A Reborn Bride Pearl Emerging from Dust

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."

Ulysses let out a heavy sigh, a pit of worry growing in his chest. He felt Calliope slipping away from them more and more each passing moment.

"Valerian, do you think we might've messed up?" he asked, uncertainty creeping into his voice.

He'd always disliked Calliope, 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 threw at her.

Lisette was always the loud one, always making a scene, so they'd assumed Lisette was the one being mistreated. But maybe... maybe that wasn't true.

The more he thought about it, the more uneasy Ulysses felt.

After all, Callie was their real little sister, not Lisette. Was it right to treat Lisette better than Calliope? Franco's words echoed in his mind, making him question everything.

Especially seeing Valerian so flustered, red-faced, angry, clearly embarrassed, Ulysses couldn't shake the feeling that something was very wrong.

Had they been making a huge mistake? Had they been hurting Calliope all along? He started to doubt himself.

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

Thinking about how humiliating today had been, Valerian's anger boiled over. She'd embarrassed him in front of the whole company. Calliope had gone too far. She didn't care about their feelings at all. She was just petty and vindictive. Cóntent

Fuming, Valerian made up his mind: he'd ignore Calliope from now on If she liked those other brothers so much, she could stick with them. They still had Lisette, and honestly, wasn't Lisette way better anyway?

Ulysses looked at Valerian, wanting to say something, but he bit his tongue. In the end, he said nothing, sinking into silence.

...

Meanwhile, Calliope rode the elevator down and handed out gifts to Quentin and Norton.

The moment they received them, their faces lit up with delight.

"This is amazing,” Quentin grinned, turning to Norton. "See? Our little sister's

giving us presents now. We must really be in her good books!"noveldrama

Calliope had gotten Quentin a watch, a seriously expensive one, with some custom features that suited him perfectly. It was a brand-new mode RD Group had just developed, packed with all sorts of advanced functions.

For someone like Quentin, who sometimes went on special assignments, it was actually pretty practical. Some of the features could be real lifesavers in the field.

The watch wasn't even on the market yet. Calliope had pulled a few strings to get her hands on it.