Where Petals of Vengeance Bloom novel Chapter 286

They all began to speak, each person adding their own accusations, laying out Nathan's crimes one by one.

Nathan stood frozen, as if struck by lightning, the color draining from his face until he looked utterly ashen. His gaze darted frantically across the room, searching the faces around him, feeling as though his world was collapsing. He'd always known that sparing Irene's life would come back to haunt him. If only he'd ended things when she was still unconscious, none of this would be happening. But who could have predicted she'd ever wake up from that coma?

Nervous tension made the muscles in Nathan's face twitch uncontrollably. Struggling to maintain his composure, he forced out, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Irene let out a cold, mirthless laugh. "Really? Isn't this exactly what you and Vanessa plotted upstairs five years ago?"

She didn't stop there. "You planned to drive your own wife insane, play the loving husband in public, and once you had control of Linwood Enterprises, you'd dispose of your wife and marry your mistress Vanessa. And as for Ethan? You wanted him to work his entire life for your mistress and her children, making sure he got nothing once you signed your will."

"That's not true! You're all conspiring to frame me. I never did any of that!" Nathan's voice shook with desperation.

"Frame you?" Irene's eyes widened; her gaunt face made her eyes look even more sunken and terrifying. "I overheard your conversation with Vanessa. That's why you pushed me down the stairs, hoping to kill me. But I survived."

She turned her gaze to Claire, her tone biting. "My survival ruined your plans, so you pinned your murder attempt on Claire and made her take the fall for you."

Then Irene's eyes flicked to Adah, her expression dripping with sarcasm. "Mrs. Linwood, you're the perfect wife to Nathan and a devoted mother to Vanessa. Claire could've proven her innocence, but you deleted the security footage that would have cleared her name. Thanks to you, Claire spent five years in prison, suffering for a crime she didn't commit."

Adah felt as if she'd plunged into an icy abyss, her entire body trembling. She'd already been devastated to learn about Nathan's betrayal, the death of her father, his affair, and being forced to raise his mistress's child. But nothing could prepare her for the brutality of the truth revealed tonight. Nathan and Vanessa, the two people she trusted most, had tried to murder Claire. When that failed, they framed her for attempted murder—and Adah herself had helped Vanessa destroy the evidence, even persuading Claire to confess.