Where Petals of Vengeance Bloom

Chapter 52

Nathan was shaking with rage at Claire's words, his face turning from a steely gray to a deep, livid red.

"Shut up!" he bellowed.

"Did I hit a nerve, Mr. Linwood?" Claire shot back. "Five years ago, Vanessa pushed Irene down the stairs and framed me for it. Now, she's staged her own fall just to blame me again. You know how malicious she is, yet you still accuse me. You're not blind; you're just choosing to look the other way."

"Sometimes I wonder if I'm really your daughter or your enemy. You'd betray your own blood for an adopted child."

"Unless Vanessa is your child with some mistress? Is that why she means so much to you?"

Nathan flared up as if a hidden secret had been exposed, his anger boiling over.

"You ungrateful girl! If I don't teach you a lesson today, I'm not your father."

In his fury, Nathan unbuckled his belt, raising it high before bringing it down on Claire with a forceful swing.

leaving a vivid welt on Claire's arm. The pain was sharp, like

up, trying to shield herself from the

each lash landing heavily on her back, shoulders, and

watched from the side, her eyes flickering with a mix of

rose, as if to stop Nathan. But when her gaze fell on Vanessa's pitiful figure in her arms, the fleeting empathy was crushed by cold rationality, her lips pressed into a thin line as she stayed rooted to

with worry, pleaded, "Sir, please stop! Miss Claire is already injured. If you keep

his strikes not only unrelenting but growing even more

air with a

skin, new wounds layering over old ones, blood slowly

body trembling uncontrollably from the pain, struggling to evade,

against Nathan's towering male strength, she

finally

cry, May's eyes welled with

believe Claire had pushed Vanessa. It was Vanessa, with

her teeth, throwing caution aside as she rushed forward, using her own body to