"Cousin, I never received any gift from you, and I had no idea you came looking for me," she said, a bitter smile on her lips. "Instead, Nora and Penelope told me you were all throwing a massive birthday party for Lauren and had completely forgotten about me."
"Forgotten about you? A party for Lauren? That birthday party was for *you*!" Benson interrupted, his voice strained. "We called the Sterling house several times, but you wouldn't take our calls. We sent someone to pick you up, but you refused to see them. Do you have any idea how heartbroken Grandma and Grandpa were?"
Anastasia stared at him, bewildered.
Benson's mind was reeling. "You really... never got my gift?"
"No... I didn't even know you came to see me, or that Grandfather and Grandmother had called."
At that, the truth became painfully obvious. A fool could see there was more to the story, that they had been manipulated. And at the center of it all were Nora and her daughter. It was clear now: Nora had deliberately engineered the entire misunderstanding.
The cruel irony was that because of one woman's lies, she and the Brennans had been estranged for all these years.
Benson was even more stunned. If this was the truth, then all those years they thought she was ignoring them... how much had she suffered at the Sterling house, all alone?
A wave of profound guilt and sorrow washed over him. He looked at the elegant young woman before him, his heart twisting in pain.
"Ana..."
Seeing his expression, Anastasia quickly forced a smile. "It's okay. It's all in the past. Besides, my life with the Sterlings wasn't all bad."
It wasn't a complete lie. While Nora had schemed against her, she had also maintained the facade of a benevolent stepmother in front of Gabriel. She couldn't be openly cruel, so she had resorted to more subtle ways of leading Anastasia astray.
"We're going home right now," Benson said suddenly, grabbing her hand. "We need to tell Grandma and Grandpa."



VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABEL
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: Revenge is My Love Language