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.

then he remembered Horatio still needed Calliope's help with his treatment and he

can I... can I take the cake with me?" the employee squeaked, almost too nervous to

her. "Yeah,

Monty walked by and noticed Valerian's

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

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

it weren't for that, I wouldn't

with this,

a deep breath to calm himself. The anger was still simmering, but with Horatio's surgery coming up, and that present stiff on the line, he decided, for now,

after work, Calliope drove straight to the Jewell

She hadn't told anyone she was coming

you doing here?" someone

not allowed to show up?" Calliope replied, raising

go to Mr. Myers' place first" Monty said,

l.ne