The Rejected Principessa Returns novel Chapter 90

Chapter 6

My father, mother, and James spoke almost in unison, their combined shock making the crystal chandelier in the hallway tremble slightly.

My father took a fierce step forward, his voice demanding.

“Who did she marry?!”

“It… it was that disabled veteran she drew in the lottery at the banquet…” the housekeeper stammered.

“He brought a whole motorcade, had the military band play from the National Mall all the way to the historic district… Now everyone in our circles is talking about it…”

My mother’s eyes rolled back, and she slumped backward, caught just in time by James.

Leaning against her son, her voice choked with tears, she cried, “That foolish child! How could she be so

reckless!”

Isabella, while gently patting my mother’s back, sighed.

“Even if Sister was throwing a tantrum, she shouldn’t have done something so shameful to the family. And now she’s made Mom so upset…”

As she turned, James happened to catch the hint of a smug smile she hadn’t quite managed to hide.

He stared, his voice suddenly turning cold and sharp in a way it never had before.

“Bella, Dad is already furious. Don’t pour fuel on the fire.”

Isabella started, unable to believe her always-doting brother would speak to her like that.

James turned, his gaze boring into her. The seed of suspicion, once planted, now coiled and expanded in his

mind, twisting into a chilling certainty. “Bella, tell me the truth,” his voice was low. “That time you said

Eleanor pushed you into the pool at the military gala… was it true?”

Her face instantly went pale. She opened her mouth to explain, but James cut her off coldly.

“Think carefully before you answer. If I find out you lied…”

Isabella’s hands, hidden behind her back, trembled slightly. When she spoke again, her voice was tearful.

“I… I slipped and fell into the pool myself… I was just so embarrassed, afraid you’d all blame me for

disgracing the family…”

James stared at her in disbelief.

“So you framed Eleanor? You said she pushed you?!”

“And you made me stand up for you, making her the laughingstock of the entire city at her debutante ball!”

Chapter 6

69.23%

His face was livid.

My mother also looked at Isabella in shock, her tone unable to hide her disappointment. “Bella, how could you do that?”

Isabella, frightened, hid behind my father.

James was about to press further when my father sternly cut him off.

“That’s enough! She’s young, it was a childish mistake! Why are you making such a big deal out of it?”

James was stunned.

i

He opened his mouth, but seeing the blatant favoritism on my father’s face, the words stuck in his throat, unable to come out.

The noon sun streamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows, illuminating the living room brightly, but James felt chilled to the bone.

And this was just the truth he had forced out of her.

What about all the other grievances they had never noticed?

He suddenly remembered how, in the past, Eleanor would also plead with red-rimmed eyes,

“It wasn’t me! She fell on her own!”

“I didn’t take it!”

“I didn’t… I really didn’t.”

But not a single one of them had been willing to truly listen.

Their prejudice had convicted her long ago.

A burning heat rushed to his eyes.

James looked down at his own hands and suddenly realized with a jolt that his seemingly “neutral” silence over the years was no different from his father’s outright favoritism.

He said nothing more, turning silently and walking toward his second-floor bedroom.

Chapter 6

69.23%