Where Petals of Vengeance Bloom

Chapter 217

Adah gazed at the shattered pill bottles scattered across the floor, her eyes brimming with unshed tears. Her voice trembled with emotion. "Ethan, how could you say something like that?"

"You know Claire's fiery temperament," Ethan retorted, trying to keep his own frustration in check. "In prison, she must have provoked someone for them to lash out. Otherwise, why would those inmates pick on her specifically and leave others alone?"

"Her broken leg has nothing to do with us. Why do you insist on blaming her suffering on your father and me? Is Claire the only one you care about? Are we not your real parents anymore?"

As Adah spoke, her composure crumbled. She buried her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking with sobs that echoed through the hospital room, tugging painfully at Ethan's heart.

Seeing his mother so distraught, Ethan's resolve wavered. He wanted to offer comfort, but the image of Claire's cold, distant stare flashed in his mind, extinguishing any warmth he felt in an instant.

His heart tightened, and his voice turned icy. "Claire wants nothing to do with us anymore. Is this what you wanted?"

Nathan, who was leaning back in the hospital bed, struggled to sit up. His face twisted with anger and the searing pain in his leg. "You ungrateful son!" he shouted. "And now you blame us? Claire's trouble is her own doing; she's been nothing but a curse to this family!"

Ethan's eyes blazed with fury. "Shut up! You forced Claire to take the fall for Vanessa back then. Have you lost all sense of decency?"

onto the nearby table with a resounding crash. Items

his ground. "Don't

those words hit him like a sledgehammer. The memories haunted him, each moment a relentless nightmare of guilt

is karma," Ethan muttered through clenched teeth, his words deliberate and sharp.

deteriorated. He understood it as a punishment

at every turn. To him, she was just a worthless troublemaker undeserving of Ethan's

a trembling

ground, his gaze icy and unyielding as he

face flushed with anger and veins bulging, exacerbated by the relentless

in such agony, a part

situation, tried to reason with Ethan despite her own pain. "Ethan,

were wrong about Claire," she continued. "She's an ungrateful daughter, leaving us all worried while she probably mocks

of having a son and a daughter. Who knew we'd end up