet unable to voice them. She knew all too well how precarious Claire's existence was in the Linwood household-the cold stares, the injustices, the unfairness she had witnessed but

Claire, I won't stop you if you

waved it off, "It's just a scratch, I'm

had Claire endured to become so

for Claire, but she was just a servant, her voice too

Claire, you've come home without eating a thing. Let me make you a

Claire declined again.

"No, thank you."

cold, she added, "The sooner I leave here, the sooner I can find a place

thought of eating anything

but all she had left was a shred

on the streets than endure the Linwood's disdain

could look down on