CHAPTER 360

"What nonsense are you spouting?" Penny trembled in anger. "You..."

Her eyes abruptly went wide in the middle of her sentence. "Your adoptive parents are dead?"

"Yes!" Leigh snarled. "They passed away when I was just a child. They died by your hands! That is why I am here to take my revenge on you!"

Penny was momentarily stunned, but she soon jumped up in excitement and rushed to Bryson, grabbing his arm. "Did you hear that, Bryson?! She jinxed her adoptive parents! I did the right thing back then! I managed to save the whole family by sending her away! I saved the whole family, Bryson! You can't put the blame on me!"

"Scram!" He shoved her away and roared, "Can't you tell that she is making fun of you?! You…"

His anger stopped him from finishing his words.

Penny desperately shook her head then. "No, no. She admitted it herself that she killed her adoptive parents. If I hadn't sent her away back then, she would've ended up killing us instead. It was I who saved our family. I made the choice back then. You can't blame me for it!"

Bryson didn't feel like saying anything at all after hearing that.

The only person he blamed now was himself for being a blind idiot who made such a cold-blooded and stupid woman his wife.

He deserved his bad luck!

With a dark face, he didn't want to say anything anymore.

So be it.

He would just let things take its course.

No matter what kind of consequences awaited him, it was all his own doing.

I deserve this, he thought.

Even though he no longer wished to explain anything as his heart sank, his wife had no intention of letting him go just like this.

Penny stomped her feet and demanded, "Say something, Bryson! I was the one who saved our family. I might not have contributed anything, but I did put in effort. You can't divorce me!" Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g

Bryson only lowered his head without saying a word.

His silence left her with no choice but to look at Austin and Justin pleadingly. "Austin, Justin, come help me beg your father. I cannot have a divorce!"

Austin only had an impassive expression as though he hadn't heard anything.

Justin, on the other hand, blurted out, "Mom, why are you still worried about the divorce? Didn't you hear Leigh—I mean, my sister said that she is going to get Uncle Brandon to call the police on you! If

you get charged with trafficking a child, you will be imprisoned for a minimum of 3 years! By the time you are in prison, you won't even need to sign a divorce agreement for the court to split you and Dad up if he wants a divorce!"

Penny came to a pause when she heard that, and she immediately whipped her head to look at Leigh. "No! You can't sue me; I am your mother! I gave you your life. The heavens will not forgive you if you sue me. You will be damned and eventually die a horrible death!"

Leigh laughed at that. "If God has so much free time, I am sure he would strike you with lightning before he gets to me."

"Are you cursing me?" Penny roared, "How dare you curse me?! I am your birth mother! I gave you life!"

"Didn't I already give you an answer to your question? You were the one who gave birth to me, but you were also the one who abandoned me. You commited the crime of abandonment when you gave birth to me without taking care of me. You were the one who committed the crime first and caused the deaths of my parents. Now that you are my enemy, why can't I curse you?" Leigh raised her eyebrows at Penny. "I have even worse curses. Would you like to hear them?"

"Y-You…" Penny was tongue-tied for a long minute before she realized that Leigh wasn't going to do this the hard way, so she softened her attitude.

Looking at Leigh, she pleaded, "I understand now, Leigh. I was fooled by Walter. Your father has decided to kick Ava out of our house. You can come home after Ava leaves, and we will announce to the public that you are the young mistress of the Penham Family. All 5 members of our family can finally reunite, and we will live a happy life together, alright?"

"Sure, in your dreams!" Leigh sneered. "You abandoned me in order to let your lover's daughter enter the Penham Family, but you want me back now that I am grown and don't need anyone to take care of me? How can you be so shameless? Also…"

Her cold gaze turned to Penny. "Didn't you say that I am a jinx who is meant to be alone? Are you not afraid of me jinxing you guys anymore?"

Madeline patted her, upset. "Don't keep bringing that up! This is complete nonsense! I am your best friend, and we have been together for so many years. I'm perfectly fine, though. According to old superstitions, your so-called jinx is supposed to affect your best friends as well."

Hearing that, Leigh muttered, "But… My parents, grandfather, and my master, they…"

To her, the news about her real identity as the young mistress of the Penham Family wasn't a big deal.

She didn't care about being the family's daughter at all.

After learning about what Bryson and Penny did, she was glad that she was not raised by the 2 of them. Otherwise, she might have turned into the second Ava.

She didn't even want to entertain the thought of them being her parents.

What she cared about the most was being called a jinx who would harm those close to her and was meant to be alone.

Her parents and grandfather had died a violent death. Even her master was only in his 60s when he died. She had wondered if they were killed because of her jinx.

Even though she knew in her heart that the talk about jinxes was only a lie, their deaths prompted her to consider the possibility of her parents being alive only if they hadn't adopted her.

She also wondered if her master would've lived till old age if he hadn't taken her in as his apprentice.

Was it really just a coincidence that everyone close to her had died from accidents and left her by herself?

Could it be that destiny was a real thing, and she was destined to be the only one left after the people she cared about left this world early...

"Don't think about it." Madeline took her by the shoulders and softly comforted her, "If you want to talk about how close you are with someone and how long you stay together, you and I are as close as sisters, and we are together every day. If you really are a jinx, why am I fine? Besides, Walter himself admitted that the doctor didn't know anything at all. He was the one who taught the doctor to say what he said. You are smart, but why are you being silly about this?"

Leigh smiled and shook her head when she heard that.

Why was she being silly about this, Madeline asked?

It was probably because… she cared too much.

The more she cared, the more she tried to dissect something so insignificant.

However, it was useless for her to think about those things now. It was an undeniable fact that her parents, grandfather, and master were no more. They would never come back to her no matter how upset she was.

The only thing she could do was make the person who made her suffer, suffer more than her.

She looked at Brandon and Jennifer. "Well, have you thought it through? It is getting late. We should take the children home."

"We have decided!" Jennifer announced, "We are willing to cut ties with Bryson's family and have Dr. Shefford fix Luna!"

"Alright! Write a letter of guarantee and give it to me. I will start restoring your daughter's condition tomorrow."

"I don't agree with this!" Eddie's face was pale and stoic. "Are you not afraid of becoming the butt of the joke after disowning your own sibling for no reason?!"