Chapter 88
Alistair paused for a moment, and then nodded. Mentioning this seemed to cast a shadow over his demeanor.
“Caius’s dad is Lavinia’s elder brother, so technically, Caius and she are cousins.”
Dorian snorted, “Seems like everyone’s tripping over themselves to claim some family connection. Brother? With no blood ties? That’s just wishful thinking. Miranda doesn’t even pay attention to us, her real brothers. And he thinks he can just waltz in and be her brother?”
Dorian’s words dripped with sarcasm.
“But she did call him brother, and she stood up for him,” Alistair said with a blank expression. “She even stood up to us for him.”
Though his face remained stoic, Alistair’s voice betrayed a hint of dissatisfaction. He was intentionally passing this displeasure onto Dorian.
It was a feeling he hated. And no way was he going to deal with it alone.
Too bad Orion and Lysander were away at school. They wouldn’t otherwise have escaped this.
Dorian clenched his fists and suddenly slammed the desk.
“She’s calling some outsider her brother and won’t come back to the family. Does she think we’re dead?” Dorian muttered angrily.
Seeing Dorian so worked up made Alistair feel a bit better. It seemed his brother was just as upset as he was.
And neither of them realized that the sister who once barely mattered to them was now affecting their moods.
They were upset because Miranda called someone else brother, even jealous.
Miranda was their sister by blood. She should be with the Hawke family. Even if they had wronged her in the past, she was still part of the Hawke family.
But now she didn’t even acknowledge them, acting like they were dead to her. She had found other “fake”
relatives.
“She’s ignoring everything we say. She even claimed Bella isn’t our real sister.”
Dorian frowned. “Bella’s different. We watched her grow up.”
He seemed to grasp something, saying, “Miranda must be jealous of Bella.”
Alistair said nothing, though he was inclined to agree.
“If it’s about Bella, we should talk to her next time,” Dorian said casually. “We’re willing to share some of our affection with her. She should stop embarrassing herself and come back to the family. We’ll compensate her for the prison thing.”
Alistair hesitated; he then couldn’t help but say, “I think she’d tell you you’re crazy.”
From the few times he’d interacted with Miranda since her release, he knew she wouldn’t go for Dorian’s attempts to appease her.
Dorian’s face darkened in an instant. He said solemnly, “If she ever talks about the prison thing, we covered our tracks well, but with her current status, she could cause us trouble.
Leaving her outside is like having a ticking time bomb. Whatever it takes, we need to get her back to the family.”
Alistair lowered his gaze, his expression a bit conflicted.
After they finished talking, Dorian remembered something and asked, “How’s Bella?”
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Chapter 88
Alistair replied, “Nothing much, just a bit shaken up, lost her voice for a few days. Nothing serious, she just needs some rest.”
Hearing this, Dorian didn’t ask further. He hadn’t realized that his concern for Arabella had waned from what it
once was.
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