She had been just as impatient back then, wishing Scarlett dead on the spot.

But Reba was her own daughter.

For Reba, she had done countless things she once hated when she was young.

0.45b% /b

Finished

despised, turning into the very sort of woman she

And now–before age had even dulled her use–her daughter was treating her like this?

What, then, had all her sacrifices been for?

What did it mean that she had twisted herself out of shape for Reba’s sake?

“Why are you yelling at me?” Martha’s voice suddenly sharpened, the pearls at her throat trembling with her heaving breath.

“It’s your fault!”

Reba was already fuming.

Now, with her fury boiling over, she unleashed it all.

“If you hadn’t given Scarlett such good conditions, how would she know so much? She even learned some esoteric arts”

“It’s because of you that I was humiliated today!”

Martha finally understood.

The so–called miracle healer–Scarlett had exposed it.

Scarlett knew these arts?

She hadn’t known.

A flicker of resentment stirred in her heart.

Hadn’t she stripped away every resource?

She had even whispered to school administrators to hold Scarlett back.

But Scarlett had risen as if blessed with divine favor.

Without help from anyone, she had impressed Calvin enough to enter hisb.

She had even won award after award.

In the end, Martha had reasoned that Scarlett’s sess reflected well on the Joyner family, so she had stopped interfering in academics

But in every other way, she had been

She stifled Scarlett’s social life, pushed away he

true friends, leaving her isted.

b124.24 /bPO, bTY /bbSept /b

b19 /b

Chapter 254 Shattered Illusions

That way, when the time came to take Scarlett’s kidney, the girl would have no one to turn to.

And yet Scarlett had still shone–still managed to master fortune–telling!

“How was I supposed to know that bastard child would learn such things? I fed her leftovers, dressed her in hand–me–downs, anything to keep her from rising up against you!

She stepped closer, nails digging into Reba’s wrist. “I kept her shackled, didn’t I? You think I didn’t want her to stay an organ bank forever?”

“But she was still the Joyner family’s eldest daughter. Before you returned, appearances had to be kept

“So she went to school–how was I supposed to control what she did there?”

Reba gasped at the pain, staring at her mother.

Sweat had stered Martha’s hair against her temples, her face twisted by a jealousy she didn’t even hide anymore–jealousy of the daughter she had never once treated kindly.

It was almostughable.

Reba had never wanted to admit she envied Scarlett.

How could someone like her be worth such feelings?

But now…

She realized she and Martha had both been living in a lie.

Blind to everything beyond their own delusions.

Seeing her daughter stunned and silent, Martha took it as agreement, as submission. Remembering Reba’s earlier attitude, her anger red even hotter.

“Now you regret it, don’t you?”

She flung Reba’s hand aside and stalked to the liquor cab, downing half a ss of whiskey in one go. Drops of condensation ran between her fingers.

“Look at you! Aside from chanting a few fake incantations, what else can you do? Others can save lives with a few needles, and you? You sneak patients‘ records from nurses and pretend it’s prophecy!”

Her gaze swept across the corner of the living room,nding on the dusty shrine Reba had insisted on keeping, iming it gathered spiritual energy. The incense had long hardened into clumps.

Her rage spiked. She snatched it up and smashed it to the floor.

Reba copsed onto the sofa, flinching at the crash of shattering porcin.

The sound jolted her into rity.

Moonlight streamed through the stained ss, scattering colors across the floor.

Every one of Martha’s words stabbed into her eyes like needles.

The past Martha had tried to crush hid Scarlett’s defiance of fate.

b12:24 /bFri, b19 /bSept

Chapter 254 Shattered Illusions

14.您45%計:

Firisha

And all the jewels glittering on Reba’s body were nothing but shells built on lies.

“And what are you, huh?” Reba ground her teeth, rage spilling over.

“You’ve used both me and Scarlett as tools. I’m just the more useful one because I’m your blood! I was stolen as a child, dragged back, shoved into a life I never wanted! You forced me to live apart, forced me not to call you mother. You thought everything you arranged was for my good–but you never cared about what I wanted! You’re not even worthy of being a mother! And you think I regret it?”

Reba swept her arm across the table.

sses and trinkets ttered to the floor, shattering into pieces.

Martha froze.

She had never seen Reba like this before.

This wasn’t how her daughter was supposed to be.

978

W

1

b12:24 /bbFri/bb, /bb19 /bbSept /b

119 00.