Chapter 282
Clutching the panda plushie that seemed to inflate upon liberation from its vacuum seal, Leo’s eyes simmered with a brooding gaze at Mirabella.
Mirabella cleared her throat with a hint of awkwardness. “The panda is a treasure, you know, sort of mascot. And all your fans call you their lucky charm, Leo. I think it’s fitting.”
“It’s not the same!”
Leo felt his image as the cool older sibling was shattered entirely. He even suspected that his sister had started treating him like a younger brother. No, scratch that, not even a brother, considering the fluffy toy Mirabella gifted him was the kind only little girls adored.
Zach, observing Leo’s look of utter despair, couldn’t help but feel a sense of completion. Indeed, his sister’s knack for knocking people down a peg seemed even more brutal than his own.
As Mirabella parted her lips to speak, Shawn interjected. “If you don’t want it, can I have it? I’ve been looking for a cute little thing to put on my bedside table,” said Shawn, shooting a glance at his youngest son.
Upon hearing this. Leo, albeit begrudgingly and under intimidating paternal pressure, mumbled a response. “Who said I didn’t want it?”
Leo was at a loss for words. His status in this household seemed to be plummeting by the second.
Delilah, setting her perfume to the side, chimed in, “By the way, darling, did you get any trophies?”
Mirabella nodded, “Yes.” With that, she made her way to her suitcase, flipped it open, and pulled out a trophy, a certificate of achievement, and a letter of unconditional acceptance from Prestige College.
The trophy and the certificate were symbols of honor, but it was that letter from Prestige College that truly carried weight.
As Delilah looked at the early acceptance letter from Prestige College, her mind inexplic
wandered back to the time when her daughter first returned home holding her acceptance letter from Parkside High School. She remembered the doubt she had felt back then.
Now, without even having sat her final exams, her daughter had secured a spot at Prestige College. Mulling over this, Delilah’s cheeks burned with a mix of pride and embarrassment. Her daughter seemed to be constantly redefining her expectations.
“I’ve got to snap a photo and show off our family genius on social media!” Shawn whipped out his smartphone, arranged the trophy, the certificate, and the acceptance letter, and snapped photos from various angles. He crafted a collage and posted it to his social media.
Mirabella, with a weary smile, let him be. She yawned, her face etched with fatigue. “Mom, Dad, Zach, Leo, I’m heading to bed. I’ve got school early in the morning.”
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Chapter 282
“Alright, honey.”
As soon as Shawn posted the collage online, his social network was flooded with likes and adoring comments
Summer, meanwhile, was stewing as she scrolled through her Messenger and spotted the images of the trophy, the certificate, and the acceptance letter to Prestige College. She clenched her phone so tightly that it nearly snapped.
Again, Mirabella. Always Mirabella. Her name had practically taken over Summer’s phone for the day. Social media and class group chats were all about Mirabella’s national competition victory as if that first place had elevated her to some kind of deity in everyone’s eyes.
Watching everyone fawn over her, Summer felt a wave of nausea. These people seemed to have completely forgotten how they used to badmouth Mirabella. The sycophancy was nauseating.
Tossing her phone aside, Summer lay in bed, restless and agitated. She couldn’t fathom how someone so unremarkable in a previous life could suddenly transform into an utterly different
person.
