Lahat ng Kabanata ng Nine Ungrateful Sisters: Kabanata 611 - Kabanata 620

"Who knows what she's been doing to Mr. Stone behind closed doors all this time?""I've seen everything now. People say Mr. Stone is cold, but if he's cold, the Chamberlain women are made of stone.""Can we even eat the food she cooked? What if she poisoned all of us?""Someone go check whether she bought anything suspicious today."The voices of the Draconia executives came at Diana from every direction.She wanted to defend herself, but all she could do was stare at them with exhausted eyes, looking small and desperate."You're fired. I don't want anything more to do with your family. Get out. I don't want to see you again."Oscar scooped Elara into his arms, left those words behind, and turned his back on Diana."No!" She reached out with an outstretched arm. She did not even brush the hem of his jacket before her legs gave out, and she collapsed helplessly onto the floor. "That's not what happened. That's not what happened!"She had so much she wanted to say, but no one wa

What the meeting actually decided had already been settled before anyone sat down. The dinner was merely the formal announcement."To Draconia's future. Cheers."Glasses rose around the table.Elara slowly drifted back to consciousness on the bed, her head heavy and her thoughts sluggish. A dull ache throbbed at the back of her skull.It took her a moment to piece everything together. Then her eyes flew wide. "Diana knocked me out with a ladle?"She looked around the room. It definitely was not the Chamberlain villa. Even so, something about it felt strangely familiar, tugging at the edges of her memory.The toys arranged around the room looked like they had once belonged to her. The scribbled drawings on the walls looked as though they had come from a time she could barely remember.And yet they were here, real and tangible, right in front of her."Is this... a recreation of my childhood room?"She climbed out of bed and moved slowly around the room, taking in every detail. T

Elara called out twice, but no answer came from Amara's room upstairs.Instead, one of the guest room doors on the ground floor swung open without warning. A shirtless Jason stepped out, wearing nothing but a loose pair of shorts.He looked at her with undisguised irritation. "What's all the noise? It's the middle of the day."Through the half-open door behind him, Elara could just make out a figure lying on the bed. It looked like a pale-skinned woman.The moment he recognized her, his tone softened. "Oh, Elara. You're awake."He pulled the door shut, dropped onto the sofa, and rummaged through the clutter on the coffee table until he found a pack of cigarettes.He pulled one out, slipped it between his lips, and lit it without bothering to look at her. "You're better?"The smoke drifted toward Elara before she could step back, making her cough twice. She had grown up in a household where no one smoked indoors. The smell had always turned her stomach."I'm fine."She could no

Amara turned at the sound of her name. Her eyes settled on Elara and lingered for a moment, as though she were adjusting the focus on a lens."Elara!" She reached into her pocket, pulled out a cigarette, and lit it with practiced ease. Taking a long, slow drag, she let the smoke drift out gradually. "Are you feeling better?""I..." Elara's gaze followed the cigarette as it rose and fell in Amara's hand.She knew Amara smoked. Amara had always had her reasons. The tobacco industry generated astronomical profits, and even if she had no interest in becoming a smoker herself, she believed she ought to understand what made something so profitable so addictive.It had never become a real habit. At least, Elara had always believed that. And Amara had never smoked in front of the sisters, especially not in front of the one who hated cigarette smoke the most.Yet there she was, lighting up without a second thought and exhaling as naturally as breathing.Elara's stomach churned. The memory

If even Elara could see it that clearly, Amara had been living under the same roof as the man for months. There was no way she had not seen it too.So why was she still standing behind him without question? Was it really just because he was the boy their father had left behind, the one who carried the Chamberlain bloodline?Elara almost laughed. If Chamberlain blood produced people like Jason, she was not sure there was any point in passing it on. Nature had its own process of elimination. Bloodlines were no exception.She turned the thought over until her head ached, yet she could not reach any other conclusion.Amara, an educated and capable woman by any measure, apparently still believed the family line had to be carried on by a man.That thought alone made Elara's chest ache.She kept walking. Then she stopped.She recognized the street. The villa ahead was the one Oscar had bought for Rebecca.She had wandered there without realizing it. Her feet had carried her back on th