Chapter 369

hapter 369 The Final Blow Chapters first released on.net
Third Person POV
462
+8 Pearls
Aubrey’s words were like a poisoned dagger, stabbing straight into Aurelia’s most tender spot.
The color drained from her face; her lips trembled.
No matter how fallen she was now, she hadn’t expected to be humiliated by being told she must eat leftovers. Even Jax frowned in disapproval. “Aubrey! That’s too much!”
Aubrey merely toyed with the lamb chop on her plate with a fork, her voice light as a breeze. “When I was little and Dad wasn’t home, I couldn’t sit at the table. I always ate the scraps Aurelia and Bailey left behind. Why can I eat, but she can’t?”
Her voice was low, but it hit Jax like a thunderbolt.
He stared at Aurelia in disbelief. Aurelia stammered, panicked. “I didn’t—”
“Huh.” Aubrey turned the fork in her hand. “Didn’t? Why did I make you go out to wash the carpet yesterday? Because you did the same to me. I was only fourteen–why did you have to be so cruel?”
“I… I didn’t, Jax, I really didn’t… how could I—”
Aurelia went pale with fright. Jax leapt to his feet, furious.
“So while I was away you treated Aubrey like that? After all the trust I showed you! You’re truly disappointing!”
He looked at Aubrey, but feeling guilty toward her, said nothing more and went upstairs. He felt pity for Aurelia, but once the truth of her past came out, anger won out–though he still couldn’t bring himself to throw her out.
Seeing Jax refuse to hear her defenses, Aurelia spiraled. Fear and fury vied inside her, but above all came the crushing pain of reality: in just two years she had fallen from unquestioned mistress to a pitiful woman who couldn’t even sit at the table without asking permission.
“Are you satisfied now? Are you satisfied?!” she shouted wildly at Aubrey. She knew she should hold back–she knew she should endure–but watching Jax leave and seeing the elegant dinner she had prepared all afternoon become Aubrey’s, she felt bile rise in her throat and inwardly cursed herself for not having poisoned the food.
Aubrey sipped her soup, lashes lowered.
“You’re a strange person,” she said evenly, cold as ice even while Aurelia raged like a storm.
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14:42 Mon, Oct 6
Chapter 360 The Final Blow
You treat others and yourself with such double standards. You forced me in the bitterest winter to wash clothes in well water laced with wolfsbane to ‘teach me independence, and you made me eat leftovers because that’s what I ‘deserved. But when it’s your turn, you act as if you’ve suffered the world’s greatest injustice. Do you think everyone in this world should indulge you, like your mother did?”
Seeing Aurelia’s pale face, Aubrey’s smile sharpened. “Oh, and someone like you–being abandoned by your own daughter–how could that not hurt?”
Aurelia clutched at her chest, as if a hand had squeezed the air from her lungs.
She tried to retort, but she could only gasp, sinking into ragged, desperate breaths. Her gaunt face twisted, flushing purple as blood rushed and then receded.
Aubrey sneered and, with a thin, pitying tone, said, “Look at you–so pathetic. You wrapped Bailey in cotton and fed her the best, and what did she do? When she needed you, she played the victim and wagged her tail; when she didn’t, you couldn’t even get a glimpse of her. Now she’s back at Fog Pack, basking as the heir, not caring whether you live or die. Heh… your whole life has been a failure.”
Those words cut deeper than any blade. Each sentence from Aubrey burned like a red–hot brand onto Aurelia’s heart–far worse than death, a thousand times more agonizing.
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