Where Petals of Vengeance Bloom

Chapter 486

"Oh, right—she vanished eight years ago. No one's heard a word since. So what if she was a genius? So what if she aced every class? It never brought her a good life, did it? She was doomed from the start. She's probably dead already—a wretched little thing, gone before her time."

Adah's temper flared. She raised her hand, ready to slap him across the face.

Ethan, his face smeared with blood, stared back at her defiantly. He didn't even flinch.

"Go on. Hit me. You could beat me to death and I wouldn't care. Without Vanessa, there's no reason for me to stay in this house. I'd be better off dead."

"Your own daughter's gone. If you finish me off too, you'll have no one left. The family line ends with you."

"You-" Adah was shaking, so furious her whole body trembled.

Just then, a soft, melodic female voice echoed through the living room.

"I'm afraid you'll be disappointed, Mr. Ethan. I'm very much alive."

Adah's head snapped up. She saw Claire walking through the doorway.

The moment she saw Claire, tears streamed down her face-she simply couldn't hold them back.

"Claire? Is it really you?"

Adah remembered-yet, somehow, like a

flawless blend of Adah's and Nathan's best

Claire was nothing like the girl

Claire had been pretty, yes, but so painfully thin

least five-foot-seven, with a healthy figure, every inch the result of a

it painfully obvious how little the Linwood family

walked

finally come back to see

emotional to stop herself, firing off

stayed perfectly calm, unmoved by her mother's

for in her past life, but never received,

a mother, a brother who truly loved

Claire shoved Adah

several

looked at her, wounded. "Claire, you still can't forgive your mother, can

meeting her gaze with a look of cold contempt. Adah faltered. She knew, deep down, she'd done nothing to

tried to

ssment, forcing a b

her face.