Chapter 22: Family Ties
Moana

“Ahem.”

Ethan and I jerked our heads up from the portfolio of his childhood drawings, our train of conversation now broken, to see none other than Edrick standing in the doorway — and he didn’t look happy.

“Oh, hello,” I said, feeling a bit nervous under the billionaire’s strangely disapproving stare. “Ethan was just showing me some of his work.”

Without a word, Edrick slowly walked into the studio. His shoes clicked loudly on the concrete floor, echoing through the room’s tall ceilings. For several long moments, the Alpha billionaire slowly circled the studio and looked at all of the art with his hands in his pants pockets. I noticed that he wasn’t looking around with wonder, like I had when Ethan first turned on the light, but rather with an almost disgusted look on his face. He almost seemed repulsed by the art, which was surprising considering the fact that he had plenty of expensive artwork hanging in both his mansion in the mountains and his city penthouse.

Finally, Edrick turned to face me and slowly walked up to where Ethan and I stood, stopping in front of me. He hardly paid any mind to Ethan, as though his brother wasn’t even there.

“Ella is looking for you,” he said to me in a deep, irritated voice. “You should be with her.”

“I’m sorry,” I replied, feeling even more nervous as the Alpha billionaire towered over me, looking down at me with an aggravated look on his handsome face. “I thought she was with her grandmother.”

“She is,” Edrick said. His gaze finally slid over to Ethan. There was something dark about the way he looked at his own brother, as if he didn’t trust him. Meanwhile, Ethan only looked back at Edrick with an almost amused sparkle in his eyes, as if he had been experiencing this behavior from his brother for a long time already.

“Hello to you too, big brother,” Ethan said.

sensed a palpable air of discomfort, and it involuntarily made me take a step backwards. “I’ll go back to

a moment before I glanced over at Edrick, who seemed to look at me with a

you,” Edrick

the door behind us, and the last thing I saw before the door closed was Ethan’s face. He was smiling, almost knowingly, as if

being a bit rough with me and his hard grip burned my bare

curl into fists at my sides. “I don’t appreciate you touching me like

a few moments, then back up at me. “You

“He’s your brother–”

is not

stern tone, and the way his face flashed with anger as he said those words. We stood there silently in the dark corridor for a few moments. The ceiling, I was now realizing, was made of patterned glass, which allowed the moonlight to shine down onto the marble tiles and cast designs on our faces. It made Edrick look both incredibly handsome and incredibly frightening at the same time as he glared

said anything else, he turned on his heel and

on. I don’t want you to leave my side for the rest of

studio before jogging to catch up with Edrick. We briskly descended the stairs back to the main floor, then passed

felt

Her smiling eyes flickered over to me, as well as Ella’s,

me an indifferent stare before pushing himself up out of his chair and

present.” On Ella’s wrist was a delicate silver bracelet with a small charm that had the letter “E”

pretty,”

charm bracelet,” Verona chimed in. “As Ella gets older,

stood at a table nearby, champagne glass in hand. “Verona loves to spoil Ella,” she said. Her face was the perfect picture of sweetness, but I could sense

Verona replied, squeezing Ella’s shoulders. “It’s my job to

speak, but Edrick suddenly returned. He had a sour look on his face as he stood behind his

her head and twirling a bit of hair around

didn’t want to answer, but also partially because the orchestra began to play again. I immediately recognized the

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