Thorns Grow After Betrayal (Celeste and Chester) novel Chapter 343

The whole thing was truly baffling.

But for Raymond, he saw it as a sign that she was wavering.

“Mom, please don’t tell Grandpa and Grandma. I just want to live with you. I don’t want to go anywhere else.”

Celestine looked at him with a puzzled expression. “Why?”

What could have happened to change him so drastically in such a short time?

Raymond lowered his head, his voice filled with dejection. “Because I missed you, Mom.”

“If you’re not going to tell me the truth, I can have the Fordhams come pick you up,” Celestine said coldly as she cleared the plates.

Raymond panicked. “Mom! It’s true! That’s one of the reasons I came back!”

Celestine seized on the key part of his statement. “And the other reasons?”

Raymond stammered for a moment before finally speaking as if he had made a decision. “Mom, after we went abroad, Grandpa was busy managing the company, and Grandma was always with Dad, who’s in a coma. There was no one to look after me and my sister.”

He paused, his eyes welling with tears. “I was sent to a boarding school. The teachers there… did inappropriate things to me. And the foreign kids were jealous of me and secretly bullied me…”

The more Celestine listened, the more her brow furrowed. “Did you tell your grandfather about this?”

Raymond cried, “I did, but they didn’t really believe me. Even though they took me out of that school, they still didn’t pay attention to me. The maids at home started to act out because my grandparents were never around, and they began to bully me too.”

With that, he lifted his pant leg.

The dark bruises on his leg were horrifying, with some spots already covered in scabs.

Celestine fell silent as she looked at them.

“I couldn’t take it anymore. I missed you so much, Mom. No one believed me, so I secretly ran away and came back to the country on my own,” Raymond sobbed, his shoulders shaking.

Celestine asked, “When did you leave?”

“About five days ago.”

That wasn’t a short time.

And no one from the Fordham family had said anything about Raymond being missing.

Were they hiding it, or had they truly not noticed?

“Go take a shower first.”

“Mom, you’re not sending me away?” Raymond asked, his eyes full of hope.

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