Chapter 362 AFRAID TO LOVE

My legs gave out and I slid from Carter’s arms to the floor. I covered my face with my hands as sobs shook through my body.

“Why?” I cried hoarsely. “Why do they treat me like this when I’ve already endured so much pain? What did I ever do to deserve this?”

Carter crouched beside me immediately. He pulled my head against his chest, his hand gently stroking my hair as he tried to calm me.

“You’ve done nothing wrong, silly girl,” he murmured softly. “The fault lies in their blindness and their foolishness.”

His voice carried a quiet regret.

“Elena… I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you in our previous life. I failed you, and you suffered because of it. But I swear to you, in this life, I won’t let anyone harm you again.”

“I know you’re good to me,” I whispered through my tears.

But even hearing those words did not fully comfort me.

Even though I kept telling myself that the Morrigans no longer mattered, fear still lingered inside my chest. I had always dreaded the day they would discover the truth. I feared they would look at me with the same hatred and contempt they always had.

That fear was why I hid my real identity.

But when the truth finally came out, the last fragile hope inside me shattered completely.

They didn’t love me.

They never had.

I forced myself to speak through my trembling breath.

“I have you. That’s enough. They don’t matter anymore.”

“Silly girl,” Carter said gently.

He lifted me from the floor and placed me on the bed. His fingers brushed away the tears on my cheeks with surprising tenderness.

“I spoke with Aunt Amber,” he told me quietly. “She isn’t involved in what happened to the Morrigans.”

I blinked in surprise. “She isn’t?”

“No,” Carter replied. “She doesn’t hold any grudge against the Morrigans. The Blackwells are the ones who truly hate them.”

He paused before continuing.

“When Wisteria’s father was only two years old, there was a violent incident. The Blackwells tried to intervene, but they arrived too late. Wisteria’s grandfather was beaten to death. Her grandmother fled with her young son in her arms, but in the chaos his leg was broken.”

Carter’s voice softened slightly.

“Her grandmother died soon after. Her father never fully recovered. Wisteria grew up watching his suffering. That hatred shaped her. She only became part of the plan after she learned the truth.”

“So Wisteria’s father planned the revenge against the Morrigans?” I asked quietly.

Carter nodded.

“Yes. Along with the elders of the Blackwell family. The younger generation, including Wisteria, only carried out the plan.”

The explanation made my thoughts grow heavy.

The Morrigans had brought immense suffering upon the Blackwells. That truth did not excuse Wisteria’s cruelty, but it made it easier to understand where it came from.

I had once called her heartless.

Now I realized she had simply grown up inside darkness.

Every time she saw her father limp, it must have reminded her of the Morrigans.

“Did the Blackwells work together with the Boltons?” I asked. “Is Aunt Amber Lady Rose?”

Carter shook his head.

“She never explained the details of that organization,” he said. “But she did tell me stories about my mother when she was younger.”

It sounded like Amber, much like Silas, was not the one controlling everything. Someone else, someone higher, had been moving the pieces behind the scenes and using her as just another part of their plan.

Too many questions remained.

“How did your mother die?” I asked suddenly. “And if your father loved his first wife so much… then how do you even exist?”

The question slipped out before I could stop myself.

Carter did not look offended.

“My father never loved my mother,” he said calmly. “According to Aunt Amber, my mother fell deeply in love with a man thirty years older than her.”

I stared at him in shock.

“My father lost his wife when he was young,” Carter continued. “He never remarried. Instead, he threw himself into his work. He was powerful and admired by many women.

He gave a faint smile.

“One day he saved my mother by chance. She fell in love with him instantly. She chased after him despite the age difference.”

Carter looked away briefly.

“An accident eventually led to my birth.”

“But my father never accepted my mother. She grew tired of loving someone who would never love her back. So she left without telling him she was pregnant.”

“She was a proud woman,” he added quietly. “She kept everything to herself. When I was little, our house caught fire. That was when my father discovered us.”

“And he only brought you back?” I asked softly.

Carter nodded.

“Maybe because I was the child of a woman he didn’t love, he couldn’t bring himself to care about me either. I never felt his affection.”

He leaned back slightly.

“When I later moved to Jaford, Aunt Amber treated me kindly. Not for me, but out of respect for my mother.”

Listening to him, I realized his parents’ relationship had been full of bitterness.

“So what about Aunt Amber and her husband?” I asked.

Carter’s expression changed slightly.

“Her story is the complete opposite of my mother’s,” he said. “Her husband fell in love with her at first sight and chased after her obsessively. When she rejected him, he used extreme methods. He took her home by force and kept her there.”

“He believed children would bind her to him,” Carter continued. “But instead she began to hate both him and their children.”

My chest tightened.

“It wasn’t until he died suddenly in an accident that she finally gained her freedom. Otherwise she would have taken me away long ago.”

The two sisters had lived completely opposite lives.

One loved someone who never returned her feelings.

The other was trapped by someone she never loved.

Suddenly Amber’s behavior made more sense.

She did not show affection to Vito and Yael. Perhaps it was not because she could not love them, but because she was afraid to.