Tempted Trapped and Too Late to Run novel Chapter 273

When Clara got to the Bradford house, she made a beeline upstairs to see Johnny. As she swung open the door to his room, she almost bumped into Naomi, who was on her way out.

Clara braced herself for some sarcastic remarks from Naomi, but surprisingly, she was downright polite this time. “Oh, you’re here. Go on in, your dad’s been waiting for you for ages.”

Feeling a bit thrown off, Clara still stepped inside. The room was heavy with the scent of medicine, stinging her nose. She’d hoped that after sorting out the contract mess, Johnny would be on the mend. Instead, he looked even more frail than before.

Guilt weighed on Clara. Johnny hadn’t done anything wrong. With two daughters caught up in chaos, any father would have been worried sick. Years of stress had worn him down, and the added pressure from the company had just caused everything to crumble at once.

Sitting beside him, Clara couldn’t hold back her tears. Johnny had lost so much weight, his eyes seemed too large for his face. When he saw Clara, his eyes welled up, and he said hoarsely, “You’ve done a great job with the company. Cough, cough. From now on, Anna is your responsibility.”

Clara’s voice trembled as she held his hand, “Dad, I’m sorry. I thought once the contract was sorted, you’d get better.”

She hadn’t even called him, maybe because she was unconsciously avoiding anything to do with the Bradford family.

Johnny managed a weak smile, “It’s not your fault. Anna told me everything, about the memory loss. We didn’t want to believe you before, and that was our mistake.”

Clara felt a lump in her throat, unable to speak. Johnny was a good man, but she felt she wasn’t much of a daughter. She couldn’t remember anything now and didn’t know how to give back the love he deserved.

Her tears dripped onto Johnny’s hand, and he tried to lift it to wipe them away, but he just didn’t have the strength.

“Clara, your mom shouldn’t have blamed you for Quinn’s disappearance. You were just eight. You both were gone for three days, and we were frantic. When only you came back, she worried herself sick for a month. I knew she needed someone to blame. She’s selfish, but she’s my wife. I could only watch her favor Quinn, so I tried to make it up to you by sending money to your account, hoping to ease your pain. If none of this had happened, you wouldn’t have pinned all your hopes on Simon, and there wouldn’t have been so many messes...”