Filed To Story: Returning to Her Not-So-Poor Family
The gate slowly swung open on both sides.
The man who was once so cocky and proud now seemed to have deflated a bit in her presence, his expression even showing a hint of careful appeasement.
He tried to step forward, but his feet were frozen solid, too stiff to take a step.Steward gave him a push, and Sean managed to move forward, asking with joy, “Bella, you’re not mad anymore?”
Mirabella scrutinized the man in front of her. “Are you really my brother?”
“The real deal,” Sean assured her, patting his chest. The snowflakes from his clothes sprayed onto Mirabella’s hair, and he hurriedly reached out to brush them off. “Oops, I didn’t mean to get it on you.”
“Ms. Bella, let me introduce myself. I’m Steward, Sean’s right-hand man. I swear on my life, he is your brother, no doubt about it!”
Mirabella looked at Steward, who seemed earnest, and then back at the bumbling, eager-to-please Sean in front of her, and asked with a hint of suspicion, “So, before…”
“Before, I didn’t realize you were my sister.”
“Let’s talk inside.”
Mirabella turned back and walked toward the house, Sean quickly followed her, “You left in such a hurry last time, I didn’t get the chance to ask, after the construction site explosion, were you hurt?”
At that, seeing the doorman hand over an umbrella, he immediately took it and opened it for his sister.
Mirabella hadn’t expected him to remember the incident. She recalled how he had acted as a human shield for her, even covering her ears to protect her from the deafening blast.
“Did you know I was your sister back then?”
“I knew before heading to the construction site, but I couldn’t find you.” Sean tilted the umbrella to cover her more, noting that she was lightly dressed and said with concern, “Why did you come out on your own? You could’ve just told the staff. It’s so cold outside, what if you catch a cold?”
If his clothes hadn’t been chilled by the snowflakes, he would have considered taking off his jacket to drape over his sister.
But having his sister come to pick him up, that made him quite happy.
“Sean, he.” Steward, shivering in the cold, struggled to speak but still tried to sing Sean’s praises, “After you operated on Sean, he was recuperating in the hospital. When he heard that you were his real sister and had been taken by Martha, he pulled out his IV and went to save you without a second thought.”
Sean shot him a cold look, and Steward immediately clammed up.
Mirabella looked at Sean, recalling how weak he had been at that time. Later, in his attempt to save her, he’d been shot and had reopened his wound, even hitting his head.As Mirabella led Sean and Steward into the main house, the staff, noticing the change in Sean from his usual arrogant demeanor to being somewhat sister-whipped, and Steward acting so meek, wore expressions of shock and admiration.
It seemed someone could actually handle Sean, and even his subordinates were obedient, leaving them out in the cold for two hours.
Ms. Bella was amazing.
Absolutely admirable.
“Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle Bard, Aunt Eunice.”
In front of his sister, he was more polite than usual.
Bard, seeing his nephew arrive looking frozen, couldn’t help but chuckle, “You made it?”
Eunice smiled too, “It must be really cold outside.”
Darren, eager to express his longing for his grandson whom he hadn’t seen in a while, would’ve normally greeted him warmly, but remembering the recent conversation between Louisa and Mirabella, he put on a stern facade, “What in the world is going on? Did you two bully Bella outside?”
Belinda feigned reproach as well, “Look at the mess you’ve made.”
“Let Sean change into some clean clothes first,” Mirabella said, and immediately the others began to praise her.
“Look how sweet, kind, thoughtful, and caring your sister is for you, her brother.”
“Hurry up and change.””I want to hear what you’ve done to Bella later!”
Sean’s clothes were wet, and with a reluctant glance at his sister, he headed upstairs first.
.The family gathered around Mirabella to get the full story.
Mirabella spoke earnestly, “Sean didn’t bully me. At the construction site, it was he who led the rescue.”
She also shared the details of Sean being shot, acting as a human shield during the explosion, covering her ears, and injuring himself in the process.
Sean paused on the last step of the staircase, touched by his sister’s defense of him in front of the family.
She omitted all the misunderstandings and chose to share only the parts that were in his favor.
“Why didn’t you let him in?” Louisa asked, her brows knitting in confusion.
“Did you and your brother have a chance to meet before Martha kidnapped you?” Darren pressed, eager for answers.
“Was there any kind of unpleasantness?” Belinda added, her gaze fixed on Mirabella.
A carousel of memories spun in Mirabella’s mind, including the first time she met Sean, the time a woman threw herself at him, and Sean not exactly turning her away.
Seeing that the crowd was intent on hearing the reason, Mirabella picked the least significant one to share.
“Well. I had my eye on this island that just so happened to be under Sean’s name. I bought it from him for a low price, and seeing him today, I thought he might have come after me over the island deal.”
“Sean actually charged you money?” Louisa was astonished.
“He didn’t know I was his sister at the time.” Mirabella explained.
“So how much did he take from you? I will make him give it back later.”
“After he found out I was his sister, he gave it back, and even gave me an extra five million dollars to buy candy.”
Everyone was taken aback. When had Sean become so indulgent? So generous?
They remembered how Serena never dared ask him for anything because he was always so intimidating that Serena wouldn’t even dare to approach him.
Yet now, he was willing to give Bella five million dollars just for candy.”Sean’s still hurt, I’ll get him some painkillers.” Mirabella went to her room and returned with a few pills, dropping them into a glass of warm water. As Sean came downstairs, she handed him the glass to drink.
Seeing his sister caring for him, Sean was touched and surprised. “You didn’t have to do this for me.”
He tilted his head back and gulped down the water, despite the odd taste. It didn’t matter—anything given by his sister, even if it were poison, he would drink without hesitation.
“Sean, where did you and Bella run into each other? What happened?” Belinda was the first to ask.
Images of Sean being intimate with a woman flashed through his mind, and he was too embarrassed to recount them.
His sister must have gotten the wrong idea!
Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been so cold at the door, accusing him of being a ladies’ man.
That woman had been an assassin sent to kill him, not a plaything.
In matters of the heart, he was still a blank slate.
“And why haven’t you come home in over six months? Steward said you were injured; when did that happen? What caused it?”
“Why didn’t we see you before you got hurt?”
“Did you ever call your sister?”
As the questions continued to fly at Sean, Mirabella stepped in, “Sean and I were both investigating the fire from years ago, and we stumbled upon each other by accident.”Suddenly, everyone seemed to have a clearer picture of the situation.
“I had people look into that clinic fire back in the day, and they couldn’t find anything.” Belinda was surprised that her children had managed to uncover so much, even exposing Martha and Erik’s identities.
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, indeed.
“And you came home without a gift for your sister?” Louisa was a bit upset, seeing him empty-handed.
She had reminded him time and again to bring a gift for his sister.
“I did.” Sean immediately glanced at Steward.
“I’ll get it.” Steward, who had just sneezed, was about to fetch the gift when Mirabella handed him a small medicine bottle, “There are two more pills in there, for the cold.”
Steward looked at the unlabelled bottle and, though skeptical, accepted it with gratitude, “Thank you, Ms. Bella.” The trust in Mirabella’s medical expertise was evident in his voice.
Ms. Collins gracefully let bygones be bygones, and Steward could hardly contain his happiness.
Soon enough, Steward brought over a gift box that looked even larger than a cake box, adding, “This is something Sean had specially delivered just now.”
It was the fruit of their brainstorming, conceived while they were out in the cold, struggling to come up with the perfect surprise!
Sean approached his sister, presenting the box, “For you.”
Mirabella, unaccustomed to Sean’s newfound politeness and gentleness, reached out to accept the gift and said, “Thanks, Sean.”
Hearing his sister repeatedly call him by his first name, Sean suddenly understood why his brothers always rushed home at every opportunity to spend time with her. Her voice had a way of touching one’s soul.
Who wouldn’t want to be home every day if they had a sister like her? Compared to the agile, cool-
faced girl she once was, his sister was now the picture of obedience.