Chapter 198
While Austin had been quiet, he’d been watching Emily closely, and he picked up on her discomfort almost immediately.
He didn’t hesitate. He let out a mocking laugh. “Mrs. Bennett, your so called motherly love is really something else.
“When Emily was being wrongfully accused and even hit, you just stood there and didn’t even bother to speak up in her defense.
“Now that she’s finally standing up for herself, you jump in and try to guilt trip her with all that we raised you talk, telling her to stop making a scene
you kidding me?”
Are
Austin’s words were brutally blunt. For someone like Emma, who’d spent years acting like high society, it was no different than a slap right across the face.
As the Bennett family’s faces kept changing, Emily just couldn’t hold back and let out a laugh. Her laugh sounded totally out of place in the dead silence, and everyone looked over at her right away.
To Emma, that laugh folt no different from the way Austin had just insulted her.
“You You…“She pointed at Emily, her hand trembling. She was so furious she couldn’t even get a full sentence out.
Andrew rushed over to steady Emma, who looked like she might pass out from rage. Then he shot Emily a cold, disappointed glare. “Haven’t you made enough of a scene already?
“Honestly, you’re just jealous that Lydia got a mountain of gifts, and all you got was the one from Grandpa Charles
“I get that you think it’s unfair, but have you ever stopped to think why? if you hadn’t messed up so many times and done so many stupid things, maybe you’d actually have some friends
Maybe it was Austin’s wake–up call of a speech, but the words that used to sting and cut right to Emily’s core now barely even registered. She just felt numb, and nothing could shake her anymore..
Before Austin could clap back, Emily reached out and tugged at his sleeve. Austin glanced back at her, and from the look in her eyes, he instantly knew what she wanted to do..
He didn’t hesitate. He swallowed whatever comeback he had, took a step back, and let her take the lead in that showdown.
Emily didn’t hold back. “So, aher all this, the Bennett family still won’t let anyone check the security footage? You just decided it’s all my fault from the start, didn’t you?
“You keep saying it’s for my own good, telling me to stop making a scene, but really, you’re just trying to force me to admit to a crime never even
committed.
“Are you seriously that brainless, or do you just not care about the truth at all and just want to dump everything on me no matter what?”
Her words weren’t as harsh as Austin’s, but for Emily, who had been crushed under the Bennett family’s thumb for so long, it felt like she was standing up for herself for the very first time.
The Bennett family was totally at a loss. They stared at Emily like they were seeing her for the very first time, their faces full of shock and bewilderment They thought, “is this really the same Emily who always put us first, who would swallow any amount of blame and pain just for a single glance from us? “We’re this angry, so shouldn’t she be bawling her eyes out, denying everything but still crying and begging for our forgiveness like she always did is this really the Emily we thought we knew?”
Lucas was just as stunned. But unlike the rest of the Bennett family, he felt like this was the real Emily, the one he remembered from long ago.
She was proud and defiant. Even when life pushed her into the dirt, she was always the last one to ever back down. When did the girl i remember start to
Chapter 198
become someone else? he wondered.
For a moment, Lucas spaced out, like he’d wandered into a thick fog. Yet in that hare, he caught a faint glimmer of light.
What nobody noticed was that Lydia, standing off to the side, had gone even paler. It was ke her soul had just been drained way, and she couldn’t be the panic in her eyes as she looked at Lucas.
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