Chapter 3
That evening, Noah came home.
He’s not the Wilsons’ biological child - he was adopted by my parents. Bella and I call him our brother.
I had always dreamed of having an older brother to stand in front of me and protect me.
Noah did fit all my imaginations of a good big brother, except he protected Bella. Towards me, who suddenly appeared and took away some of Bella’s attention, he was full of hostility.
From the moment he walked in, Noah didn’t spare me a single glance. The lack of welcome was written all over his face.
How had I been so blind before?
Even when he treated me this way, I always tried to get close to him, fussing over him and giving him gifts.
I envied Bella and was jealous that she had the whole family’s love.
But now that all those emotions had disappeared, their behavior seemed forced and uninteresting to me.
I felt a bit hungry.
Noticing I hadn’t greeted him, Noah gave me a couple extra glances.
“Hey, I don’t want your stuff,” he said, pulling out an elegantly wrapped gift bag.
I recognized it as the birthday present I had chosen for him.
It was a jade pendant I had polished and carved myself.
I had given him many gifts, and each one was publicly returned to me.
He and Bella both seemed to enjoy the process of trampling on my dignity.
“Noted,” I said, my attention completely elsewhere.
The food was all laid out, but I had no appetite.
The table was full of seafood.
There wasn’t a single dish I could eat.
Just looking at it made my wounds ache.
Noah was taken aback.
In the past, this girl would always beg him to keep her gifts. This time she agreed so readily - was she playing some new trick to get the family’s attention?
“Brother, what did Aria give you?” Bella asked, her hand already unwrapping the gift before he could answer. “Oh, what a beautiful jade pendant! Aria must have put a lot of thought into it. Brother, you should keep it.”
Noah pressed his lips together.
Keep it?
Wouldn’t that mean he was accepting this person?
She was the reason Bella felt insecure and cried countless nights.
“I’ll never accept anything from her. Take it back,” he said to me, his tone brooking no refusal.
My stomach was hurting from hunger. Faced with a table full of seafood I couldn’t eat, I just wanted to go out and get something else.
I had barely stood up when Noah, taking it as me being unwilling to face him, grabbed my wrist. “Take your stuff back.”
Bella gave me a look that said she was enjoying the show.
According to past patterns, I should be crying by now.
“Just throw it away,” I said.
“What?”
Seeing that no one was moving, I took the jade pendant and tossed it in the trash.
“I said, if you don’t want it, throw it away. I’m leaving now.”
Everyone at the table fell silent.
This version of me was too unfamiliar to them.
I ignored them and directly left the table.
Noah felt a bit unsettled, watching that annoying figure gradually disappear. It was as if something had quietly slipped out of control.
Bella glanced at Noah, her hand gripping her chopsticks tightly.