"You ungrateful daughter!"

Charles Reed was furious, his finger trembling as he pointed at her. "How dare you say something like that! I swear I’m going to teach you a lesson today!"

He looked around for something to hit Chloe Reed with. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Autumn Linton grabbed her arm. "Chloe, what are you saying? I carried you for ten months, I worked so hard to raise you. How could you say such things to hurt me?"

Chloe Reed looked at her mockingly. "I’m your own flesh and blood, but when this flesh and blood of yours was framed, bullied, and suffering, did you feel anything at all?"

Autumn Linton’s expression froze for a second before tears started to fall. "Who could possibly bully you? You’ve been spoiled and willful since you were little, even more so after Sunny joined our family. We all coddled you, gave in to you, terrified you’d be the least bit unhappy. And now you’re saying you’ve been bullied? Chloe, how can you be so heartless?"

Chloe Reed looked at them, her expression completely numb.

One of them, weeping and accusatory, twisted the knife with soft words.

The other, his face contorted with rage, looked as if he wanted to kill her.

She closed her eyes. "Either beat me to death, or let’s disown each other. Go on, call me heartless. As it turns out, I don’t need parents like you anyway."

SLAP!

With a trembling hand, Autumn Linton slapped her across the face.

She then grabbed Chloe’s shoulders and shook her, wailing, "Chloe Reed, how could you say that? You truly are heartless! You’re my daughter, how could you talk so casually about disowning us? Do you want me to drop dead?"

As she was shaken, a profound sense of powerlessness washed over Chloe Reed.

Out in the world, if anyone bullied her, she would fight back, an eye for an eye.

But here, back in this house, it was as if all her strength had been drained away, leaving only powerlessness and exhaustion.

"Since you love Sunny Reed so much, isn’t my offer the best solution? Why aren’t you happy with it?" she asked, her face a mask of genuine confusion.

Charles Reed had found a whip and was now marching toward Chloe Reed.

Seeing this, Autumn Linton rushed forward and threw her arms around his waist. "No, you can’t! Don’t hit her! Our daughter is all grown up; you can’t hit her like this anymore!"

Charles Reed pointed the whip at Chloe Reed. "Are you going to admit you were wrong?!"

"What did I do wrong?" Chloe Reed asked softly.

"You’re wrong for not getting along with your sister! Whenever she’s around, you can’t stand the sight of her and find any excuse to pick on her and bully her! You’re disrespectful to your own mother! And you dare to threaten us with disownment!"

Charles Reed roared.

The living room descended into utter chaos, noisy and tumultuous.

’They said they were calling me home for dinner,’ she thought. ’They even said they’d made my favorite food.’

Chloe Reed’s eyes suddenly stung. "I’m not wrong," she said. "And I won’t admit to anything."

Just as it had been countless times in the past, she knew she wasn’t in the wrong. Why should she have to admit fault!

Now, facing Charles Reed’s fury, she no longer felt so afraid.

She turned and walked away, her back ramrod straight, her steps firm and resolute.

"You animal, get back here!"

At this, Charles Reed’s rage boiled over. He shoved Autumn Linton aside and started after Chloe Reed.

"Aah—!"

Autumn Linton stumbled and fell, her head cracking against the corner of a cabinet. She let out a sharp cry, reached up to feel her head, and fainted dead away at the sight of blood on her hand.

"Autumn!"

Seeing this, Charles Reed cried out in terror, then immediately yelled to the house staff, "Quick, call an ambulance!"