Chapter 272
Chapter 272:
A wave of understanding rippled through the crowd. They assumed it was a rivalry between two women. That explained the crackling tension in the air.
“Delilah, stop pretending,” Janice remarked coldly, her arms crossed as she watched this performance unfold.
But Sierra, her patience fraying at the edges, stepped forward with blazing eyes. “You know, watching you play the victim is getting really old. Want to swear these aren’t your hired guns? Or are you not quite that brave?”
Delilah’s composure cracked for a moment before she spat out, “And why wouldn’t I be?”
“Then swear it. Swear that if these people are your paid actors, your entire family will meet their end. Except Janice, naturally.”
“Sierra, it’s fine. I cut those ties long ago—the Edwards name means nothing to me now. Their curse can’t touch me.”
Janice’s casual dismissal made Delilah’s jaw tighten. “Great! Then go ahead and swear,” Sierra advanced, leaving Delilah no escape route.
The color drained from Delilah’s face. Sierra had backed her into a corner with surgical precision.
This wasn’t just any oath—it was a death wish for her entire family.
In the crowd, Laurie’s knuckles turned white, her fury barely contained.
Delilah was trapped—curse her family with the oath, or admit to her scheme by refusing.
All eyes were on Delilah, filled with curiosity and scrutiny.
Delilah felt like a helpless hen trussed up and left to sizzle over an open flame, with every eye in the room drilling into her like hot pokers.
“What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?” Sierra sneered, tilting her head ever so slightly. “Or is it that you’re too scared to swear because these people are just stooges you hired?”
Lɒtєѕτ ϲнαρτєrs ιn g𝒶l𝑛ovєls.𝓒𝓸𝓶
“I swear!” Delilah snapped, her teeth clenched so tight they could’ve cracked. “If they’re stooges I hired, then may the entire Edwards family perish!”
Janice’s applause echoed through the tension-filled room, sharp and deliberate. Her gaze flicked towards Laurie just in time to see the woman wobble on her feet as if she might collapse at any moment.
“Delilah, you truly have no limits,” Janice said, her mocking smile curling like smoke. “But even if your little curse came to pass, it’d be the Edwards family that bites the dust. What’s that to you? You’re just their adopted daughter.”
With those words, Janice reminded everyone yet again that Delilah wasn’t blood-related to the Edwards family. Whispers rippled through the crowd, the onlookers exchanging amused, knowing glances. If Delilah was just the adopted daughter, then her dramatic oath hardly held any weight. Just as Janice pointed out, if the Edwards family were wiped out, what skin would that be off Delilah’s nose?
Laurie, meanwhile, turned pale as a ghost. A memory she had tried to bury clawed its way to the surface, growing sharper and clearer with every passing second.
But she shook her head fiercely, refusing to let the past take hold. Delilah was her daughter now, not Janice. That was all that mattered.
At that moment, she felt a mocking gaze boring into her, sharp as a dagger.
.
.
.