A Reborn Bride Pearl Emerging from Dust by Sally Garcia

Ulysses's face darkened instantly.

What Calliope meant was obvious-she was pretty much saying they weren't her real family, and she wanted to have Christmas Eve dinner with someone else.

Just now, she'd made it clear Quentin and the others were more important. Now she was doubling down, saying she'd only spend Christmas Eve with them? "Aren't we your family too?" Ulysses followed Calliope, unwilling to give up.

"To me, 'family' means the people who actually care about me," Calliope replied, her tone calm but firm. "People who hurt me, judge me, dislike me, or try to use me, they're not real family. And honestly? I don't need family like that."

As she finished, the elevator doors slid open. Calliope walked in without looking back.

Franco hurried in after her, nodding emphatically. "My boss is right. You gotta choose your family, just like you'd pick friends. Blood isn't everything."

Ulysses tried to follow, but Valerian grabbed his arm and pulled him back.

Valerian's face was stone-cold. "Forget it. Don't say another word. She's stubborn as a mule. She's not going to listen to us, no matter what."

a pit of worry growing in his chest. He felt

do you think we might've messed up?" he asked, uncertainty

convinced she was scheming against Lisette. But looking back, he realized she'd never really done anything wrong. She'd just kept quiet, accepting whatever the Jewell family

they'd assumed Lisette was

about it, the more uneasy

Was it right to treat Lisette better than Calliope? Franco's words

so flustered, red-faced, angry, clearly embarrassed, Ulysses couldn't shake

a huge mistake? Had they been hurting Calliope all along? He started to

didn't do anything wrong!" Valerian snapped, his voice icy and unyielding. "She's the one in the wrong, not us!

him in front of the whole company. Calliope had gone too far. She didn't care

she liked those other brothers so much, she could stick with them. They still had Lisette, and honestly,

but he bit his tongue. In

...

rode the elevator down and handed out