novelraw Chapter 227: You Still Think About Your Own Brother?
Chapter 227: You Still Think About Your Own Brother?
Chapter 227: You Still Miss Your Own Brother?
Rachel Royce didn’t look at the man, instead saying to Melissa, "Alright, Melissa, it’s about time we headed down the mountain." It was too cold on the mountain.
Melissa couldn’t stay for too long.
After taking a final photo with the snowman, they rode the cable car back down.
By the time they got back to the hotel, Julian Jennings and Peter Preston had already left.
Rachel Royce took Melissa back to their room to pack their bags. Since it was a short trip, they hadn’t brought much—it was mostly Melissa’s things.
Once they were packed, they headed out the door.
Tristan Sterling saw the bag in Rachel Royce’s hand and Melissa’s small suitcase, and took the small suitcase.
Looking at the bag she was still carrying, Tristan Sterling added, "Let me take that bag, too!" Rachel Royce refused politely. "It’s okay, I can carry it myself." Melissa looked at Rachel Royce and said, "Mommy, Daddy is a boy, so he should be the one to help Mommy carry things." Just as Rachel Royce was about to protest, Tristan Sterling reached out and took the bag from her.
With her hands suddenly empty, Rachel Royce could only say to the man, "There’s really no need to be so thorough with these details." Melissa, of course, had no idea what her mother meant by that.
Tristan Sterling looked at her, his dark eyes as inscrutable as ever. His lips curled into a faint smile as he said softly, "Let’s go."
Downstairs, a Rolls-Royce was already waiting at the main entrance.
They got in the car.
The vehicle slowly pulled away from the hotel.
It was a nearly three-hour drive on the highway to get back to the city.
After waking up so early and climbing a mountain, Melissa fell asleep not long after they got in the car.
Once Melissa was asleep, Tristan Sterling took the memory card out of the camera and inserted it into a laptop.
Rachel Royce quietly watched the snowy scenery flash past her window.
She then received a call from Florence Preston.
"Rachel, are you heading home today?"
Rachel Royce replied, "Mhm, we’re on our way back now. Is Bobby feeling any better?"
"His fever broke today, so don’t worry."
"That’s good. Next time Dad takes Bobby fishing again, you should make him kneel on a durian."
The other day, while Florence Preston was out getting a facial, Johnson Royce had the nanny bring their son along to go fishing, and Bobby had caught a cold by the river.
"Don’t even get me started," Florence Preston said. "I know exactly what he’s like. He just wanted to take Bobby out to show him off."
Having a son so late in life, Johnson Royce doted on him like a precious treasure and had bragged about him to his fishing buddies on more than one occasion.
Rachel Royce couldn’t help but chuckle. "Well, who can blame him, Mom? You’re the one who gave him such an adorable son."
For a moment, she couldn’t help but think of the brother she’d been separated from for twenty years. She had only faint, blurry memories of him. After their mother had left with him, her father would often stare at her brother’s photograph and weep silently.
His only son.
’I guess now that Florence Preston has given him another son, it makes up for Father’s regret,’ she thought.
Rachel Royce chatted with Florence Preston a little while longer, then hung up. Setting her phone down, she couldn’t help but let out a soft sigh.
Watching her, Tristan Sterling suddenly said, "I remember you have an older brother."
Back when his grandmother, Mrs. Sterling, had arranged his marriage to Rachel Royce, she had naturally investigated Rachel’s family situation thoroughly.
At the time, Madam Sterling had only mentioned to him that her parents were divorced, that she had an older brother who was taken away by their mother, and that Rachel had stayed with her father.
He hadn’t paid any attention to her circumstances back then.
He just never imagined that Rachel Royce’s brother was Alexander Sullivan.
Rachel Royce snapped back to the present and looked at Tristan Sterling, wondering why he would suddenly bring this up.
"You have Peter Preston now. Do you still miss your biological brother?" the man continued.
Rachel Royce’s elegant brows knitted together. "Why the sudden question?"
Tristan Sterling paused for a moment, then lowered his gaze and averted his eyes. "It’s nothing," he said lightly. "Just making conversation."
Rachel Royce found him baffling but didn’t dwell on it.
’As for whether she missed her brother, she used to. She would remember their once-happy family of four and sometimes lie in bed and cry at the thought.’
’But so many years had passed. She now had Peter Preston, a mother who truly cared for her, and an adorable younger brother. Surrounded by the warmth of a happy family, even the deepest feelings of longing would gradually fade.’
’It was just that hearing him mentioned now...’
’She wondered how he and their mother were doing. Her brother had likely married and started a career by now. She didn’t know if they would ever have the chance to meet again.’
’And even if they did meet...’
’they would likely be nothing more than strangers to each other.’
’So, it was best to leave all those childhood memories in the past. There was no need to disturb each other’s lives now.’
Tristan Sterling noted the shifting emotions in the woman’s eyes.
After a long moment, he spoke.
"Unblock me on WeChat. I’ll send you the photos."
Rachel Royce looked at him again before picking up her phone and removing Tristan Sterling from her block list.
Tristan Sterling sent her the pictures. They were just the photos of the sunrise, and the ones of her and Melissa.
"Do you want the group photo?" Tristan Sterling asked.
"No, that’s not necessary," Rachel Royce said.
Tristan Sterling said nothing more.
Rachel Royce saved the photos he had sent, one by one.
She saw that he was using a picture of Melissa as his profile avatar. After a moment’s thought, she decided not to block him again. ’It’s pointless,’ she figured. ’There’s no meaning to it.’
She then casually scrolled through her WeChat Moments.
And that’s when she saw it—a post from Tristan Sterling. Rachel Royce froze. Taking a closer look, she saw the man had posted a nine-photo grid.
The photo in the center was of the three little snowmen.
Most of the pictures were of Melissa and the landscape, but one of them was a photo of the three of them together.
Posting on Moments was an act she could never have associated with someone like Tristan Sterling.
She looked over at the man. "Why did you make a Moments post?"
Tristan Sterling looked unconcerned. "Is there a problem?"
"Post pictures of you and Melissa, fine. But why post mine?"
Hearing the tension in her voice, the man retorted with nonchalance, "Is there something about it that can’t be seen?"
Rachel Royce was speechless. ’What’s so shameful about me?’
’As expected. The moment Melissa’s not in the picture, this man’s nasty true nature comes out.’
’By posting this on his Moments, isn’t he afraid Claire Ainsworth will see it?’
’Besides the Fitzwilliam Family, no one knows the truth about Melissa’s birth. By posting this, even though I’m bundled up and not clearly visible in the picture, it seems like he’s intentionally hinting at the identity of the woman in the photo.’
"I can play my part for Melissa’s sake, but what’s the point of you posting a photo like that?"
Tristan Sterling looked at her. "If it’s pointless, then what are you afraid of? Or... is there something you still care about deep down?"
Rachel Royce frowned, annoyed. "What else is there for me to care about besides Melissa?"
Tristan Sterling’s tone was even. "Since you care so much about Melissa, then I hope you will always put her first."
Rachel Royce glared at him. "But I also don’t want to get into any unnecessary entanglements with you because of her."
Tristan Sterling merely looked at her, let out a faint, cool laugh, and looked away without another word.
Rachel Royce stared at the Moments post; the man clearly had no intention of deleting it.
She saw a like and a comment from Jason Sinclair: "Whoa, has hell frozen over? You actually posted something. Something’s definitely up!"