?Chapter 1650:
Hurley brushed the tears from Christina’s face, his expression steady and unyielding. “When you’re with me, you’ll always be my little girl. Anyone bold enough tough at you will have me standing in front of them.”
“Let’s go to the hospital,” Christina said calmly.
“I’lle along,” Zahir offered.
Christina shook her head gently. “Zahir, that won’t be necessary. All of you went to such lengths to prepare an entire meal yourselves, and I didn’t even manage a single bite. Letting that effort go to waste doesn’t feel right.”
“That was our responsibility — don’t put this on yourself. Your recovery matters most,” Zahir answered evenly.
“Alright,” Christina said with a small nod.
“We’ll take our leave now,” Hurley said, looking toward them. “We’ll meet again when the timing is right.” He had initially thought they hadn’t looked after his daughter properly, but learning they had personally cooked such an borate meal made him reconsider. Perhaps he had been unfair.
As Christina was carefully guided into the car, bitterness rose in La’s chest. Her own father had never shown her that kind of care. If she had been taken in by the Jones couple back then, perhaps she would be the one surrounded by their affection now.
In those days, Florrie and Liza had cried endlessly, their vision nearly ruined, yet they still refused to take in another girl. They had clung stubbornly to the hope of finding Christina, rejecting allfort and allowing no one to take her ce. That fierce, single-minded devotion had never been meant for La. Simply witnessing how dearly the Jones family cherished Christina was enough to drive her to the edge with envy. Why did Christina alone get to be so fortunate?
La followed her family back into the dining room, her thoughtspletely scattered. She had barely taken her seat when her father erupted. His arm swept across the table, sending every dish crashing to the floor. The sharp explosion of shattered porcin made her flinch, fragments flying in every direction. The meal they hadbored over for so longy scattered across the floor like worthless refuse.
A sharp ache pierced La’s chest. “Dad, what are you doing?” she asked in a small, wounded voice. “This was an entire table of food we worked so hard on. I didn’t even get a single bite.”
“All you ever think about is eating!” Zahir barked, his eyes zing. “If you had any real capability, you’d go and win Bain’s heart instead.”
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The sudden eruption left La feeling deeply wronged. Her eyes flushed red, tears gathering as she fought to keep them from spilling.
“Dad, don’t lose your temper yet — we still have a chance,” Jaxen said quietly, trying to rein him in.
Zahir opened his mouth as if ready tosh out again, then turned and stormed off without another word.
“Didn’t you notice how furious your father was?” Marsha scowled at La, frustration heavy in her voice. “The n fell apart, and all you can think about is food. If not you, who else was he supposed to take it out on?”
“How is this my fault?” La broke down, tears spilling freely. “I followed exactly what you told me to do, and I seeded with the first step. So why am I the one being med? I was sick and didn’t even get to eat anything.”
“None of us ate either. If you need someone to me, me Christina — she destroyed an entire table of food,” Marsha said, shifting the responsibility squarely onto Christina.
“That’s enough. Stop talking,” Jaxen said sharply, shooting his mother a warning look. “She’s already upset.”
He could not permit cracks to appear between his sister and the rest of the household. If that happened, she might act rashly and seek refuge with the Jones family — and should their actions ever beid bare before the Joneses, none of them would escape imprisonment. His ambition had never changed: strip the Jones family downyer byyer and push the Wades into the highest tier among Lionesspaw’s great families. Until that was fully realized, even the smallest error was uneptable. Any fracture from within would bring everything crashing down.
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