While Asher was raising hell for his sister at the school, another storm had quietly landed in the country.
The moment his feet touched the ground, he scoffed, scrolling through his phone and looking at Asher’s latest Instagram post.
"Doesn’t he seem a little too flimsy with Melissa?" he muttered, his jaw tightening as he slipped into the backseat of his car with the mask and sunglasses still on.
His PR team had done quite a good job, misdirecting fans and media about his arrival. The public thought he’d be landing two days later. But when your family owned the airport, faking an arrival schedule was child’s play.
"Melissa this, Melissa that..." Alistair clenched his jaw. "It’s like Seraphina had never existed.
Alistair had never liked Melissa from the start; he didn’t like how high-maintenance she was. Yet, he still doted on her because he thought they were related by blood and she deserved all that.
Jack, the suffering manager, who was always ready to resign, rolled his eyes from the passenger seat and gestured toward the fancy bags stacked beside Alistair. "Isn’t that an irony coming out of your mouth? You’ve got ten whole bags full of luxury crap back there. All for your ’little sister’... And if Third Young Master does the same... You are mocking him! T
Alistair’s thumb paused as he stopped scrolling.
"You got it wrong." His tone dropped. "Melissa was only raised in our family, but she’s not my real sister, related by blood."
Jack frowned. "What the hell are you talking about?"
Alistair looked out the tinted window, his fingers tightening around his phone. "The real heiress of the Lancaster family whom Mother never cared about and the one we lost during her birth... then found two years ago... is Seraphina."
There was a dead silence in the car!
"What?" Jack’s jaw almost dropped as his eyes widened in disbelief. "Wait... are you fucking serious? The hell did I just hear?"
Alistair gave him a cold look. "You heard me right."
Jack looked like his soul had left his body for a moment. "But then—those gifts... Wait... don’t tell me those gifts—"
"Were for Sera," Alistair interjected annoyingly. "I bought every single one for her... And because of a bastard like you, they ended up in the hands of Melissa."
He glared at Jack so hard the man almost shrank into his seat.
"I told you to make sure those gifts reached Seraphina personally, and what did you do?" Alistair growled. "You let them get delivered like it was some courier package. And not only that... you send them to the fake one!"
"I-I thought they were for Melissa, and... She was your only sister!"
"She is not my sister!" Alistair slammed his palm against the car door in frustration. "Melissa might’ve grown up in our house, called me ’brother’ a thousand times, but she’s an impostor. And Seraphina... she’s the one who’s suffered all her like.
Jack shut up instantly. He’d never seen Alistair . He seemed so furious and cold at the moment that even he was afraid of him.
"I don’t care about the others, but I’m going to make it up for her," Alistair muttered in a serious tone. "I should’ve done it a long time ago... but thanks to you, not only was I forced to stay out of the country—even the damn gifts ended up in the wrong hands."
Jack stayed quiet. He knew it was not the time to open his mouth. There was no excuse for the blunder he had created.
Alistair had been crystal clear that those gifts were for Seraphina. But Jack, who was blinded by his duties and didn’t bother to check the fact, had automatically sent everything to Melissa instead.
Alistair leaned forward. "Drive faster," he ordered the driver. "I don’t want to miss her."
His gaze drifted to the window, but his mind was somewhere else entirely.
"I want to see her in that school uniform... at least once," he said in a low voice. "Even if I missed everything else... maybe I can still witness a small part of her school life."
Jack swallowed hard, guilt tightening around his throat.
The car came to a halt in front of the school gate. The driver stepped out quickly, fixing his coat and walking toward a student who was chatting with the school guard.
"Hey, can you tell me in which class Seraphina Lancaster is?" the driver asked politely in a careful tone.
The student, barely seventeen, looked him up and down. Then, with a smirk tugging at his lips, he replied mockingly, "Mister, are you perhaps talking about Seraphina... the disaster?"
That nickname had spread like wildfire through the school like a cruel joke. And the girl at the center of it didn’t even know how deeply it had spread.
The driver stiffened. His fingers twitched at his side as he glanced back toward the car, panic crawling up his neck.
The car door had already opened.
Alistair stepped out, shutting the door with a quiet thud that sounded louder than normal. The wind caught the edge of his coat as he walked forward.
"What did you just say?" His voice was way too calm.
The student blinked, clearly confused at first. "Uhh... I said Seraphina—the disaster. You know, that girl who always gets into trouble. People say she’s a charity case, and—"
He didn’t get to finish.
Alistair was already in front of him.
"You think it’s funny giving people names?" he asked, his eyes cold and unreadable under the sunglasses. "What’s your name?"
"W–why would you want to know—"
"I asked," Alistair repeated, "your name."
The student shrank back slightly, stammering. "Tyler"
"Great." Alistair smiled, which wasn’t quite a smile. "Tyler, do yourself a favor and shut your damn mouth next time you speak about my sister."
"Now... stop wasting my time and lead the way where she is!"
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