Chapter 144

Celine's tears kept falling, one after another, splashing softly into the bathwater. "All you ever do is yell at me! What's so wrong about me wearing makeup? What's so wrong about putting on lipstick? Carly wears makeup and lipstick every single day, and you never yell at her! "If she were the one kidnapped, you'd probably be holding her, comforting her, calling her your baby! But you… you just hate me! Why do you hate me so much?" Her words broke apart into choked cries. She was trembling now, her delicate shoulders shaking with each unsteady breath. Her tear-streaked face—red-rimmed eyes, flushed nose, and skin glistening with tears—looked impossibly fragile, as though she were made of water, dissolving into the streams that poured from her eyes. Adam's expression shifted at once. Without hesitation, he knelt on one knee beside the tub. "Celine, stop crying." He wasn't used to seeing her cry. In fact, he could count on one hand the number of times he'd ever seen her like thi