Chapter 44

Chapter 44
Clara’s POV

 

I steadied myself, turned my face back, and met Arthur’s eyes.

 

One side of my face felt hot. The heat was real, but I didn’t touch it.

 

“You ungrateful wretch! Are you trying to cut ties with me?” His voice was loud enough to carry across the banquet hall. It wasn’t forceful so much as uncontrolled, the naked rage impossible to hide.

 

Jasper stepped forward from beside me, but I raised a hand and stopped him.

 

I would handle this myself.

 

“You ungrateful little thing,” Arthur went on, the tremor in his voice becoming more obvious, “I’m your father! In front of so many guests, you show me no respect at all!”

 

“I worked hard to put you through college and even sent you overseas to study. And not only are you ungrateful, now you want to publicly distance yourself from me? How can you treat me like this? Today I’m going to teach you a proper lesson!”

 

He lunged at me again, his hand raised.

 

This time, I didn’t let him hit me.

 

I caught his wrist and shoved him away hard enough that he staggered back several steps before regaining his footing.

 

For years, I had kept up systematic physical training to endure long surgeries. Arthur’s strength was nothing I couldn’t handle.

 

“You—!” he spat, his fury blazing even hotter now that he had steadied himself.

 

“Mr. Bennett, the fact that I can still call you ‘father’ today is already the very last remnant of filial respect I have left. It is the greatest courtesy I can offer you,” I said in a calm, even voice. “You said you put me through college? Then tell me—during those years I was in university, how much living allowance did you send me each month?”

 

I paused, leaving the silence to him.

 

“And as for studying abroad—I supported myself by working, and I sold two pieces of jewelry my mother left me in order to finish my education. On what grounds do you claim you paid for my schooling?”

 

As soon as those words fell, the whispers spread through the banquet hall again.

 

“Arthur is shameless! He didn’t even pay for his daughter’s tuition?”

 

“And he still put on that act as if he’d been good to Ms. Clara? What kind of father doesn’t even pay for his child’s education?”

 

“It’s obvious—once a man has a new family, he usually stops caring about the children from his first wife. After her mother died, Monica probably wouldn’t allow him to support Clara financially.”

 

“So Arthur is completely controlled by his wife?”

 

“Poor Clara. If my father treated me that way, I’d cut ties with him too.”

 

Arthur stood in the middle of those words with a livid face, because he had no way to refute a single thing I had said.

 

I could see him calculating again from the look in his eyes. Then he straightened his back, rearranged the embarrassment on his face, and spoke.

 

“Even if I didn’t pay for your college education, didn’t you still get your degree in the end? I withheld money on purpose—to build your resilience and ability to withstand pressure. No matter what, I’m your father, and respecting family bonds is only right.”

 

As I watched him finish saying that, something inside me went completely cold.

 

Not anger. Something heavier and deeper than anger.

 

“Fine. Since you think I owe you, then just say it. What exactly do you want?”

 

Arthur didn’t hesitate. “You have to support me in my old age. You have to give me money!”

 

Another ripple stirred through the banquet hall.

 

“Support money?” I tugged lightly at the corner of my mouth. “How much do you want?”

 

He held up three fingers.

 

The surrounding whispers spread at once.

 

“Three million? He’s asking his own daughter for three million in support?”

 

“For Clara, three million is nothing. She certainly doesn’t look short of money.”

 

Then Arthur gave a cold smile and opened his mouth. “Not three million.”

 

The banquet hall fell still.

 

“Then thirty million?” someone in the crowd sucked in a breath.

 

I let out a bitter laugh.

 

It wasn’t put on. It rose from somewhere inside me, and I couldn’t completely suppress it.

 

This was my father. I had only just returned to Maplewood City, and he was already this impatient to get his hands on the money in my pocket.

 

There was no trace of fatherly love left in him anymore.

 

I cleared my throat and spoke.

 

“Thirty million should be enough to sever our father-daughter relationship completely, shouldn’t it?”

 

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