Where Petals of Vengeance Bloom

Chapter 422

No matter how desperately he struggled, the bodyguards dragged him away.

His anguished cries echoed through the cemetery, lingering in the chilly air-a sound that tugged painfully at the heart.

Sean checked his watch, then turned to Amara. "Amara, it's time for us to go."

She nodded, her gaze drifting to the photo of Claire on the headstone. "Mom, Dad and I will come see you again soon."

Ethan wandered aimlessly down the street, his mind a tangled haze. His steps were unsteady, his eyes vacant, haunted by the memory of Claire's black-and- white portrait on the gravestone.

He kept mumbling under his breath, a broken mantra: "No way... I don't believe it... Claire must still be alive. You're all lying to me..."

Everything around him blurred into insignificance. He drifted along the wide avenue with no destination, lost in his own world.

Then, suddenly, a girl in a white dress caught his eye.

Her features her eyes, her smile-looked so much like Claire's.

Ethan's pupils widened in shock and a wild hope flashed across his face. "Claire? Claire—!"

girl was already slipping into the back of a

roared to life, and the car pulled away,

it, pushing himself to the edge,

was wrong, I promise I'll never treat you like that again.

matter how he begged, the car

with uneasy curiosity, some even staring as if he'd lost his mind. Ethan didn't notice. His world had narrowed

caught on the curb and he tumbled

palms scraped against the asphalt, his knees throbbing with pain, but he barely noticed. He reached out toward the direction the car had disappeared, as if

for a long time, slumped on the sidewalk as the crowd shifted around him, faces coming

long he stayed there before finally, slowly, he

made it home, night had already

only to spot a familiar black Bentley

suit leaned casually against the car. As Ethan approached, the man straightened and

Both men had changed in

paid a far steeper price, but Sean had only driven the Cole family into bankruptcy, sparing Brian and his

and guarded as ever, his

hardened. "What do you