Chapter 415
“You said it yourself. If you could go back to the day you first held me in the hospital, you’d strangle me with your own hands. Mrs. Bennett, you’re not even old and senile yet, but you’ve already forgotten your own words?”
Emma’s legs nearly gave out, her whole body trembling. “I… I…” For a long moment, she couldn’t get a single word out.
She remembered every word she’d said, all too clearly. And because she remembered, she felt so guilty under Emily’s gaze that she couldn’t even meet her eyes.
Emily let out a soft, mocking chuckle. “So, even you know you went too far, Mrs. Bennett. What makes you think that just admitting you were wrong is enough for me to forgive you?”
Emily’s voice was loud enough that nearly everyone around heard her pointed questions.
“Oh my god! Emily’s her own daughter, and Mrs. Bennett said something like that.”
“I used to be so jealous of how much Emma doted on Lydia. But now, if she could just toss aside the daughter she raised for eighteen years so easily, how much of that mother-daughter bond with Lydia is even real?”
“Exactly! She’s only begging for forgiveness now because Ms. Harper has all that power. Bet she just wants to get her daughter back so she can cash in on it.”
Since Emma was right there, people kept their voices down, but snippets of their gossip still drifted to her ears, and it was easy for her to figure out what they meant.
At that moment, Emma felt as if she’d been stripped bare and thrown out onto the street, her most shameful, ugly side exposed for everyone to see.
When people are overwhelmed by shame, they hide their guilt and insecurity behind anger.
Emma was no exception. She glared at Emily. “I already told you, I was manipulated. None of it was what I truly wanted. You know what Lydia is like, she…”
But in the end, Emma kept her mouth shut about the system and body-snatching thing.
With so many people around, if that ever got exposed, the Bennett family would instantly become the talk of the whole world. In the worst case, they might even get hauled off and locked up somewhere.
Emily looked right through what Emma was about to say. “Yeah, I know you were manipulated, but did you forget what Lydia herself said?
“She said if your heart was strong enough, she never would’ve had a chance to mess with you, just like Grandpa Charles and Bob. She couldn’t touch them.
“Even Austin, whom I picked up halfway through my life, could trust me without hesitation. But you, after living with me for eighteen years, couldn’t do the same. Instead, you just kept blaming Lydia, over and over.
“In the end, it’s because you already had those thoughts in your heart. That’s why you are so easy to manipulate. You can’t blame anyone else for that.”
Emma wanted to deny it, but she couldn’t come up with a single excuse to defend herself. She went as pale as a sheet, looking like she could keet over any second.
But Emily felt not a shred of sympathy for her. “You stand outside the company every single day, loudly proclaiming how sorry you are, begging for my forgiveness. Can you really say you have no selfish motives?
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All you want is to use public opinion to pressure me into forgiving you on your terms, hand over my shares, and then go back home to be the obedient, well-behaved daughter you always wanted
“But putting all that aside, ask yourself honestly. How much of your daily, rain-or-shine begging for forgiveness is actually
sincere!
Just because you apologize. I’m supposed to forgive you? What makes you think it works that way? Do you think saying sorry can just wipe away all the pain you caused me?”
“No, no…” Emma muttered, her voice trembling. That was all she could say, because, honestly, that was what she believed deep down.
With everyone shooting her those mocking, contemptuous looks. Emma just couldn’t take it anymore. Completely overwhelmed, she turned and bolted, stumbling away in a panic.
