Chapter 103

“You accessed the Shaw family’s surveillance footage today. Won’t you get in trouble with that?” Zinnia asked, looking at her worriedly.

“No,” Lydia replied, “the surveillance footage I retrieved had already been deleted by them. I recovered it from the recycle bin. It wasn’t hacked from the Shaw family’s system.”

Lydia wasn’t the type to implicate herself. She always made sure every angle was covered before acting.

“Wow, Lydia, you’re amazing!” Zinnia’s eyes sparkled with admiration. Her classmate really was something special.

“If you’d like, I can teach you,” Lydia said to Zinnia, her voice softening with unusual tenderness.

The trio couldn’t help but notice Lydia’s double standards.

“Hey, Lydia, why do I get the feeling you like Zinnia way more than the rest of us?” Ethan tilted his head and asked teasingly.

Lydia calmly retorted, “Are you as adorable as she is?”

“Whoa, that’s a low blow! No personal attacks. Seriously, who could ever compete with a face like Zinnia’s?” Ethan sputtered, momentarily stunned.

He glanced at Zinnia’s exquisitely sculpted face, a beauty so perfect it seemed almost unreal.

Perhaps flattered by the compliment, Zinnia curved her lips. Ethan felt his ears grow hot and quickly averted his gaze.

“Zinnia!” That afternoon, just as Zinnia was about to enter her apartment complex after school, a voice suddenly called out to her.

Zinnia turned and saw Howard standing there. Instinctively, she took a step back.

Even though it had only been a few days since their last meeting, Howard already seemed to have aged several years. A newly developed air of weariness and defeat clung to him.

Howard stood at a distance, his expression complex as he gazed at her.

“Zinnia,” as he watched her retreat, Howard’s chest tightened with remorse. ‘It was all a misunderstanding. She was the one truly wronged,’ he realized.

Zinnia pressed her lips together tightly, refusing to speak to him, her fingers clutching her backpack straps.

“I heard you moved out of the Lynn residence,” Howard said as he stepped closer, his eyes filled with concern.

He was actually a bit at a loss as to how to approach her.

They had barely spent any time together, to begin with, and after that incident where Betty nearly got him killed, Howard hadn’t seen Zinnia.

By the time he took her to the hospital last time, they hadn’t seen each other for a whole week.

“Stay out of it,” Zinnia said flatly, visibly reluctant to engage with him.

“We know the truth about what happened at school now. We had no idea it was all Betty’s doing. We were wrong to blame you, Zinnia, I’m truly sorry.”

Howard could clearly sense her emotional distance and felt at a loss as to what to do.

Actually, Howard was the first in the family to meet Zinnia. He and Maelis were the ones who had gone to bring her home.

When it came to Zinnia, Howard had initially worried that her return would threaten Betty’s position in the family. But when he actually met her, he was struck by how powerful blood ties could bind people together.

His gaze kept drifting towards her.

She was tiny and adorable, speaking in a soft, unhurried way, like a timid little snail slowly peeking out. When she called him Howard in that soft voice, it was utterly endearing.

Howard felt as if his heart had been gently struck with cotton candy.

At that moment, Howard thought to himself, ‘Zinnia seems pretty sweet. Maybe looking out for her wouldn’t be so bad after all.’

But after returning home, she unexpectedly told Betty to leave. This instantly made the whole family view Zinnia with displeasure.

‘No sooner had she returned than she tried to kick someone out. What a spoiled, headstrong girl,’ Howard thought.

After that, she kept doing infuriating things. Just when their anger would subside and their attitude softened a bit, she’d always stir up some new trouble that ruined her image all over again.

How uncanny it all was. Now with the whole truth laid bare, every single incident had been carefully orchestrated by Betty.

Re-examining past events now, Howard realized with a pang that none of them had ever actually heard Zinnia tell Betty to leave. Every accusation had come secondhand through Betty’s retellings.

Zinnia was never present when Betty made those claims. None of them ever bothered to ask for her side. They simply took Betty’s word as truth.

Never once had they realized just how deeply their prejudice had wounded Zinnia.

Sofia had warned them before–if a misunderstanding could happen once, it could happen again. But they all brushed it off. Now, with the painful truth laid bare before their eyes, it stung like a slap to the face.

After seeing the footage, Howard no longer believed a word Betty said. It was all her doing.

The thought that Betty had actually loosened the screws on his car sent a chill down Howard’s spine.

Betty knew how much Howard loved his car, and how dangerous his races were.

But she still did it, just to frame Zinnia. She tampered with his car and went through with it, leaving him bloodied and battered in the crash.

The sister he had cherished for over a decade tried to kill him, while the one he’d constantly mistreated was secretly sending him medicine.

Last time, when Howard found out that Zinnia had made Chamomile tea for Timothy and herbal tea for Yosef, the more he thought about it, the angrier he got. ‘Why did both of them get special treatment, but not me?’ he thought.

He tentatively asked Lucy if Zinnia had ever given him anything. He was stunned to learn that the ointment he’d received for his injuries had actually been sent by Zinnia.

Thanks to that ointment, the wounds on his forehead, arms, and legs healed remarkably fast, without leaving a single scar.

At that moment, he was feeling frustrated and playing a game. When Lucy came in to drop off the ointment, he only heard her say it was from some sister in the family, but he didn’t catch which one it was.

He just instinctively thought it was Betty, never even considering that he might have misunderstood.

After that incident, his relationship with Zinnia froze over completely. He convinced himself Zinnia wasn’t worth caring for.

Time and again, he lashed out at her, always shielding Betty, never once realizing he might have been the wrong one.

Realizing his mistake and how harshly he’d treated Zinnia, Howard felt sharp pangs of remorse twisting in his chest.

He spent the whole day trying to come to terms with what Betty had done. The more he thought about Zinnia, the more his heart ached.

Howard thought bitterly, ‘What have I done to Zinnia?’

Realizing his mistake, Howard immediately went to the Lynn residence to find Zinnia, only to learn from Sofia that Zinnia had already left.

After Sofia found out what had happened at school, she practically threw Howard out of the house. Luckily, before leaving, he managed to get her current address and rushed straight over.

He’d been waiting here for ages, and finally, there she was.

“Yeah,” Zinnia replied flatly, barely looking at him.

Howard said, “Zinnia, have you had dinner yet? Let me take you out to eat, okay?”

Zinnia’s responses were terse, and Howard knew full well she’d rather not see him. Yet he couldn’t bring himself to leave. He longed to stay with her a little longer.

“Don’t bother, Howard. What exactly do you want from me? If you’re just here to apologize, you’ve said your piece, now leave,” Zinnia said.

Zinnia had assumed he would leave after saying his piece, but to her surprise, he just stood there.

“Zinnia, I am wrong.” A rare vulnerability flickered across Howard’s handsome face. “Please… Will you give me a chance to make it up to you?”