Where Petals of Vengeance Bloom

Chapter 418

"No, you've got it all wrong. There's just been a misunderstanding between your mother and me—I was manipulated by someone with bad intentions. As long as I can clear things up with her, everything will be alright again."

He looked at Amara pleadingly. "Will you help your uncle? Please, just ask your mom to come out. I have so much I need to say to her."

Amara snorted. "You really are something-absolutely ridiculous."

With that, she ignored him and headed straight for the front door.

Ethan tried to follow, desperate to keep pleading his case, but the driver blocked his way. All he could do was watch helplessly as Amara walked inside and shut the door behind her.

Kneeling in the pouring rain, Ethan's hands fell limply to the ground. His voice trembled raw and broken. "Claire, I know what I've done is unforgivable. For ten years, I've lived with this torment, every single day a kind of hell. I'm begging you —just give me a chance. Let me spend the rest of my life making up for my sins."

Upstairs, Amara stood behind the tall windows, silently watching the man outside sobbing and begging on his knees.

Her eyes stung, turning red despite herself.

"Go tell her? Tell who?" she whispered bitterly. "Mom's been gone for years. She left this world a decade ago."

She'd grown up surrounded by love, but there was always a longing for a mother's embrace.

her ever shied

her how her mother was a prodigy-top of her class year after year, always winning scholarships, and eventually earning a place at

Amara had seen her mother's work herself; even

such a wonderful mother-Amara never even got to meet her. She was taken

in her mind: "Amara, remember-kindness can be mistaken for weakness. I won't always be here to protect you. You have to become strong enough

that man outside dared to call himself

such a dramatic display of remorse, Amara felt

harder, soaking Ethan until he looked utterly pathetic and

his knees, hoping this pitiful scene

used to care about him. Surely, if she saw him like this, she would come out-she wouldn't be

how much Ethan humiliated himself, Claire

in, and after the downpour finally eased, the world grew

black Rolls-Royce pulled up

black suit. Nearly forty now, he

striking. features

expression that made people instinctively avert

saw him and scrambled to his feet-but after kneeling so long, his legs gave out,

He nearly fell, but