Maelis said, “Zinnia, I never should have taken you back! Look how you’ve ruined our family!” She stormed toward Zinnia, raising her hand to strike.
“Mom!” the three Shaw brothers gasped in unison.
However, Zinnia intercepted Maelis’s hand and shoved her back hard. Last time, Zinnia had been caught off guard by Maelis’s cruelty and nearly got hit. But now, seeing that ferocious look on Maelis’s face, Zinnia was determined not to let Maelis lay a hand on her.
Zinnia thought, ‘My Master never laid a hand on me growing up. What right does this outsider have to hit me?’
Maelis stumbled back two steps, nearly falling before Howard caught her. Her bloodshot eyes glared at Zinnia with resentment. She never expected Zinnia would dare fight back.
Yosef frowned at Zinnia and said, “Zinnia, even if Mom was out of line, you shouldn’t have pushed her like that. She’s getting on in years. What if Howard hadn’t caught her? What if she’d fallen?”
Zinnia shot Yosef a cold glance, her clear eyes flashing with defiance. She snapped, “Should I just stand there and take the hit? It’s easy for you to talk when you’re not the one getting slapped.”
Yosef was left speechless. He never expected Zinnia to speak to him with such blunt disrespect.
Zinnia took two deliberate steps back, putting clear distance between herself and the rest of them.
Maelis steadied herself, her bloodshot eyes burning with anger. Her voice was razor-sharp with fury as she asked, “Zinnia, do you still want me as your mother or not?”
“No, I don’t,” Zinnia shot back without hesitation.
Maelis choked with rage, her face flushing crimson as she pointed a trembling finger at Zinnia. It was clear that Zinnia had pushed Maelis to the brink.
Maelis felt torn between guilt and resentment toward Zinnia. She thought, ‘Why didn’t she speak up for herself? If only she had told us the truth, that those things weren’t her fault, we wouldn’t have misunderstood her for so long, and things wouldn’t have come to this.’
Betty’s actions had left the entire Shaw family in turmoil, but the deepest blow fell on Maelis. She never imagined Betty, the girl she’d always believed to be pure-hearted, could harbor such venom or be capable of such cruelty.
But Maelis had already made her choice. Especially when she thought of how Zinnia showed no understanding toward her as a mother, Maelis still simmered with anger. This visit, while she did feel some guilt toward Zinnia, was fueled even more by disgust.
Maelis thought, ‘Why did Zinnia have to air our family drama at school? She humiliated the Shaw family and dragged the Carsons into this mess. Even though the Carsons aren’t pursuing it anymore, the bad blood between our families is already set. And now Betty is holed up at home, refusing to go to school. Donald berates me for being useless, and even my three sons have started siding with Zinnia instead of me. They’re no longer as attentive to me as they used to be. My whole family life has been turned upside down. Why did Lever bring Zinnia back? If only he hadn’t, our family would still be whole.’
Zinnia’s guarded expression stabbed like a knife into the hearts of the three Shaw brothers. Seeing Zinnia turn to leave, Howard released Maelis and moved to chase after Zinnia.
“Security! Stop them!” Zinnia shouted as she backed toward the residential area.
At her shout, the security guards who had been monitoring the situation from the booth sprang into action. Howard found himself abruptly cut off outside.
Chapter 117
Seeing Maelis glaring furiously at Zinnia, Howard frowned and said, “Mom, weren’t we here today to apologize to Zinnia? I get that you’re upset about what happened with Betty, but this time, it wasn’t Zinnia’s fault; she’s the real victim here!”
Betty came home yesterday after just five days in the detention center, looking visibly thinner. Seeing her like that, Maelis was torn between anger and heartache.
Though the brothers understood how much Maelis had worried about Betty, they felt it was still no excuse for Maelis to take it out on Zinnia.
Betty’s actions left Howard utterly disillusioned. No matter how tearfully Betty apologized or how much she insisted it wasn’t intentional, Howard could never see her the same way again. Between them now stood an unbridgeable rift.
The love Howard once showed Betty now struck like a cruel boomerang, mocking the fact that their sibling bond meant nothing.
Howard thought, ‘To frame Zinnia, Betty was even willing to play with human lives. As her brother, I probably don’t hold an ounce of affection in her heart.’
Right now, all Howard wanted was to make things right with Zinnia.
“Mom, this incident has nothing to do with Zinnia. It’s all Betty’s fault. We’re the ones who spoiled her rotten,” Yosef said sternly.
Yosef was also deeply disappointed in Betty. He complained inside, ‘Mom spoiled Betty rotten. I’d already warned Betty not to cause any more trouble, but within a day, she made such a huge mess, completely ignoring my warnings. And after all the mess Betty caused, Mom still blamed Zinnia. How does Mom end up being so unreasonable? This morning, Howard said he wanted to come to see Zinnia, so Timothy and I decided to join him. Just as we were about to leave, Mom said she wanted to come with us. Who would have thought that the moment she arrived, she’d try to hit Zinnia? Didn’t she realize that if she did, there would be no turning back between us and Zinnia?’
Timothy stayed silent, but his thoughts were a tangled mess. Thinking that he had spent the entire afternoon suffering from diarrhea caused by Betty, he felt extremely conflicted. Then Jackson’s words from last time echoed in his mind. He thought, ‘Did Betty think Mom would like that set of jewelry, or was it just something she wanted for herself? Come to think of it, this kind of thing happened way too often. At least twice a month, Betty would drag me along to pick out gifts for Mom, but they rarely matched Mom’s taste. In the end, they all ended up in Betty’s possession.’
It suddenly hit Timothy that Betty, whom he’d grown up with, wasn’t at all the person he’d imagined her to be.
Once again chastised by her sons, Maelis seethed with scalding fury churning within her chest. The past few days had left her mentally exhausted, teetering on the edge.
Her venomous gaze locked onto Zinnia, who was shielded behind the security guards, as if she could kill Zinnia with a single glare.
The way Maelis glared at Zinnia was no longer that of a mother but of someone facing a sworn enemy. She shot back, “So what did I do wrong? It’s all Zinnia’s fault! Why can’t we settle our family matters privately? Zinnia made such a scene at school and turned our family into a laughingstock. She’s the source of our family’s troubles. If she hadn’t come back, we wouldn’t be in this situation. Betty would never have done those things if not provoked by Zinnia. Zinnia is the root of all our troubles. I wish I had never brought her back into our lives.”
Zinnia replied coolly, “If I’m the jinx, then what are you? The mother of a jinx? You’re a jinx, too. And your three sons? Jinx No.1, No.2, and No.3. Your whole family is just as much of a jinx as I am.”
Maybe it was because she’d spent so much time with Yannis lately that even her way of speaking had begun to mirror his.