Charles quickly defended himself, saying, "I had my own sets of difficulties. I divorced from you and built a separate family with Miranda Forks. In those few years when I first joined the Forks' family, my status was low and I had no real power or money. How could I have done anything to help find our daughter?"
Ultimately, he did not forget to provoke the motherdaughter relationship between the old woman and Roxie. He pushed the conflict to the old woman instead. "You keep saying that I have no love for our daughter, but what about you? When we divorced, you did everything possible to take custody of our daughter but you never cherished her well. Don't think that I don't know about you transferring all your anger for me on her back then. You beat her up and scolded her. You instigated her to go out and beg for food. How could you be so cruel? She was only a three-year-old child."
The old woman bawled. "Did you think I wanted to do that? Ask yourself, Charles Banners. When you and I divorced, you took away all our savings and left our daughter to me.
Because of the blow of the divorce, I got sick again. I had no money to go and see a doctor. If I wanted my child to survive, I could only teach her to be more shameless, no?
"I admit that I was horrible to my kid. I’ve been drowning in guilt and self-blame all these years. But what about you? You live in a big house. You have more and more power in your hands. You clearly had the ability to give your daughter a better life, but you weren’t willing to support us."
Roxie looked at Charles coldly and said faintly, "She wasn't good to me but that's excusable. As for you, you knew that I was living in dire straits but you turned a blind eye to me. You're a horrible father."
Charles said nervously and fearfully, "Roxie, don't listen to her nonsense. I really had my difficulties too."
Roxie looked at the pair of heads upstairs that were sticking out of the stairs' railing. She sneered ironically, "If you want me to believe you, then prove it to me."
That night, Charles went looking for Madam Banners and wanted to have a heart-to-heart talk with her, but i t turned into a fierce dispute in the end.
Madam Banners said, "Charles Banners, I'll fulfill your wishes if you want a divorce, but the condition is that you leave the house."
She could now see that Charles was a vile self-seeking person. As long as she held onto the property and refused to let go, Charles would be reluctant to part with her.
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