Chapter 2725
“Who do you think you are, blocking my way? Get out of my sight, all of you!” screamed
Madeline.
Imogen had just managed to scramble to her feet when her daughter bumped into her, sending her staggering. “Enough! Come help me up. Is my face ruined?”
“Oh, Mom, you’re bleeding. How am I going to explain this to Dad when he gets home? You, you uncultured woman, you don’t deserve the family name! What do you have over me besides your fancy background? You’re just a no-good, daddy’s girl without a mother!” Regina, having heard these words, erupted in fury, and the servants couldn’t hold her back. She lunged forward and slapped Madeline hard across the face, not sparing Imogen either. “That’s for insulting me! That’s for your words! You say I was raised without a mother? I’ll show you!”
Francis had just arrived home to this chaotic scene with Regina lashing out at Imogen and Madeline, tears streaming down her face.
He was about to lose his temper when he moved closer and caught the words from Regina’s lips, “You say I was raised without a mother?”
Francis felt a sharp pang in his heart.
“Regina! It’s me! I’m back.”
Regina slowly ceased her flailing and turned to see her father. She was no longer ab contain the hurt and rushed into his arms. “Dad, you’re finally back.”
Imogen caught Francis’s eye and knew he must have heard those earlier words. Eve her face throbbing from the slap, she dared not make a scene.
Madeline, on the other hand, was defiant. She stood up, ready to retaliate, but Regina already in Francis’s embrace. As he turned, Madeline’s slap landed on Francis himself a sharp smack.
razy on
“Ah! I’m sorry, Dad, I didn’t mean to hit you. It was just that Regina… she went crazy Mom and me. I was just so angry…”
“Enough! Both of you, out of my sight. I don’t want to see you right now, nor hear any excuses!”
“Dad…” Madeline couldn’t believe he was scolding her so unfairly.
“She started it! Why aren’t you angry at her?”
Imogen wanted to knock some sense into her daughter, to make her see their situation for what it was. Just because she had taken Francis’s last name didn’t make her his daughter.
“Let’s go upstairs,” said Imogen.
Madeline’s departing figure was as rebellious as ever.
Francis felt Regina soaking his shirt with her tears.
“There, there, Regina, no more tears. What exactly happened? Talk to me, and I won’t let anyone treat you unfairly.”
Regina clutched at the fabric of his shirt, her tears unstoppable. She wanted to ask him where he had been all these years when she faced so much injustice. What good were his words now?
She knew, no matter how upset she was, not everything revolved around her wishes, especially when it came to her father’s choices. She was never the priority.
After a while, Regina calmed down a bit. “Dad, the painting that used to hang in the hall is gone. I can’t find it.”
Mentioning the missing painting, which symbolized their family, made Regina’s voice choke up again.
Francis paused for a moment, then chuckled. “My dear silly girl, it’s just a painting. Why let it upset you so much?”
