A Reborn Bride Pearl Emerging from Dust by Sally Garcia

"I told you before, there's no such thing as a hundred percent guarantee. But I'll

do my best. Things won't get any worse than they are now."

She took a thoughtful bite of her cheesecake, her gaze distant.

Valerian nodded, but he still looked like he had something on his mind.

Calliope glanced up at him. "If you've got something to say, just say it. If you're upset with me, I'd rather you be upfront. It's not like you all haven't complained before."

She was the picture of calm.

Valerian felt a little uneasy. But he couldn't help himself. "Callie, are you really that close to those brothers of yours?"

He kept thinking about what Lance had said earlier. Were those so-called adopted brothers of hers really that amazing? Did she actually like them that much? They weren't even her real brothers, so why did she care about them so much? Shouldn't she care more about her actual family?

to look into Calliope's three "brothers." They'd met a few times before, but when he tried to dig deeper, he turned up absolutely nothing. It

Shepherd, or Julius Quillen, every lead

had these "brothers," but he'd never given

bothered him more than he wanted to

"Of course I'm close to

Horatio like it was the most obvious thing in

back on how she'd sometimes neglected her "honorary"

soon, and

the

to surprise them

thoughtfully as she considered what to

should be careful," Valerian said, a hint of concern in his voice. "People talk, you

Calliope shot back, clearly annoyed. "Or

you. You don't need to get so defensive,"