NovelEnglishChapter 87 Ethan couldn't help but raise his voice when he saw Claire's indifference. "Claire!" But Claire acted as if she hadn't heard him. She walked straight to the dining table, picked up a fork, and began eating on her own.
Her blatant disregard for Nathan's condition left both Adah and Ethan feeling cold-hearted and disillusioned.
Tears streaming down her face, Adah implored, "Claire, have you no heart? Your father is in such a state, and you can still think about food?" Claire picked up a piece of roast beef and chewed it slowly.
Delicious! It was almost laughable. At twenty-three, it was the first tshe had tasted such succulent roast beef.
Back at the orphanage, there was never roast beef to be had.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtAfter returning to the Linwood family, meals consisted of leftovers and cold dishes.
The irony was that it wasn't until she was in prison that she tasted hot, freshly cooked meals. If it weren't for Brian's special arrangements for her in prison, she would have believed the life there was far better than at the orphanage or with the Linwoods.
Once she'd swallowed her mouthful, she spoke slowly, "Haven't you already shattered my heart with your heartlessness? Why is it that when I treat you the way you treated me, you can't stand it?" She recalled the Chinese New Year during her senior year of high school. She had a high fever for three days and nights, bedridden in the storage room, but no one from the Linwood family so much as glanced her way. No one brought her water or food, leaving her to fend for herself.
It was only when May returned from her holiday that she found Claire barely clinging to life. Had May cback a day later, Claire might have died in that storage room.
If she had died, the Linwood family probably wouldn't have even noticed.
May, feeling sorry for her, mentioned it to Nathan and Adah. And what did Nathan say? "She's tough; there's no way she'd die from a fever. She's just pretending to be sick for sympathy. I know her better than you do, May. If you're so free, why don't you go shovel the snow off the driveway?" Adah sighed, "Oh, Claire, even if you're upset with us, you shouldn't hide in your room for three days without eating or drinking. What if you hurt yourself?" So, Adah had known all along that she hadn't eaten or drunk anything for three days, yet she didn't care. Claire had only gone to the kitchen to get swater when she overheard these words, and a chill spread through her body, as if she were plunged into an icy abyss.
Adah's sobbing grew more intense. "Claire, when have we ever abandoned you? You can't just speak against your conscience." See? They didn't even remember what they'd done.
What did that imply? It showed they had never really considered her a part of their lives.
Her life was worth less than Vanessa's dog.
Shortly after Claire recovered from her illness, Vanessa's dog fell sick.
The Linwood family rushed the dog to the vet, spending over ten thousand dollars, but they couldn't save it.
When the dog died, the family was inconsolable, holding a grand funeral for it.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmThose who knew thought the Linwood family had lost a beloved pet. Those who didn't might have thought they'd lost a parent.
Did it end there? Not at all.
Vanessa blamed Claire for the dog's death, insisting that it caught an illness from Claire, even though the eighteen-year-old dog had simply died of old age. The Linwood family preferred Vanessa's baseless accusation over the vet's diagnosis. To make matters worse, Nathan punished Claire by making her stand outside in the freezing cold. Adah, ever the picture of concern, didn't take any meaningful action.
Claire had been malnourished since childhood, and it wasn't until she was seventeen that she got her first period, which was always scant.
That day, she was punished during her period, and the cold forced it to stop abruptly. She fainted from the cold, and once again, May was the one who took care of her.
She was sick for another two weeks.
Since then, her periods had been irregular, and when they did return, they were lighter, and she developed painful cramps.
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