Where Petals of Vengeance Bloom

Chapter 408

If only she could have stopped chasing after her family's affection, stopped trying so desperately to please them-if she'd fought back, fiercely, whenever they hurt her—maybe, just maybe, her story would have turned out completely different.

In nearly thirty years of life, she was the most remarkable woman I'd ever met. Who wouldn't like someone so wonderfully, heartbreakingly normal?

And that was exactly why the Linwood family seemed so twisted by comparison. She was like a sane person trapped in an asylum, slowly driven mad by the constant torment-every day she spent among them was pure agony.

She spent fifteen long years in an orphanage. Then, after returning to the Linwoods, suffered three more years of humiliation, and later, five years in prison.

In her short twenty-three years, she never knew a single day of real happiness. Not one day free from pain or the shadow of suffering.

Whenever I think of what she endured, it feels as though someone is twisting a knife in my heart.

After she was gone, I wandered through my days like a ghost-I couldn't eat, couldn't sleep.

I'd never fallen apart over anyone like this, not even when my own mother passed away. Back then, I hadn't lost myself the way I did now.

I used to believe that someone as cold-blooded as me would forget her quickly.

But a month passed, and her memory only became more vivid, more deeply etched into my soul. The ache of missing her grew with every passing day.

Standing in the living room, my eyes always drifted-helplessly—to the sofa by the tall windows.

When Claire was alive, she loved to lie there in the sun.

She was so frail that she'd often drift off to sleep, bathed in sunlight.

Her small frame curled up on the cushions made her look even tinier.

if it could shine right through her pale skin,

just stand

looking at her brought me a deep, unshakable peace, as though all the chaos of the world fell

never see that gentle,

moment has been pure

ever climb

then, I learned the truth: we had a daughter together. The shock was like nothing I'd

intimate thing that ever passed between us was

further lines, and yet, fate played its cruelest trick-

other, our daughter entered the world, and neither of us

her Amara, after the

a reason

of

was her face-so much like Claire's-or perhaps the instinctive bond

grew, she looked more and more like her

Claire's beauty, but she was taller, more

She

but

her mother's brilliance,

setter fortune-she finished

place at Foster

grow up, poured

love into her-every drop

éto our daughter.Onteed. I

only there were