Where Petals of Vengeance Bloom

Chapter 473

After Adah returned to her room, she flopped onto her bed, utterly dejected.

No. She couldn't—she wouldn't let the Tempest family take Claire away from her.

Sure, right now the Tempests were showering Claire with affection, but Adah hadn't forgotten what happened in her previous life. Back then, hadn't they eventually abandoned Claire, tossing her back into an orphanage as if she were nothing?

Claire had already suffered enough in that past life. This time, Adah, her real mother, wouldn't let her daughter go through that heartbreak again.

Yes, that's right.

She had to win Claire back. Claire was still young; if Adah took her time, building a real relationship, surely one day her daughter would understand everything she'd done was out of love.

Since Claire had scored so remarkably well on her exams, it was only a matter of time before the Tempest family threw her a big graduation party.

At that party, with all those people present, Adah would reveal the truth—she was Claire's birth mother. In front of everyone, the Tempests would be forced to hand Claire back, no matter how reluctant they were. Public pressure would leave them no other choice.

With a plan finally taking shape, Adah was able to drift off to sleep.

Days slipped by, and before she knew it, the start of the new school year was just around the corner.

Three days before classes began, the Tempest family hosted an extravagant graduation party for Claire.

This time, it wasn't at The Celestial Aerie, but at the Tempests' own lavish estate.

chatting and laughing

with Claire between

Claire-some gazes were warm and doting, others curious,

was only five years old, and yet she'd been accepted

with businesspeople, most already on friendly terms with the Tempests. Now, after meeting Claire, they were

guests, beaming. "Today, we're here to

didn't get

erupted

You bankrupted the Linwood family! Do you even have a

stormed into the hall, rage

to drag him out,

Claire, his gaze hungry and

That little brat

into college at just

blood, after all. Cleverness ran in

only he'd known she was a genius, would

A child like

at the

unimaginable

years old, a prodigy, the National Defense Academy-the combination made Claire worth more than anyone