Where Petals of Vengeance Bloom novel Chapter 494

When Claire opened her eyes, Adah was sitting at her bedside, her face shadowed with worry.

“Claire, are you alright?” Adah asked softly.

Claire pushed herself upright in the hospital bed. The anesthesia had worn off, and she felt perfectly fine now—no lingering pain, nothing to worry about. She glanced at Adah, her expression cool and detached. “Thank you for this, but consider any past grudges between us settled. It’s done.”

A flash of hope lit up Adah’s face. “Claire, does that mean you’ve finally forgiven me? You’re willing to come home? You won’t leave me anymore?”

Claire’s tone was icy. “Ms. Jones, I’m afraid you’re misunderstanding. I said the old resentment is over, not that I’m coming home with you, or accepting you as my mother.”

She fixed Adah with a steady gaze. “Have you forgotten? My last name is Sterling now—not Linwood. I have my own parents, my own brother. Why should I go back with you?”

Adah’s expression collapsed, pain flickering in her eyes. “Claire, I’m your real mother. The Sterlings took you from me.”

Claire let out a cold, humorless laugh. “They never ‘took’ me. The truth is, I stopped needing you a long time ago.”

She looked away, voice flat but firm. “Maybe you don’t know this, but in my last life, the Sterlings visited the orphanage intending to adopt me. But back then, Vincent Lewis was my best friend—I refused to leave him and turned down the adoption. I thought I was making the right choice. I was wrong.”

Her tone sharpened. “If I’d agreed, I could have had a loving family, a brother who protected me, parents who cared. Instead, I went back to the Linwood family and suffered nothing but cruelty from you all.”

Adah wilted, her shoulders slumping as if the energy had been drained out of her.

“Claire, I’m sorry. I know I was wrong.” Her voice trembled.

Claire cut her off, impatient. “I’ve heard that line so many times, I could recite it in my sleep. Every time, you say you regret it, but you never change. You have zero credibility with me. Please, don’t waste your breath saying empty things anymore. It’s exhausting.”

There was no softness in Claire’s words; she didn’t spare Adah’s feelings in the slightest.

Claire’s patience was running thin; she didn’t want to look at Adah for another second. “What is it now?”

Adah bit her lip, searching for the right words. “Claire, could you… could you write a letter of forgiveness for your brother?”

Claire let out a sharp, disbelieving laugh. “He helped someone cut out my kidney, and you want me to forgive him?”

“You’re the youngest scientific genius in Vesperia. If you speak up, the court will go easy on him. Couldn’t you show him a little mercy? Please?”

“Enough!”

Claire’s voice rang out in sudden fury.