Chapter 233 The same affection
“I’m only standing up for my brother and calling you out, you slut!”
Alana was speechless once again.
“Camila, if you want to fight, just say the word. I’ll go outside with you and we’d settle this one-on-one.”
She’d only slapped Camila once before, she still hadn’t had her fill.
Now that she was cursing right in front of her again, her hands were itching to strike.
Camila had a fiery temper and had been waiting for Alana to say exactly that. “Hah, if you want to fight, go ahead. Come on! I haven’t settled the score with you yet for that slap you gave me last time!”
“If it weren’t for your boyfriend backing you up last time, do you think I would have let you off so easily?”
She’d always been the one bullying Alana. After Alana slapped her last time, the more she thought about it after returning home, the angrier and more resentful she felt.
She’d actually been slapped in the face by a woman she used to bully?!
Back then, when she bullied Alana, Alana would be so terrified that she would go out of her way to avoid her.
Now Alana actually had the nerve to slap her in the face...how could she, who had
always been on top, possibly tolerate that?
So after she returned home, she couldn’t stop thinking about getting her revenge!
Alana remained expressionless. “Fine. Let’s go find a quiet place.”
Camila sneered, ready to show off her skills. “Fine!”
Just as the two were about to leave the hospital room.
Cole, lying in bed, suddenly began to cough.
Camila immediately turned her head and rushed over. “Brother!”
Alana turned around and saw that Camila had already thrown herself onto Cole.
“Brother, how are you feeling? Are you feeling any better?”
Cole coughed painfully for a while, then opened his eyes and replied weakly to Camila, “I’m fine,”
At least he wasn’t dead.
As soon as the words left his mouth, he spotted Alana standing in the hospital room. A flash of light immediately crossed his eyes, filled with surprise and delight.
“Lana, what are you doing here?”
Alana walked back over and stood by the bed. “Camila told me you were in a car accident, so I came to check on you.”
Cole felt a sense of relief. “So, you were worried about me after all.”
Deep down, she wasn’t entirely without feelings for him.
Alana thought to herself that he had helped her a great deal back then and had
resolved many of her troubles for her.
She wasn’t a heartless person; hearing he’d been in a car accident, she couldn’t possibly remain indifferent.
Besides, the cause of his accident might be related to what happened last night, so she felt it was necessary to come and see for herself to understand the situation.
Camila saw that Cole’s heart and eyes were fixed only on Alana, not on her, her heart instantly churned with jealousy.
It was always like this, whenever Alana was around, her brother completely ignore
her.
“Brother, can’t you stop thinking about that woman?”
“Don’t forget how you got into that accident...she might have done it on purpose!”
Cole frowned. “It has nothing to do with her. It was my own carelessness.”
Camila retorted, “What do you mean ‘carelessness’? You got into that accident last night because you went to see her. I don’t believe it has nothing to do with her!”
Thinking of last night’s events, Cole’s eyes darkened instantly.
Alana watched Cole’s expression, feeling a bit uneasy.
She bit her lip and asked, “Last night, what did you talk about with my boyfriend?”
Cole raised his eyes, his expression tinged with sorrow. “Didn’t he tell you?”
“He mentioned a little.”
But she still wasn’t entirely clear on the details.
Instead of answering, Cole asked, “Lana, how did you end up with him in the first place?”
Alana choked on her words.
How did she end up with him?
That was a bit hard to explain.
And she certainly couldn’t go into the specifics.
“After we broke up, it just happened naturally.”
Upon hearing this, Cole’s eyes brimmed with an indescribable sorrow.
“After we broke up? You met him, but do you really know him? If you knew his true identity and still chose to be with him, what about me?”
“You said the gap between our social statuses was too great and we weren’t a good match, but why should it be okay with him? The gap you have with me can’t even be compared to his. Why did you choose him and not me?”
Alana furrowed her brow. She had guessed there was a significant gap in status between her and Stephan, but she didn’t know just how vast it was.
Regardless, she didn’t want a third person meddling in their affairs.
This was a matter between her and Stephan; it was something they should resolve behind closed doors, just the two of them.
So she said, “He’s not like you.”
Cole retorted, “How is he different?”
Alana thought for a moment, then said earnestly, “It feels different. He gives me a sense of stability and reliability. But you’re like a gust of wind...elusive and ephemeral, always out of reach.”
Cole’s was always away, barely made time for her and the few times he did, he always maintained the image of a gentle, refined, and caring older brother.
But behind her back, he sided with his sister, belittling her status with his friends.
He was like the opposite of Stephan character-wise.
That was why she could never believe his feelings were genuine.
Cole couldn’t help but say, “Lana, I can give you that sense of security too! If you’re willing, I’ll marry you and make you my wife!”
Alana found it amusing. “When you say you’ll marry me, that just doesn’t make any sense. Will your sister agree? Will your parents agree? Marriage isn’t just about two people; it involves two families too and someone like you will never stand up for me against your family. Instead, you’d just allow them treat me like trash.”
Camila seized the opportunity to say, “Lana, at least you have some self-awareness, you know there’s no way my parents and I would agree! With your lowly status, you’re only fit for some lowly trash...don’t even think about climbing the social ladder by hooking up with my brother!”
Cole’s quest to win back her heart was already a long and arduous journey, and now his sister, a complete liability, was standing in his way, making him even more exasperated.
“Camila, shut your mouth!”
Camila snorted coldly and said bluntly, “Brother, I’ve already told Mom and Dad about you and Alana. They don’t approve! She is just an orphan abandoned by her parents...a total nobody. With a background like that, she isn’t even fit to tie our family’s servants’ shoes. How could she possibly be worthy of you, let alone become your wife?!”
“As children of a wealthy and prestigious family, we’re expected to marry someone of equal standing, not some woman with no status or background! In a little while, Mom and Dad will arrange another matchmaking for you, all well-educated, refined young ladies from distinguished families. They’re in a completely different league from a lowly woman like Alana.”
She kept calling her a “lowly woman,” as if she wanted to degrade Alana to the very core of her being.
Alana frowned; no one likes being belittled like that.
But it seemed that those from wealthy families were simply meant to be superior.
And to them, ordinary people were nothing.
Alana didn’t argue with them, their worldviews were simply too different.
Any further explanation would be futile.
Cole said, “I’m not going on a blind date. I only want Lana! So what if she has no parents and no one wants her? I want her, and that’s all that matters. I don’t care if you oppose it, or if Mom and Dad oppose it!As long as she’s willing, I’m willing to be her family, her only family!”
Upon hearing this, Alana clenched her fists slightly.
If she had heard those very words a while ago at his birthday party, she would have been so happy.
What she had needed from him was to be chosen so resolutely by someone.
No matter how much others opposed it, as long as he was willing to have her.
Then she would have the courage to stand by him against anything.
But as it happened, it was only today that she heard Cole’s words of unwavering commitment to her.
And now, she no longer felt the same affection for him as she once did.