BuzzNovel“You! I'm a man, aren't I? What man hasn't made mistakes? I've apologized-what more do you want from me?
And you-acting like ssaint when you're no better! If this were the old days, you'd be thrown in the river for
shaming the family!”
The man jumped to his feet, knocking over a beer bottle. It crashed to the floor, shattering into pieces while the
remaining beer seeped across the cracked linoleum.
“Hamlin! Ever since you lost your job, have you even noticed how I've treated you? Or are you just blind and
heartless? | put up with your macho crap, | tried to understand your bad moods-but how can you say these
things to me? How could you try to sell Vera off for money? Do you remember when she was born? You were the
one who couldn't stop holding her, who said she deserved the best of everything. How-how could you say
something like this now?”
Carla pressed a trembling hand to her chest, looking as if she might collapse at any second. Vera scrambled from
her seat to catch her mother, panic in her eyes as she called out desperately.
The neighbors, long accustomed to the shouting, still couldn't resist the lure of fresh gossip. They gathered in
little clusters by the fence, eavesdropping with wide eyes, but not one of them stepped in to help.
“Mom, please, stop,” Vera sobbed, her voice hoarse with pleading. To her, the man in front of her wasn’t her
father anymore. The dad who used to bring her caramel apples after work just to make her laugh was gone,
replaced by a stranger she barely recognized.
“Dad, | won't do it. I'll repay the ten thousand dollars, | swear, but | won't marry him.”
Cary’s son was nothing but a thug, the kind of guy Vera went out of her way to avoid after school, crossing the
street rather than risk bumping into him. More than once, he’d cornered her, leering and making crude remarks.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtThe thought of marrying someone like that made her skin
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Chapter 388
crawl.
She studied so hard, dreaming of the day she could escape this suffocating town and take her mother with her,
somewhere they could finally breathe, somewhere the world was bigger and brighter than this.
She would never let herself be trapped here forever. Never.
“Vera, don’t worry,” Carla said, voice steely despite her tears. “Even if | have to sell everything we own, you'll go
to school. If anyone's getting married for money, let it be me-not you!”
As she finished, Carla shot Hamlin a look so cold and full of loathing that any trace of love had long since
vanished.
Years of beatings, endless demands, and constant humiliation had crushed any hope she'd once had for this
man. If it weren't for that marriage certificate, if she had the money for a lawyer, if she didn’t have Vera to
protect, she would have left him long ago.
“You bitch! How dare you defy me? And you! What's the point of school if all it teaches you is to scream at your
father? Shouting at your own dad-your education’s worthless! You're nothing but trash!”
Hamlin pulled off his belt and whipped it toward Vera.
Carla immediately wrapped Vera in her arms, shielding her as best she could. The two of them took the blows
together. No matter how Vera cried or begged, Hamlin didn’t let up for a second.
It was only when the old lady from next door finally had enough and cinside that the beating stopped.
After that night, Carla still didn’t leave Hamlin. Instead, she borrowed money from his family and sent Vera to a
boarding school in the city, where she only chfor Christmas and summer breaks.
Life stayed like this until Vera graduated high school and started working odd jobs during the holidays to make
ends meet.
She worked as hard as she could,
sending a third of Fey perteck
pe scraping®y n the rest and
saving whatever she could, all in the
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Chapter 888
hope that one day she could take per
mother away. forgosdy h&cohtent is
ORLER.DYSRO com! Read the latest
chapter there!
She never imagined it would all fall
apart with a single Re callus!
when tiga were Yi ally starting to
look up. The content is on
novelenglish.net! Read the latest
chapter there!
Chapter 389
“Mae, how’s my mom doing?”
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