Chapter 30 Just a Criminal
The hospital room remained silent, with no response from Aurora
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Barnett was still hesitating outside the door when he heard Darren’s voice again.
“Your body is your own. You need to take care of yourself.”
Darren had expected Aurora to remain silent as she usually did, but this time, she spoke up.
Her voice was soft yet cold. “Joshua insisted on hitting me. What’s the use of taking care of myself?”
Darren was taken aback by her response. He thought for a moment and said, “He hit you, but you could have dodged. If you just stood there, of course, you’d get hurt.”
Aurora stared at him blankly, making Darren feel uncomfortable under her gaze.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
Aurora remained silent.
Darren’s words, though seemingly caring, were anything but genuine.
Chapter 30 Just a Criminal
When someone was truly concerned about you, they didn’t
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just tell you to rest–they would take you to the doctor, get you medicine, and take care of you.
Aurora had no intention of engaging with Darren, but he frowned, acting as if he was showing concern and she was ungrateful.
Aurora said weakly, “How do you know I didn’t move? I can’t even walk fast without difficulty. Tell me how I was supposed to dodge.”
Darren felt like he was being interrogated. While Aurora hadn’t intended to question him, she was simply stating the obvious.
But Darren was a man used to having the last word and disliked being contradicted.
He became irritable and started speaking without thinking, “Mr. Joshua Elvador is a reasonable man. If you hadn’t provoked him, he wouldn’t have hit you. You need to look inward. Don’t blame everyone else for your problems.‘
He actually expected her, the victim, to find fault in herself? Aurora felt a sharp pain in her heart.
As the weaker party, she didn’t even have the right to fight back.
She wasn’t some privileged lady. She was just a woman who had been oppressed and tamed to the lowest rung.
She was the one being bullied, yet she was still the one being
Chapter 30 Just a Criminal
lectured.
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Aurora suddenly felt exhausted. She didn’t want to engage in meaningless arguments anymore. Indifferently, she said, “Get
out.”
Darren’s face was filled with astonishment. “What?”
“I said, get out.” Despite her weak voice, Aurora’s tone was firm.
Darren had never been dismissed like this before. He turned angry.
“You’re really ungrateful,” he muttered, turning to leave.
After taking a few steps, he still felt unsatisfied and added, “Your actions deserve the suffering you’re going through.”
Those words felt like a sharp knife stabbing directly into Aurora’s heart.
Her face turned pale, and she felt her blood freezing in her veins.
She bit her lip so hard that it bled, the taste of rust filling her mouth, but she didn’t even notice.
She knew that no one in this world could really understand her pain. No one would stand up for her or seek justice on her behalf.
Even her suffering seemed to be seen as something she brought
Chapter 30 Just a Criminal upon herself. But why?
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Darren ran into Barnett outside the hospital room.
He said irritably, “I suggest you don’t go in. She’s in a bad mood. You’ll just get yelled at.”
Barnett’s gaze was fixed on Aurora’s frail, bruised body through the glass of the hospital room. “How is she?”
Darren snorted coldly. “She’s doing just fine. She still had the energy to argue with me. By the way, why did your dad hit her? Seriously, he did go a bit overboard.”
Barnett didn’t respond. He just stood there, watching Aurora, too pained to speak.
Darren continued to grumble, “Was it because she bullied Bertha…”
“Stop talking nonsense,” Barnett interrupted sharply, his brows furrowed.
“Isn’t that the case?” Darren pressed on.
“No, it’s not.”
“Alright,” Darren conceded, seeing that Barnett wasn’t willing to elaborate. “I’ll get back to work. You should go rest.”
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Barnett stood outside the hospital room, his eyes never leaving
Aurora.
After a long while, he finally turned around and left, dragging his heavy steps behind him.
*****
The next day, sunlight streamed through the windows into the spacious and bright kitchen of the Elvador Villa.
Daisy stood in front of the counter, carefully packing the food she had prepared for Aurora into a thermos.
She had woken up early just to make this for Aurora, hoping that Aurora’s mood might improve if she ate well in the hospital.
As Daisy was about to grab the salmon chowder, a slender, fair hand reached out and picked up the chowder.
Daisy looked up to see Bertha about to eat it. Without thinking, she quickly stopped her. “Ms. Bertha Elvador, this is for Ms. Aurora Elvador.”
Bertha narrowed her eyes, her tone arrogant and disdainful. “Daisy, remember your place. You’re just a servant in this house, not the owner.”
Daisy froze.
She knew she had no right to lecture Bertha, but Bertha seemed to have never understood her own position either.
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Daisy said helplessly, “Ms. Bertha Elvador, Ms. Aurora Elvador is injured. This chowder is good for her.”
Bertha’s face immediately turned sour and bitter. She sneered, “What do you mean? Are you saying I don’t deserve to have my strength replenished?”
“Ms. Bertha Elvador, that’s not what I meant,” Daisy tried to explain. “I’m saying Ms. Aurora Elvador is very weak right now. Since there’s only one bowl of salmon chowder left, I thought it would be good for her nutrition.”
“You’re still saying I don’t deserve it!” Bertha raised her voice, not letting it go. “What’s wrong with me having some salmon chowder in my own house? You, a servant, have no right to tell me what to do. You look down on me because I’m not your parents‘ biological daughter, don’t you?”
Daisy shook her head frantically, trying to defend herself, “Ms. Bertha Elvador, I never meant that…”
Bertha began to cry as if wronged, tears streaming down her face.
At that moment, Joshua and Celeste were just coming downstairs for breakfast. Hearing the commotion from the kitchen, they frowned in annoyance.
“What’s going on? Stop all this noise!” Joshua’s voice was authoritative and stern.
Chapter 30 Just a Criminal
Celeste quickly walked over. Seeing Bertha crying, she asked with concern, “Bertha, what’s wrong? Why are you crying?”
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Bertha found her support and threw herself into Celeste’s arms. “Mom, Daisy looked down on me. She said I’m not your biological daughter and don’t deserve to have salmon chowder!”
Celeste’s face darkened, and her gaze turned as sharp as a knife as she looked at Daisy. “Did you really talk to my daughter like that?”
Daisy shook her head frantically.
She never expected Bertha to twist her words so blatantly. At that moment, she truly understood the anger and helplessness Aurora must have felt when being framed.
“Mrs. Elvador, I never said Ms. Bertha Elvador doesn’t deserve salmon chowder. I just said I wanted to take it to the hospital for Ms. Aurora Elvador to help her recover.”
Celeste was still not satisfied with this explanation.
“Daisy, are you saying Bertha is lying to me?”
“I…”
Joshua interrupted her. “Daisy, it seems you’re getting senile and can’t tell who’s more important anymore.
“Bertha is the real daughter of the Elvador family. As for Aurora, she has no manners whatsoever. She almost killed me
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Chapter 30 Just a Criminal
last night. She doesn’t deserve salmon chowder. She’s just a criminal who belongs in prison for the rest of her life.”
