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.

Claire's arm. The pain was sharp,

body instinctively curled up, trying to shield herself from the relentless blows raining down

with unrestrained force, each lash landing heavily

eyes flickering with

as if to stop Nathan. But when her gaze fell on Vanessa's pitiful figure in her arms, the fleeting empathy

worry, pleaded, "Sir, please stop! Miss Claire is already injured. If you keep going, you'll seriously

like a wild beast, his strikes not only unrelenting but growing even

the air with a terrifying

skin, new wounds layering over old

from the pain, struggling to evade, but her broken leg made escape

but against Nathan's towering male strength, she

finally succumbed,

her cry, May's eyes welled with

had pushed Vanessa. It was Vanessa, with her deceitful nature, who

throwing caution aside as she