Chapter 7
Xanthea asked, “So, are you gonna listen to me or not?”
“Of course! Your word is law to me, Xanthea!”
The door suddenly swung open, and Ethan entered with a stern face, looking at the joyful siblings, “Xan, you woke up today and only hugged Samuel. Now here you are whispering secrets with him. Don’t you care about me anymore?”
Xanthea burst into laughter at the obvious jealousy on Ethan’s face and quickly ran over to pull him close, “Ethan, we were just planning a surprise for you!”
“What surprise?”
“We’re all going to the gem betting event the day after tomorrow!”
“Isn’t that supposed to be a surprise just for you?”
Late at night, laughter echoed from the second floor of the mansion. Miranda looked towards the brightly lit study, her grip tightening on her cellphone.
From her first day in this family, she was told that Samuel’s study was off-limits to everyone. Listening to the sounds from inside now, it seemed it was just off-limits to her alone.
In the Nightshade family, she was always just an adopted daughter, an outsider. Without any real support, she figured it was only a matter of time before she’d be pushed out.
“Miranda, are you still there?”
The voice on the phone snapped her back to reality, “Matt, I’m here; sorry, what were you
saying?”
“I was asking, did you notice anything off about Xan today?”
“Off?”
Miranda recalled how earlier that day she tried to help Xanthea, only to be publicly rebuffed, her face soured at the memory.
“Maybe she was just a bit irritable. After all, she’s the precious daughter of the family. I wasn’t there for her when she fell into the water, so I can’t really blame her.”
Normally, Matthew would have comforted her, sensing the subtext in her words. But now his mind was filled with images of Xanthea ignoring him when she woke up and the indifferent way she left, which seemed not too abnormal but lacked the usual adoring attention and instead carried a mysterious air.
“By the
way,
did she say anything after I left?”
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Chapter 7
Miranda replied, “Nothing much, she just mentioned Orion briefly.”
“What?”
Matthew frowned at her words, quickly recalling the scene in the garden where Orion was carrying Xanthea.
When did Xan ever show interest in anyone besides him, especially someone rumored to be a troublemaker?
“Matt, what’s wrong?”
“Oh, nothing. The Masked Singer finals are next weekend, right? I’ll definitely be there to support you, and to see you win the title of the century’s greatest singer!”
“Thanks, Matt.” Miranda smiled, her earlier dejection disappearing, “Now, seems like only you truly care about me. Most of the times, I feel like I’m just a spare part in the Nightshade family.”
As she continued to speak, Matthew checked his phone to see if Xanthea had texted him. Normally, she would have bombarded him with messages by now. He had been home for quite a while, yet there was still no sign from her.
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