Against Cruelty, She Grew Strong (by Anastasia Glover) novel Chapter 614

Chapter 614 The Echoes of Disdain

Tammy snapped, her eyes blazing with fury. “Who the hell is crying

Finished

“I am not going to force anything on you,” Norman countered, his voice stabilizing. “Your memories have only recently returned, and your mind is still in absolute chaos. You haven’t had the chance to look at your true feelings clearly yet. I can wait for you to calm down before we sit down and talk.”

“I am perfectly calm.”

“No, you aren’t calm at all. Don’t let your temper force you into a reckless choice.”

The real implication of his words clicked in Tammy’s mind, and a cold sneer broke across her lips. “I see. You honestly believe my rejection is nothing more than a passing impulsive tantrum? Norman, where on earth do you secure the absolute audacity to believe that? I am no longer that brainless fool who trailed after you in the underground fighting rings!”

He immediately rejected the description, his voice tightening. “You were never a fool!”

“If I wasn’t a fool, then what exactly was I? Norman, you recovered your memories a hell of a long time ago, didn’t you? During that period when you kept vanishing without a trace under the pretense of handling business, you were actively returning to the Cole family network, weren’t you? Well? Do you have the nerve to look me in the eye and deny it?”

Norman’s throat locked, his lips pressing into a thin line.

He couldn’t find a single word to offer. Because it was the absolute truth.

“You knew exactly who we were, yet you kept your mouth shut and watched me circle around you like a brainless idiot. Weren’t you even a fraction of a second terrified that the moment my mind cleared, I

second would murder you on the spot?”

Tammy was harboring a genuine, lethal intent. She fiercely loathed deception above all else.

A heavy, bitter smile broke across Norman’s face. “Tammy, why has it never crossed your mind that I simply couldn’t bear the thought of losing you?”

She paused, her eyes narrowing.

୮

“The absolute second I revealed the truth to you, you would have packed your bags and walked out of my

your entire life without a single moment of hesitation. You said it yourself, you circled around me, and world revolved completely around my existence. You were so incredibly endearing. I wanted to freeze that reality permanently, and it was never because I wanted to treat your devotion like a joke.”

The statement possessed the exact weight of a profound romantic declaration.

Had it been addressed to any ordinary woman, it might have evoked a wave of intense emotion. But Tammy remained entirely unmoved. She let out a sharp, mocking laugh. “Norman, you really are a piece of work. Just to satisfy your own sick, selfish desires, you assumed the authority to dictate my life for me?”

She had zero remaining desire to listen to his voice, lifting an arm to point a rigid finger toward the perimeter gates. “Get the hell out of here!”

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Chapter 614 The Echoes of Disdain

Finifred

Norinan pressed his lips together, every instinct screaming at trim to hold his ground. But his eyes pinned her forehead, noting that the excessive strain of her fury had caused the deep laceration beneath the bandage to rupture once more, a fresh layer of crimson blood seeping into the white fibers.

Terrified of aggravating her trauma any further, he chose to execute a temporary retreat, walking away down the dirt path.

The exact second his silhouette cleared the fenceline, Tammy let out a fong, heavy breath, her shoulders losing their rigid tension.

Sparky padded closer, leaning his massive head against her hand to gently lick her knuckles.

“I’m fine, Sparky,” she murmured, a faint smile returning to her lips as she scratched his jaw. “That guy is an absolute bastard. The next time he tries to cross our perimeter you launch directly into an attack and rip a piece out of him, do you hear me?”

“Woof! Woof!”

A small chuckle escaped her throat, though the dynamic confidence she usually projected had completely faded, leaving her features written in a heavy layer of isolation.

“If walking away leaves you feeling this miserable, what was the point of delivering such brutal threats?”

Xavier stepped out from the shadow of the storage container, his expression incredibly complex. It was glaringly obvious he had caught every single syllable of the confrontation.

Tammy lowered her head, her voice dropping to a quiet mutter. “I’m sorry you had to witness such a pathetic display.”

“I would never mock you, Tammy.”

“Whenever my mind reconstructs that entire chapter of my past, I find myself entirely consumed by self- loathing. I was so incredibly, remarkably stupid.”

“Don’t speak about yourself in that register,” Xavier countered gently, stepping closer. “That was simply a chapter of your journey, and absolutely no one navigates an entire lifetime without committing a massive error. I made catastrophic blunders in my past, to the point where I spent years entirely convinced that the universe would never grant me a single chance at redemption.”

Tammy slowly lifted her head. She had heard the fragments of the complex history linking Xavier and Tatiana. But because Tatiana had fully processed the past and discarded her hostility. Tammy had never maintained any animosity toward him.

“Eventually, destiny placed me in this sector, and I crossed paths with Tatiana again,” Xavier continued, bis voice somber. “I was granted an avenue to make amends, but the realities of my past failures didn’t simply vanish into thin air. Every single day serves as a quiet reminder of the agony I caused, and just like you, I struggle against that suffocating weight.”

“Then… Xavier, how exactly did you…”

“How did I find the strength to move past it? It isn’t that the pain disappeared entirely. It is simply that alongside the miserable memories, there are also magnificent, beautiful moments that occurred. Those

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Chapter 614 The Echocs of Disdain

memories are incredibly precious, and they deserve to be preserved.”

Tammy froze, her voice soft echo. “Beautiful moments…”

Finished

“Yes. Even within that specific chapter of your past that you are desperately trying to deny, there were genuine, beautiful realities. You shouldn’t strip away their value.”

Tammy lapsed into a deep, silent state of contemplation. As the volatile shield of her fury slowly dissolved, her analytical mind began to process the timeline with absolute clarity. It wasn’t entirely a landscape of pure horror.

“Don’t issue a blanket condemnation over your entire past, Tammy. Grant yourself the grace to let go and realign your focus. There is an immense path waiting for you ahead, and there is absolutely zero utility in trapping your thoughts within a temporary complication.”

She offered a firm nod, her expression softening. “I understand completely. Thank you, Xavier.”

“Think nothing of it.”

Xavier truly regarded Tammy as a younger sister, and seeing her features finally relax brought an immense sense of relief to his mind. As long as Mine No. 9 remained entirely stable and free of operational disasters, he had every reason to be grateful.

The following morning.

A specialized external medical convoy rolled through the main security checkpoints, pulling up to the residential quarters. They had arrived on–site to execute a comprehensive vaccination campaign for the entire labor force.

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