Rising From Betrayal Reborn As The Family Outcast (Alicia Delaney) novel Chapter 75

Chapter 75

Jason’s questions left Leo and the others feeling embarrassed.

After watching the video, they realized just how much resentment Nicole had toward them.

After a long moment.

Leo pressed a hand to his chest, feeling like something had suddenly gone missing.

His voice was hoarse as he said, “I heard Nicole crying about being bullied at school because she didn’t have a dad, so I went to her parent-teacher conference.”

After that first time, Nicole was over the moon, telling him how he finally had a dad.

After the parent-teacher conference, the teachers and classmates started being a lot nicer to her.

And after that, it just kept happening-second time, third time, and so on.

He couldn’t help but remember the time Alicia asked him to go to her parent-teacher conference.

But he turned her down, because he’d promised Nicole he’d always be the one to go to her conferences from then on.

Turns out, Alicia had been holding onto that hurt all this time.

Back then, he figured Alicia was doing great in school and got along well with her teachers and classmates, so he thought it wouldn’t really matter if he skipped it.

It was just a parent-teacher conference-anyone could go, it’s all the same, isn’t it?

But for Nicole, his presence could actually make things better for her at school, so obviously that was more important.

When he went for Nicole, Mavis offered to go for Alicia instead, but Alicia flat-out refused.

“And when I bought that piano at an overseas auction and gave it to Nicole, I just thought Alicia always had everything she needed growing up,” he added.

He let out a sigh. “Turns out, to her, that just looked like I was playing favorites.”

And now that he realized she thought he’d hurt her the most, it hit him hard.

Kevin’s three sons didn’t know what to say either.

Honestly, all of them were feeling pretty guilty and uncomfortable right now.

They’d always thought they’d treated Alicia well.

But when she was feeling wronged, they hadn’t really stepped up for her.

Leo turned to his three sons. “Jason said Haley did something shady to Ally behind her back. What’s going on there?”

He knew Haley-she was his late wife’s old friend from school, and he’d done her a favor before.

After his wife passed away, Haley reached out to him for help, and he helped her out again.

Kevin said, “Haley basically used Ally as a stepping stone, letting the other girls in the group leech off her popularity

“A lot of the hate and backlash Ally got online was because of Haley.”

Leo’s expression turned grim. “How could she do that to Ally?

“After everything Ally’s mom did for her, she just turned around and stabbed her in the back.”

He looked at his sons, clearly upset. “Why didn’t any of you stand up for Ally when you knew what was going on?”

Kevin said, “I just found out about this not long ago.

“Haley’s the manager at Starlight Entertainment. When I realized she’d screwed Ally over, I went straight to Nicolas.

“He told me he’d take care of it, so I stayed out of it after that.”

Leo frowned. “You guys were really clueless about this.

“No matter what Nicolas does, Haley absolutely can’t be let off the hook.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Your mom pulled her out of the gutter, and if she doesn’t appreciate it, then she can go right back to where she came from.”

Kevin nodded. “Got it.”

Even if his dad hadn’t said a word, he’d already made up his mind to go after Haley himself.

Leo asked again, “So what’s the deal with Nicole and Nicolas? Did she really have feelings for him all these years?”

Kevin replied, “We really didn’t know about that.”

They only realized Nicole had been into Nicolas for years after watching the video.

Leo ordered, “Look into it and tell me what’s really going on.

“What’s Nicolas’s deal, anyway? Who does he actually want to marry?”

Kevin said, “Alright, I’ll go talk to Nicolas.”

He thought for a moment, then asked, “Should we check out the stuff Jason mentioned too?”

Leo let out a sigh. “I just can’t believe Nicole would ever do anything against Ally.

“Hasn’t she always wanted to be true sisters with her?

“Every time she sees Ally, she always seems eager to get close to her.

“And Mavis cares about Ally a lot too-whenever she goes out, she always picks out a gift for her first.”

Kevin and his brothers all felt the same way.

Maxwell just gave a sheepish smile and didn’t say anything.

Seeing how Nicolas and Maxwell were acting, Nicole felt even more uneasy-‘Why are they both so weird around me all of a sudden?’ she wondered.

Just then, she overheard a few people talking behind her.

“So she’s done with the whole secret crush thing and just going public now?”

“Alicia turned down Nicolas, so now that little miss innocent thinks it’s her big chance and is jumping right in.”

“Tsk tsk, taking over Alicia’s family wasn’t enough-now she’s trying to steal her childhood sweetheart’s engagement too.

Never realized she was this ambitious.”

“She sure knows how to play the part, otherwise how else would he end up with the world’s best dad?”

“And don’t forget, she’s got a whole bunch of doting brothers too

“No wonder Alicia cut ties. If it were us, we’d be totally grossed out too.”

“Having a family and a guy with that kind of baggage? Yeah, that just nasty.”

“She just dropped them like it was nothing. Gotta hand it to Alicia for that.”

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If it were them, ditching the whole heiress life and a guy like Nicolas would be way too hard-they could never just walk away like that.

None of them could do it themselves, so they had to respect Alicia for having the guts to go through with it.

“Hey, did you guys see that profile pic from little miss innocent? Total cringe, right?”

“Seriously, I was floored. It looks so tacky and try-hard.”

“She put a heart around Nicolas’s name? My first reaction was, ‘Major cringe alert-who even does that anymore?”

“Does it matter if we’re cringing? If her crush is into it, that’s all she cares about.”

“What a trashy couple.”

“Alicia really got played. She used to have his back all the time, and now he’s messing around with the step-sister she can’t stand.”

“No wonder she cut them off. Toss the trash early and save yourself the headache-good for her.”

These girls were pretty tight with Alicia, and honestly, they couldn’t stand the way Nicole acted.

So when they saw Nicole and Nicolas together, they just had to spark about it.

They were talking extra loud on purpose, making sure Nicole, Nicolas, and Maxwell could hear every single word.