Chapter 68 Chapter 68. Juliette’s Cruel Plea
Juliette shook her head as tears streamed down her face, smudging the carefully applied makeup.
“Zoria, Zephyr isn’t just suppressing Valor Pack—he’s also pressuring your stepfather. Uncle Liam has been investigated for falsified accounts. If it’s serious, he could go to prison. Zoria, don’t sever the bond with Zephyr. Help me—go and beg him.”
Zoria looked at the woman who had given birth to her and felt only a terrifying sense of unfamiliarity.
“You already sever the bond with my father. I have nothing to do with Valor Pack anymore. As for this Uncle Liam of yours—sorry, I don’t know him.”
Juliette covered her face and sobbed uncontrollably. After a while, she stood up and then dropped to her knees in front of Zoria, gripping her hands tightly.
“Zoria, I was too heartless before. I was wrong. But think about it—you’re the daughter I carried for ten months before giving birth. Just help me this once, okay?” Juliette choked out.
Seeing Zoria’s indifferent expression, Juliette felt both pain and anger tearing through her chest.
“Zoria, is your heart even made of flesh? You won’t even help your own mother—do you have no conscience at all? Aren’t you afraid of karma?”
Karma? She had tasted karma long ago. Her body was covered in wounds. She had lost two children, lost her father. Was that still not enough retribution?
Zoria felt as though a knife were carving into her heart, slicing it apart piece by piece.
Perhaps realizing she had gone too far, Juliette softened her tone and continued to beg, “Zoria, I’m pregnant with twins. Help me. If the children’s father goes to prison and goes bankrupt on top of that, I honestly don’t know how I’m supposed to live.”
“Then do you remember that I’m your child too?” Zoria tried to suppress her sobs, her voice trembling.
Juliette froze. Seeing the resolve on Zoria’s face, she knew there was no point begging anymore. The mask on her face collapsed completely.
“Zoria, if you hadn’t stubbornly insisted on bonding with Zephyr back then, would I have suffered this much? This is all your fault. You’re nothing but trash. Why did you have to keep going against him, demanding to sever the bond with him? And now you want to drag my new family down with you. Do you really want to push me to my death before you’re satisfied?”
“Nothing but trash.” So it turned out that not only in Zephyr’s eyes, but even in her own mother’s, she was nothing at all.
Zoria’s fingers trembled. She tried to clench them into fists, but couldn’t. She lifted her head and looked at the woman standing before her, her face twisted with ferocity.
“Mommy… Daddy is dead,” she said after a long while, choking on the words, her voice so low she could barely hear it herself. “Do you know that?”
Juliette turned her face away. A few images seemed to flash through her mind, but she forcibly pressed all emotion down. “I saw it in the obituary.”
“Daddy was buried in the public cemetery in the district…”
“If you agree not to sever the bond with Zephyr, I’ll go visit him. Once a month.” Juliette turned back to Zoria, her gaze still cold and indifferent.
Zoria lowered her head, her voice hoarse. “Mommy, did you ever love Daddy?”
Juliette replied flatly, “I don’t remember.”
“Daddy used to tell me about how you and he met, understood each other, and fell in love. He even said you were the best woman in the world.” Zoria took a deep breath.
Thinking of the past made her eyes burn again. “Mommy, have you ever regretted giving birth to me?” Her voice shook uncontrollably.
“I regret it. If my life is going to be ruined by you one more time, I’d rather I had strangled you to death the moment you were born.”
The cold, heartless words slipped from Juliette’s mouth, and once spoken, they could not be taken back. Zoria bit down hard on her lip until blood seeped out.
She nodded forcefully several times to show she had heard clearly. “I understand.”
“Get out.”
Juliette stared at her in disbelief. “You… you’re not agreeing?”
“So what?” Zoria lifted her head. The corners of her lips curved into a faint smile, one that reached her eyes but was filled only with icy coldness.
Her father had only ever wished for her to live decently. Her mother, driven by her own selfish desires, wanted her to continue being Zephyr’s plaything.
She was a life too. Even if she was just a half-human, half-wolf Omega, she still deserved to be loved and protected. Her father was dead, so she had to learn how to protect herself. A member of the Everhart family would never allow herself to be trampled on by others.
Juliette was stunned for a moment, then her face twisted with rage. She raised her hand and slapped Zoria hard across the face, a vicious glint flashing in her eyes.
Zoria’s ears rang, her mind going blank. A bright red handprint stood out starkly on her pale cheek, looking pitifully miserable.
Zoria laughed again, a hoarse, strained sound that echoed clearly through the quiet hospital room.
“Mom, consider this slap my repayment for more than twenty years of raising me.”
Juliette’s palm went numb. She clenched her fist and screamed in fury, “One slap and you think you’ve repaid over a decade of upbringing? You destroyed half my life, the decades I have left—how do you plan to repay that?”
At this point, Juliette had lost all traces of her usual elegance. She looked no different from a shrewish woman in a fit of rage. The commotion inside the room caught the attention of the bodyguards outside.
The bodyguards entered and first glanced at Zoria. When they saw the handprint on her face, they all sucked in a sharp breath.
Zephyr had told them to keep an eye on Zoria. On the surface, it was surveillance, but in truth, it was protection. Now that Zoria had been struck, they could not simply stand by.