Arabella Vanderbilt lowered her eyes and smiled faintly.
Did he still think that she would feel the slightest fear and react to his rage?
If one gets used to wearing shoes that are one size too small, they wouldn't feel the pain anymore.
And words, once heard too many times, become meaningless.
"You've never solemnly reminded Mr. Vanderbilt, after all this time," she said. "With the woman who gave birth to this walking disaster still around, aren't you afraid her walking stick might just kill you?"
Victor Vanderbilt was momentarily stunned, not immediately grasping the twisted meaning of Arabella's words. But after silently going over them twice in his mind, he finally understood completely.
Anger swelled on his face as he realized he had been led into her trap!
He pointed at Arabella, "I truly regret not strangling you when I had the chance! So I wouldn't have to suffer the disgrace you bring upon our family name every single day!"
Arabella laughed coldly, "Disgrace? What honor does the Vanderbilt family even have left to disgrace? Driving a devoted wife to death and welcoming a trophy bride. If opportunism and vanity are what you call family values, then the Vanderbilts are definitely the overlords of Krent City!"
"You... how dare you!"
Victor Vanderbilt was almost driven to fury by Arabella's audacity. He had never imagined that this seemingly indifferent and bland daughter could utter such outrageous words.
"Enough!"
Rosy Roberts suddenly scolded with a deep voice, and although Victor gritted his teeth with rage, he was held back by Naomi Rein, who was tightly clutching his arm.
Arabella's lips tightened. In front of these people, she didn't even want to spare them a cold laugh.
"I thought after all these years abroad, you might've toned down that temper of yours, but it seems you've only grown more defiant than before," Rosy said in a deep voice, her shrewd eyes gleaming with a cunning light as she stepped towards the hospital room.
"It seems you don't know that I've been back from abroad for three years," Arabella replied.
Rosy stood in front of her, and with the falling of Arabella's words, the sound of her walking stick echoed dully.
The collision of the stick with the floor tiles and wooden floor deliberately conveyed her fury to Arabella.
"I wanted to temper your unruly and fierce nature, but clearly, three years was far from enough!"
Finally, Arabella raised her head and glanced at Rosy before standing up. Her slender figure was skinny but perfectly upright and tall.
In an instant, she who was once looked down upon was now lowering her eyes to gaze at Rosy, who was of no advantage in height.
Rosy's face suddenly darkened.
She detested the proud and assertive aura around Arabella.
Just like her mother, they both had this innate dominance and authority that seemed to flow in their blood, never to be diluted.
"What, planning to send me back to S Country?" Arabella asked, her face a mask of cold impregnability, though her heart was frigid.
Six years ago, they had sent her away to economically backward S Country with horrendous cultural conditions without a second thought and never bothered to check on her again!
If this were ancient times, it would be no different from exile!
Surviving was due to her own luck; dying would have been considered her fault. Even if she had died, no one would have known or cared.
If she hadn't been sure she was Victor's biological daughter, she might have thought she was the enemy who killed his father!
All for the sake of Juliana, they seemed to wish they could bury her in the mud!
How could she accept that?
Her life, Arabella Vanderbilt's life, was not to be controlled or trampled upon by anyone!
Thanks to them, she learned how to be tenacious in the face of adversity and hardship!
And she was grateful for their heartlessness and neglect; they didn't even know she left S Country on her own to secretly run off to France!
Nor would they ever find out what she had done in those three years in France...