"Why didn’t you let him in?" Louisa asked, her brows knitting in confusion.
"Did you and your brother have a chance to et before Martha kidnapped you?" Darren pressed, eager for answers.
"Was there any kind of unpleasantness?" Belinda added, her gaze fixed on Rosemary.
A carousel of mories spun in Rosemary’s mind, including the first ti she t Sean, the ti a woman threw herself at him, and Sean not exactly turning her away.
Seeing that the crowd was intent on hearing the reason, Rosemary picked the least significant one to share.
"Well. I had my eye on this island that just so happened to be under Sean’s na. I bought it from him for a low price, and seeing him today, I thought he might have co after over the island deal."
"Sean actually charged you money?" Louisa was astonished.
"He didn’t know I was his sister at the ti." Rosemary explained.
"So how much did he take from you? I will make him give it back later."
"After he found out I was his sister, he gave it back, and even gave an extra five million dollars to buy candy."
Everyone was taken aback. When had Sean beco so indulgent? So generous?
They rembered how Serena never dared ask him for anything because he was always so intimidating that Serena wouldn’t even dare to approach him.
Yet now, he was willing to give Rose five million dollars just for candy.
"Sean’s still hurt, I’ll get him so painkillers." Rosemary went to her room and returned with a few pills,dropping them into a glass of warm water. As Sean ca downstairs, she handed him the glass to drink.
Seeing his sister caring for him, Sean was touched and surprised. "You didn’t have to do this for ."
He tilted his head back and gulped down the water, despite the odd taste. It didn’t matter—anything given by his sister, even if it were poison, he would drink without hesitation.
"Sean, where did you and Rose run into each other? What happened?" Belinda was the first to ask.
Images of Sean being intimate with a woman flashed through his mind, and he was too embarrassed to recount them.
His sister must have gotten the wrong idea!
Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been so cold at the door, accusing him of being a ladies’ man.
That woman had been an assassin sent to kill him, not a plaything.
In matters of the heart, he was still a blank slate.
"And why haven’t you co ho in over six months? Steward said you were injured; when did that happen? What caused it?"
"Why didn’t we see you before you got hurt?"
"Did you ever call your sister?"
As the questions continued to fly at Sean, Rosemary stepped in, "Sean and I were both investigating the fire from years ago, and we stumbled upon each other by accident."
Suddenly, everyone seed to have a clearer picture of the situation.
"I had people look into that clinic fire back in the day, and they couldn’t find anything." Belinda was surprised that her children had managed to uncover so much, even exposing Martha and Erik’s identities.
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, indeed.
"And you ca ho without a gift for your sister?" Louisa was a bit upset, seeing him empty-handed.
She had reminded him ti and again to bring a gift for his sister.
"I did." Sean imdiately glanced at Steward.
"I’ll get it." Steward, who had just sneezed, was about to fetch the gift when Rosemary handed him a small dicine bottle, "There are two more pills in there, for the cold."
Steward looked at the unlabelled bottle and, though skeptical, accepted it with gratitude, "Thank you, Ms. Rose." The trust in Rosemary’s dical expertise was evident in his voice.
Ms. Collins gracefully let bygones be bygones, and Steward could hardly contain his happiness.
Soon enough, Steward brought over a gift box that looked even larger than a cake box, adding, "This is sothing Sean had specially delivered just now."
It was the fruit of their brainstorming, conceived while they were out in the cold, struggling to co up with the perfect surprise!
Sean approached his sister, presenting the box, "For you."
Rosemary, unaccustod to Sean’s newfound politeness and gentleness, reached out to accept the gift and said, "Thanks, Sean."
Hearing his sister repeatedly call him by his first na, Sean suddenly understood why his brothers always rushed ho at every opportunity to spend ti with her. Her voice had a way of touching one’s
soul.
Who wouldn’t want to be ho every day if they had a sister like her? Compared to the agile, cool-faced girl she once was, his sister was now the picture of obedience.
"Rose, go on, open it and see what Sean got you!"
The others were getting curious.
"Such a big box, surely it’s not jewelry or anything of that sort?"
"Sean, with your love for betting on stones, you didn’t give her a rock, did you?"
"No way, a stone would be too heavy for Rose to even lift!"
Steward, overhearing this, forced a helpless smile. Mr. and Mrs. Collins probably had no idea how strong their daughter could kick; despite her slender fra, she could probably lift a 200-pound barbell if she wanted to.
With everyone’s eyes on her, Rosemary untied the ribbon and lifted the lid of the gift box to reveal a pair of boxing gloves???
The room filled with confused faces. Sean’s smile was both wicked and charming, "The best boxing gloves in the world. Once you’re ever upset, you can take it out on ."
Everyone was rendered speechless.
Louisa almost choked on her breath, nearly passing out from exasperation.
"Or two tis," Sean added, imdiately drawing a round of playful jeering from the crowd.
"What on earth is this gift? Your sister is so delicate; why would you give her this?"
"She doesn’t look like soone who would hit her brother, now does she?"
"I was expecting at least a dress or a pair of shoes, but you, you’re going to be the death of !"
"All those car keys, house deeds, and you give her this."
"Can’t you think of sothing a girl would actually like?" Belinda chid in, unable to hold back,
"Perfu, jewelry, clothes, shoes, bags, anything but this."
"Boy, Sean, at this rate, you’re not only going to be her least favorite brother, but you’ll also never find a girlfriend," Darren felt a headache coming on just thinking about it.
"I really like it; thank you, Sean," Rosemary accepted the gift with grace and confidence.
Sean, who was starting to feel a bit of regret from the crowd’s reaction, suddenly felt redeed by his sister’s approval, "Really?"
"Yeah." Rosemary offered a smile, "But I won’t use them to hit you."
Upon hearing this, Sean joked, "Well, if you find them uncomfortable, feel free to just use your fists."
"Would you just shut it?" Louisa was dying to make him go back and buy a different gift, "Do you think your sister is like you, living a life full of fighting and killing?"
"This is just a hocoming gift; there’s still the New Year’s gift, right?" Kenneth quickly intervened,while shooting Sean a look that clearly said, "The New Year’s gift is sothing different, isn’t it?"
"Yeah, yeah, Sean’s got a New Year’s gift as well. Sothing he spent ages choosing, definitely not like this one," Steward hurriedly tried to smooth things over.
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