Chapter 156

Scarlett looked at Xavier in disbelief. Her body trembled slightly, a faint redness rising in her eyes. He had just called her a blessing and said that meeting her was the greatest fortune of his life. No one had ever said anything like that to her before. No one had ever affirmed her existence like this, let alone praised it. For as long as she could remember, Scarlett had believed she was a harbinger of misfortune. When her mother, Elena Hawthorne, became pregnant with her, her father, Rowan Winslow, was arrested for murder not long after. Elena had lost her mind the moment Scarlett was born. There were whispers that, in her madness, Elena had nearly roasted Scarlett like a suckling pig by the fire when she was just a baby, driven by extreme hunger. It was her grandmother, Lydia Mercer, who arrived just in time to save her. For the next two years, Lydia never once let Elena hold her. It wasn't until a stroke left Lydia paralyzed that Elena finally seemed to realize she had a da