Reject My Alpha President (Iris and Arthur) novel Chapter 157

Chapter 157

Now it’s my turn to stare. “You were at Ordan

n Central? During those years?”

+20 Bonus

We both fall silent, studying each other’s faces with new awareness. There’s something vaguely familiar about Alice’s features

now that I’m looking for it–the shape of her eyes, maybe, or the way she tilts her head when she’s thinking.

“There was a girl,” Alice says slowly. “Who used to draw pictures for everyone. She made one for me before I was adopted. A butterfly, I think?”

A memory stirs then–a small, tearful girl clutching a battered stuffed rabbit, preparing to leave the orphanage with her new family. Me, pressing a crayon drawing into her hands. “It’s yours to keep,” I’d told her. “So you won’t forget us.”

“Your rabbit,” I whisper. “You had a stuffed rabbit named… Hoppy?”

“Floppy,” Alice corrects. “Holy shit, it was you!”

Without warning, she throws her arms around me, hugging me tightly. I hug her back, astonished by this unexpected connection.

Miles watches us curiously.

“I can’t believe it,” Alice says, pulling back to look at me. “Iris from the orphanage. I remember you now! You were always so nice

to me when the older kids were mean.

“And you were the lad who could do a perfect cartwheel,” I recall with a laugh. “You tried to teach me, but I was terrible at it.”

It’s strange but wonderful, connecting this piece of my past with my present. Alice, my new friend, was once little Alice from the

orphanage. The coincidence seems almost too perfect to be real.

“We have so much to catch up on,” Alice says, glancing at her watch. “Do you have time for coffee? There’s a cafe just down the

street.”

“I’d love that,” I reply, genuinely excited at the prospect. “Miles, would you like some hot chocolate?”

He nods enthusiastically, and the three of us exit the testing center together.

As we step onto the sidewalk, Alice links her arm through mine. “So, tell me everything. What happened after I left? Did you stay in touch with anyone else from the orphanage?”

“Not really,” I admit. “Once we all aged out, everyone scattered. Life happened.”

“And look at us now,” Alice says with a smile. “Both successful, both getting DNA tests on the off chance we’re secretly werewolf royalty”

“Maybe, but isn’t it fun to Imagine?” She nudges me with her elbow. “Picture it: one of us turns out to be the long–lost Willford heir, moves into a mansion, then runs away somewhere tropical with the fortune and never looks back…”