Chapter 81

Aubree thought, "If she wants to keep pretending, I’m not playing along. Blackmail? Sorry, I don’t have a moral compass! If that’s how you want to play, then let’s all lose face together!"

She said, “You’re not silent because you don’t want to answer; you’re too scared to! I have the legal severance agreement right here. You’re no longer my mother. I can have it authenticated in court. I drafted it myself, which means I was the one who initiated the severance.”

Aubree’s words made the sharper minds in the crowd start connecting the dots. As far as the Wilson family was concerned, Aubree wasn’t driven out for any wrongdoing. On the contrary, she chose to leave of her own accord. The Wilson family were Rithol’s top-tier elite; no one would walk away from that kind of fortune. People felt that it must be because she’d reached her absolute breaking point.

Aubree glared at Alice. “You stand there as my mother, accusing your daughter of rotten morals and an incorrigible nature. But have you ever stopped for even a moment to consider if you are fit to be a mother?

“For three years in the Wilson family, I never had a single proper meal! Do you even know I developed a chronic stomach condition? Have you ever truly looked at the scars all over my body? Every single one of them was caused by the Wilson family!

“Did you even bother to count how many times I was hospitalized in those three years? Did you ever even care whether I was freezing or burning up?”

Aubree shouted, “Never!

“For three years, all I ever got from you, my so-called mother, was nothing but scolding and beatings. You accuse me of having no morals, so tell me, exactly where did I go wrong? As a designer, Alice, don’t you understand what plagiarism means to a creator? Yet you forced me to ghostwrite for Carmen in so many important competitions, and even enabled her to hire others just to keep herself from being expelled from Rithol Art School. And after all that, you still call Carmen a ‘good kid’? If I’ve done anything wrong, it’s only because you drove me to it over these past three years!”

All the injustices of the past three years came pouring out in that moment, and Aubree felt a sense of liberation she had never experienced before. Watching Alice pale and stumble backward only intensified the triumphant satisfaction surging through her.

“I…” Alice started to retort. But when she met Aubree’s undisguised look of hatred, her words died in her throat, a chill running down her spine.

Alice thought, ‘She…hates me? Why does she hate me so much? Sure, maybe I neglected her meals at the Wilson household, but in every other respect, haven’t I treated her well? She had top-tier clothes and luxury goods. Other than asking her to yield to Carmen, what exactly did she have to complain about?’

That sliver of guilty conscience Alice had felt just moments before vanished instantly, replaced by fury.

Alice thought venomously, ‘What an ungrateful wretch! She keeps going on about how the Wilson family wronged her, but what has she ever done for us? Aubree never measured up to Carmen in any way. Isn’t it only natural for the family to dote on her more?’

Perhaps it was Aubree’s raw and genuine resentment that was so palpable, it began to ripple through the crowd. The crowd’s murmurs gradually shifted in tone, their certainty wavering as they struggled to tell who was actually in the right.

“Will Jennings! Stop crowding at the entrance! Shouldn’t you all be in class by now?” Principal Will Jennings called out from afar, arriving late after hearing the news, urgently herding the students back to their classrooms.

He thought, ‘Reporters are everywhere! How can I let this go on?’

Seizing the final moment, Aubree fixed Alice with a piercing glare. “I’ve repaid my debt to you. As for your so-called ‘nurturing’? I was trafficked at five, and after three years under your roof, I ended up malnourished. If I haven’t retaliated for that kind of ‘care,’ it’s only because I’m being merciful!”

“You there, the girl in front! I see you. Come to my office, now!” Will strode over and firmly grabbed Aubree by the arm. As he looked up, his eyes landed on Alice standing nearby.

Will recognized Alice because she had visited the school several times due to Carmen. Will was a bit dumbfounded. He thought, ‘What on earth is going on here?’