Chapter 570
Perla tried again and again to lift her up, but she would not budge.
Her face, swollen and bruised, twisted with a storm of rage and hysteria. She shoved Perla aside and shouted, “This is all because of you! You’re the reason we’ve been disgraced! The reason my life is in ruins! Look at you. Dressed like some backwoods villager, smelling of oil, speaking with that awful accent. How dare you claim to be my mother? Everyone else’s mothers are stylish and refined, yet I’m stuck with a peasant woman who makes me the joke of the entire school. You are my greatest humiliation!”
Each insult hit Perla like an icy blade, piercing straight through her heart. Accustomed to indulging her daughter, she bent down, voice shaking as she murmured, “I’m sorry — I’m the one who made you ashamed — please, don’t push me away.”
But Zaylee clung to her bitterness, her voice breaking into a desperate cry. “Mom! I’m begging you. Just go back to the countryside. Leave me here with the Morgans. I don’t want you around me! Every day it’s the same revolting food, the same dull greetings and farewells, the endless nagging. That greasy smell — on you makes me sick! Even looking at the food you cook makes me want to throw up!”
Perla froze, staring in disbelief. “But… you always finished it before…”
Zaylee let out a harsh, humorless laugh. Her words dripped with venom. “Finished it? That was Rylie. That wretched, gold-digging fox ate it. It was never me!”
Rylie? The Owen family’s pampered daughter? Perla stood there, speechless. Every word of this cruel exchange had been caught by the hallway camera and now played clearly on Brad’s laptop.
Across from Sean, Brad sat with one leg crossed over the other, the faint glow of his cigarette tip lighting the shadows. His presence was steady, but the chill in it was unmistakable.
His sharp eyes locked on his grandfather’s tense face. In a level, cold voice, he asked, “Grandpa, is this the woman you wanted me to marry? Is this the person you’d risk our family’s name for, the one who would drag a legacy built over generations into the mud?”
Sean’s face darkened as he glared at Rylie. “That happened because you and Felix plotted to deceive me. You pushed Zaylee too far. I’ve broken the promise I made to her grandmother.”
Before he could continue, Brad crushed the cigarette butt in his palm. The ember died instantly. His voice was cold. “Even without our plan, you should have realized her true colors. She’s jealous and useless. How many filthy, shameful tricks has she played secretly? Grandpa, don’t tell me you don’t know anything about it.”
He rose to his full height, his shadow stretching over the old man like a storm cloud. His tone carried the weight of a verdict. “I pitied her background and her youth. I gave her more chances than she deserved. For your sake, I let her off time and again. But she went too far. She shouldn’t have touched Rylie. She shouldn’t have tested my limits. She ruined herself — no one else did that for her.”
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