Where Petals of Vengeance Bloom novel Chapter 414

The family I had longed for never once longed for me.

June 21, 2007. Monday. Drizzling.

Today, I got punished again.

The injustice and helplessness weighed so heavily on me, I started to wonder if this house had ever truly been my home.

Before I left for school this morning, I scribbled a note and left it on the kitchen table: If you don’t want me here, maybe I should just go back to the orphanage.

If there’s no love left, there’s no point in torturing each other like this.

After all, I’ve gotten used to being alone. Loneliness is a lot easier to bear than the feeling of being looked down on every day.

With these tangled thoughts, I trudged to school, dragging my feet. All day, I couldn’t focus—memories of everything that had happened at home kept looping in my mind.

So, when classes ended that evening, I biked straight back to the orphanage.

The rain kept coming down, cold and sharp, soaking through my clothes as I rode. But when the familiar gates of the orphanage finally came into view, I actually felt a sense of relief I hadn’t felt in years.

But before I even had a chance to get off my bike, I saw the Linwood family’s car parked right outside the entrance.

My father climbed out. He took one look at me, drenched and shivering, and without a word of concern, slapped me hard across the face.

The crack of his hand echoed through the drizzle, stinging my cheek, burning hot.

He jabbed a finger at me, his voice rising with fury: “Ungrateful brat! We’ve been searching for you all these years. We finally bring you home, and the first thing you do is cause trouble? Now you’re running away to threaten us, is that it?”

His eyes were wild with anger, as if I’d committed some unthinkable crime.