A Reborn Bride Pearl Emerging from Dust by Sally Garcia

The employee nearly jumped out of her skin when Valerian snapped at her. Her voice trembled as she looked at Portia and stammered, "It was a gift from

Calliope!"

Valerian glared at the cake, his mood sinking even further.

He'd gone out of his way to buy that cake for her, her favorite, a big slice of cheesecake with extra strawberries. Not only did she not eat it, she just handed it off to someone else without a second thought!

The more he thought about it, the more it stung.

How could she treat him like this? She'd always been distant with his whole family, and now, even when he tried to reach out, she just shrugged him off. What did he ever do to deserve this?

If he was a little nicer to Lisette, so what? Lisette was always thoughtful, always polite, never made things hard for anyone. But Calliope? She never listened, never cared about the family. It was always about her, her, her.

So what if they'd been a little unfair to her as a kid? Was she really going to hold that over their heads forever?

Even Lisette had tried to make amends, tried to keep the peace, but Calliope just wouldn't budge. She was always the one making things difficult.

the angrier he got. But then he remembered Horatio still needed Calliope's help with his treatment and he still wanted that birthday present she'd promised

I take the cake with me?" the

"Yeah, take it.

then, Monty walked by and noticed Valerian's scowl.

cake, and she didn't even care. Just turned around and gave it away to someone else. She's nothing like a real sister. She just

glanced at him, then gave him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. "Let it go, man.

for that, I wouldn't

with this, Valerian

but with Horatio's surgery coming up, and that present stiff on the line, he decided, for now,

work, Calliope drove straight to the Jewell

She hadn't told anyone she was coming back.

doing here?" someone blurted

to show up?" Calliope replied, raising an

trip you'd go to Mr. Myers' place first" Monty said, forcing a nervous laugh.

l.ne