CHAPTER 196

Meanwhile, In the dim light of her small, sparse room in the quarters of the old Rogers mansion, Mrs. Katherine Rogers sat hunched over, her frail body trembling with each breath. The room’s drab, beige walls seemed to close in on her as she waited for her daughter, Blossom, to bring her meal. The hunger pangs gnawed at her insides, and the emptiness of her surroundings only amplified her sense of despair.

“Blossom, what’s keeping you?” Katherine’s voice cracked with a mixture of frustration and resignation. “Am I to spend my final days in this wretched state, starving and alone?” she yelled.

Blossom, who had been moving sluggishly through the narrow hallway with a tray of food, pushed open the door with an irritated sigh.

“A day from now, your granddaughter’s killer will be in court, and all you can think about is food?” She placed the tray on a side table with a clatter, her face a mask of barely concealed frustration.

The tray held a plate of boiled potatoes and a thin portion of