Where Petals of Vengeance Bloom

Chapter 414

The family I had longed for never once longed for me.

June 21, 2007. Monday. Drizzling.

Today, I got punished again.

The injustice and helplessness weighed so heavily on me, I started to wonder if this house had ever truly been my home.

Before I left for school this morning, I scribbled a note and left it on the kitchen table: If you don't want me here, maybe I should just go back to the orphanage.

If there's no love left, there's no point in torturing each other like this.

After all, I've gotten used to being alone. Loneliness is a lot easier to bear than the feeling of being looked down on every day.

With these tangled thoughts, I trudged to school, dragging my feet. All day, I couldn't focus-memories of everything that had happened at home kept looping in my mind.

So, when classes ended that evening, I biked straight back to the orphanage.

soaking through my clothes as I rode. But when the familiar gates of the orphanage finally came into view, I actually felt a

off my bike, I saw the

drenched and shivering, and without a

echoed through the

me, his voice rising with fury: "Ungrateful brat! We've been searching for you all these years. We finally bring you home, and the first thing you do is cause trouble? Now you're running away to threaten us, is

wild with anger, as if I'd committed

desperately to explain, “Dad, I'm not trying to threaten you, I just-I just don't want to

finish, my mother cut

voice shaking as she accused me, “You come back this late-where have you been? Are you running around with the wrong crowd? Girls your age are so easily led astray. If you end up pregnant, you'll

disappointment and anger, her tears a

"If you ever embarrass the Linwood family, I'll break your legs myself. I'd rather keep you locked up than let

their eyes, I was nothing but a criminal. Any explanation I gave

to

moment we stepped inside, my brother turned to me coldly: "If you

bother going

to change