"You ungrateful daughter!"
Charles Reed was furious, his finger trembling as he pointed at her. "How dare you say something like that! I swear I’m going to teach you a lesson today!"
He looked around for something to hit Chloe Reed with.
Autumn Linton grabbed her arm. "Chloe, what are you saying? I carried you for ten months, I worked so hard to raise you. How could you say such things to hurt me?"
Chloe Reed looked at her mockingly. "I’m your own flesh and blood, but when this flesh and blood of yours was framed, bullied, and suffering, did you feel anything at all?"
Autumn Linton’s expression froze for a second before tears started to fall. "Who could possibly bully you? You’ve been spoiled and willful since you were little, even more so after Sunny joined our family. We all coddled you, gave in to you, terrified you’d be the least bit unhappy. And now you’re saying you’ve been bullied? Chloe, how can you be so heartless?"
Chloe Reed looked at them, her expression completely numb.
One of them, weeping and accusatory, twisted the knife with soft words.
The other, his face contorted with rage, looked as if he wanted to kill her.
She closed her eyes. "Either beat me to death, or let’s disown each other. Go on, call me heartless. As it turns out, I don’t need parents like you anyway."
SLAP!
With a trembling hand, Autumn Linton slapped her across the face.
She then grabbed Chloe’s shoulders and shook her, wailing, "Chloe Reed, how could you say that? You truly are heartless! You’re my daughter, how could you talk so casually about disowning us? Do you want me to drop dead?"
As she was shaken, a profound sense of powerlessness washed over Chloe Reed.
Out in the world, if anyone bullied her, she would fight back, an eye for an eye.
But here, back in this house, it was as if all her strength had been drained away, leaving only powerlessness and exhaustion.
"Since you love Sunny Reed so much, isn’t my offer the best solution? Why aren’t you happy with it?" she asked, her face a mask of genuine confusion.


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