Chapter 273: Chapter 273 Not One Bad Word About My Mother
Lilith’s POV
That afternoon, before picking Clara up from school, I caked my face with makeup.
Foundation and blush no longer masked the grayness of my skin.So I wore bright lipstick.
I was the first to arrive at Clara’s school.
Spring was near.
I took her to the mall to buy clothes for the warr days ahead. If I didn’t do it now, I knew I never would.
While Clara was in the fitting room trying on a yellow dress, the coughing started again,violent and sudden.
I felt warmth flood my throat. Blood spilled into my palms.
I staggered toward the restroom, heart pounding, lungs on fire.
I barely had the strength to make it to the bathroom.Each step felt like my last as I staggered away from the clothing store, praying Clara wouldn’t see
like this.
Third POV
Clara was still in the fitting room, trying on the spring dress Lilith had insisted on buying her. With only weeks left to live, Lilith was quietly preparing for the life her daughter would have without her.
While Clara remained inside, she heard a violent bout of coughing echoing from nearby. By the ti she erged in her beautiful princess dress, Lilith was already gone,only a few fresh drops of blood remained on the polished tile floor.
The child’s heart began to race. The fear in her eyes was unmistakable. She had seen too much lately to believe this was just a nosebleed.
The saleswoman crouched beside her, offering a soothing smile. "Sweetheart, your mom probably just went to the restroom. Don’t worry, okay?"
But Clara’s bright eyes dimd. The joy of wearing her new dress vanished in an instant, replaced by a single, terrifying thought:
Is Mommy going to die soon?
It was then,through her tear-blurred vision,that she saw them.
Brett was walking hand in hand with Vanessa and a little girl about Clara’s age. They looked like a picture-perfect family, a life Clara had never been allowed to have.
"Daddy Brett, Sumr’s tired. Can you carry ?" the little girl said sweetly, reaching for him with practiced ease.
"Of course, princess," Brett said, his eyes filled with affection.
Sumr was the daughter of Vanessa’s close friend. When she was born four years ago, Brett and Vanessa had agreed to be her godparents. But Brett, never fond of the formal title, had always encouraged her to call him "Daddy Brett."
He lifted her gently and continued walking. "That piano competition of yours is coming up soon. Let’s find you the perfect dress for it, shall we?"
"Thank you, Daddy Brett!" Sumr bead, wrapping her arms around his neck.
They entered the children’s boutique together, and as Brett scanned the racks of dresses, his gaze caught on a small figure standing by the doorway. A little girl, frozen in place, her cheeks wet with tears.
Clara.
She looked utterly heartbroken, her tiny body trembling as silent sobs wracked her chest.
Sothing deep inside Brett stirred,an instinctive pull he couldn’t explain.
Jacob, his wolf, stirred sharply.
Still carrying Sumr, Brett approached her.
"Clara? What are you doing here alone?" he asked, his voice unexpectedly gentle. "Where’s your mother?"
He looked around, his expression tightening as he found no trace of Lilith.
His voice turned cold. "Don’t tell
she left you here again. What kind of mother does that?"
His tone was full of accusation.
Clara hated that tone.
Especially when it ca from him.
Her mother was dying. She didn’t know exactly how soon, but she could feel it. Yet the man before her,the man who should’ve been her father,was walking around like a doting dad with soone else’s child. A fake family. A fake daughter.
She was the real one.
A wave of fury surged in her chest. Tears streaming, Clara suddenly threw herself forward and shoved Brett as hard as she could.
"Don’t you dare talk about my mom like that!"
No one was allowed to speak badly about her mother.
No one.
Especially not this man.
Brett barely moved from the impact, but his frown deepened. In his arms, Sumr stared at Clara with wide, protective eyes.
Brett had raised Sumr like his own. He doted on her, spoiled her, and she loved him in return. Fiercely.
Sumr wiggled out of his arms and stepped between them. "Don’t push my Daddy Brett!" she snapped, and with a forceful shove, she knocked Clara backward.
Clara landed hard on the floor. Her hands hit the tile, palms stinging. But the humiliation burned worse.
She sprang to her feet and lunged at Sumr, grabbing a fistful of the girl’s hair.
"Who do you think you are to scold ?" she shouted, yanking and tugging.
Her mother had taught her not to start fights.
But if soone hurt you first—you hit back. Twice as hard.
Sumr let out a piercing wail.
Vanessa and Brett rushed forward, each grabbing a child and pulling them apart.
Brett seized Clara by the arm, glaring at her with fury and disappointnt.
"You’re just as unreasonable as your mother," he said sharply.
"Don’t think I won’t discipline you just because you’re a child."
But she hadn’t started it.
He had insulted her mom first.
Sumr had pushed her first.
Clara’s eyes filled with tears, but she refused to let them fall. She glared at Brett, her heart aching with pain and rage.
She yanked her arm free from his grip. "Hmph! Who gave you the right to scold ?"
The tone—the look in her eyes—was unmistakably Lilith’s.
Brett stiffened. "Lilith has clearly ruined you."
Vanessa stepped in quickly, her voice soothing. "Brett, don’t say that. Lilith’s doing her best. Raising Clara alone hasn’t been easy."
Clara wasn’t a bad child. In fact, she could be very sweet.
Brett had felt it, the first ti he saw her,an odd pang in his chest, a strange kind of protectiveness.
But seeing how Lilith had "raised" her... it left him bitter.
He looked away. "Lilith has no right to be a mother. She shouldn’t have had a child in the first place."
Clara’s deep brown eyes brimd with pain, frustration, and heartbreak. Her voice trembled with fury.
"My mom is dying, and you’re still saying horrible things about her. Why?"
The last word left her in a broken, anguished scream.
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