Bound By A Broken Night novel Chapter 153

Chapter 153

“My mother is critical in the ICU Red continued, his face flushed with rage.

“She couldn’t handle the stress of what you did to her!”

Mirriam stood beside him, her gaze razor–sharp, filled with venom.

“Whatever happens to my grandmother,” she hissed, “I will never forgive you, Cassidy.”

“Is this what you wanted?” Red demanded, jabbing a finger toward her.

“Are you satisfied now? Your plan to destroy this family is finally working! You’re heartless! Is this how you repay the people who raised you?”

Hushed murmurs rippled through the growing crowd.

“Isn’t that the adopted daughter of the Knowles?”

“I heard she sent her adoptive mother and grandmother to prison…”

“After everything they did for her?”

Cassie could hear every whisper. Every assumption.

She slowly turned her face back toward Red, her cheek still throbbing.

“Yes,” she said calmly, though the sting pulsed under her skin. “This is how people who killed my mother pay for their crimes.”

A small, cold smirk curved her lips.

“Is it my fault that I sought justice? And that the court granted it?”

Smack.

The second slap came even faster than the first, snapping her head to the side again. The metallic taste of blood spread across her tongue.

“Ingrate!” Red spat.

A mocking chuckle slipped from her lips despite the pain.

She wiped the corner of her mouth with her thumb, glancing at the faint smear of red before looking back at him with steady defiance.

“I owe you–and the entire Knowles family–nothing,” she said through clenched teeth.

“I am not ungrateful.” Her eyes hardened.

“Everything I received from you, I repaid with sweat and blood.”

୮

The crowd’s whispers grew louder, but Cassie no longer heard them. She stood tall. No longer the frightened girl they once controlled.

“Why would it be my fault for seeking justice for my mother?” Cassie demanded, her voice no longer calm but sharp–cutting through the air as her gaze pierced both Red and Mirriam.

“Because she was just a maid?” she continued, her chest rising and falling heavily.

“Because her life was insignificant to you? Because I’m only a maid’s daughter, I’m supposed to stay silent–even when my mother was killed by your wife and your mother?”

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The composure she had carefully maintained for years finally cracked.

Her voice trembled not with weakness, but with fury long suppressed.

“Why should I suffer for the betrayal you committed against your own wife?” she shot back, her lips curling in bitter mockery.

“Why is it only my mother’s fault that you couldn’t resist bedding a maid?”

“Cassidy!” Red barked, trying to silence her.

But she did not flinch.

“More than anyone, this is your fault!” she yelled, her voice rising despite the growing crowd.

“You chose to have an illicit affair. You chose to betray your wife. It is not my fault that I am the living evidence of your disgrace!”

Another slap struck her. The sound echoed again–but this time, she did not even turn her head.

She stood still, unyielding.

“You stop it, Cassidy!” Red shouted, his anger bordering on desperation.

“Why?” she challenged, eyes blazing.

“Are you ashamed that everyone here might learn your disgusting secret?”

She slowly turned, deliberately sweeping her gaze over the crowd that had gathered–curious faces, whispering mouths, phones discreetly lifted.

Her voice rang clear.

“I am a Knowles!” she declared.

“I am your daughter! Knowles blood ran through my veins”

A ripple of shock spread through the onlookers.

“But you treated me as if it were my fault that you made my mother pregnant. As if I was the stain you couldn’t erase,” she continued, her voice breaking for the first time–not from fear, but from years of hurt.

Her hands clenched at her sides.

“You and your entire family treated me like dirt.”

She met Red’s eyes squarely, her expression no longer wounded–but resolute.

“So tell me… what exactly should I be grateful to you for?”

Smack.

Her head snapped to the side as the sting bloomed across her cheek.

୮

“Enough of your nonsense, Cassidy!” Mirriam’s shrill voice rang in her ears. “How dare you talk to Dad like that?”

The pain pulsed–but it did not break her.

Cassie slowly lifted her face, eyes burning–not with tears, but with something far more dangerous.

Smack.

Before Mirriam could even realize what had happened, Cassie’s palm struck her back with equal force. The sharp sound echoed louder than the first, stunning the crowd into a suffocating silence.

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Mirriam staggered, clutching her cheek in disbelief.

“You-”

“I will say whatever I want to say,” Cassie cut in, her voice low but shaking with fury.

“For years, you made me your scapegoat. Every whisper, every humiliation, every accusation–you pinned it on me.”

Her gaze swept across the gathering crowd, daring anyone to look away.

“You all hid behind your family name,” she continued, her voice rising, raw and unapologetic.

“But everyone deserves to know how rotten the Knowles truly are.”

A wave of murmurs rippled through the crowd.

Cassie turned back to Mirriam, her expression no longer trembling with emotion–but sharpened into something steady and terrifyingly calm.

“And this doesn’t end here,” she continued, her voice dropping to a dangerous softness that carried more weight than a scream.

“I will make sure that your highly esteemed name–the one you guard so desperately–will crumble.”

A faint smirk curved her lips, her eyes flicking briefly to Red before returning to Mirriam. She stepped closer, her gaze unwavering.

“I will ruin you.”

****tbc****

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