The thought made his chest tighten painfully.
Even in his anger, he couldn’t bear to completely tear that relationship apart.
So for a mont, he convinced himself that this must have been one of the few mistakes that Cassandra have done.
Now though he was worried that she might have lend more to Lana...
But then another thought surfaced.
’She never asked for that much money.’
That realization made him discard the idea almost instantly.
So where did Lana get such an enormous sum?
His thoughts drifted unwillingly to Lana’s strange connections.
In his previous life, she had stayed in the mansion for at least two or three years before leaving.
In this life, she had exited far too early. The trajectory was completely different.
Then there was that man.
The one who had protected Lana in his previous life.
Garrison’s eyes darkened as the mory resurfaced. ’Did she et him again?’ he wondered. ’Did she et him too early?’
If that was the case, then there was only one terrifying explanation.
’Lana might have been reborn too.’
Otherwise, there was no reason for her to deviate so drastically from her original path. No reason for everything to change so much, so quickly.
And that realization made Garrison’s blood run cold.
Once that thought fully took shape in his mind, unease crept in almost imdiately.
Garrison’s brows knitted together as a faint sense of danger tightened around his chest.
’If Lana has really chosen to seize this opportunity,’ he thought grimly, ’then there’s a high chance she’ll destroy my other plans as well.’
If she rembered the trends from her previous life, the economic shifts, the turning points, then she would rember far more than just Hedge City.
The realization made his fingers curl unconsciously against the desk.
His thoughts drifted toward his other arrangents, and the more he considered them, the deeper his frown beca.
’I should reevaluate everything,’ he decided, just as a sharp knock echoed through the study.
The sound snapped him out of his thoughts.
He looked up toward the door and saw Brenda standing there. Her expression was calm, almost unnervingly so.
That calmness stirred an unexpected pang of guilt in his chest.
Just a few days ago, Brenda had confronted the entire family with a question none of them had been prepared to answer.
It was on that very day that the Almond family realized just how perceptive she had beco while they were busy looking elsewhere.
Her words back then still echoed clearly in his mind.
"Why should I, as the real daughter, be the one making it up to all of you?" she had asked.
"Shouldn’t you be the ones making it up to ? Why does it always feel like I’m the one craving your attention, like I’m the one begging to be noticed?"
No one had been able to respond. Mr. and Mrs. Almond had fallen silent, and so had the three brothers.
Now, Brenda stood at the door, and Garrison was certain she had co for sothing.
Sure enough, she walked in and extended her hand toward him without hesitation.
"Give your black card."
The bluntness of her request stunned him. Garrison stared at her, his expression turning complicated.
"I can’t give you my black card."
Brenda laughed softly, as if she had just heard a ridiculous joke.
"Why not? If I rember correctly, Lana used to have a black card in this house."
Garrison frowned. "Who told you that? That’s a lie."
Brenda raised a brow, clearly unconvinced. Garrison continued, his tone firm,
"Lana was never favored in this family. Father and mother always forbade her from having a black card. To say she ever had one is completely false."
Brenda smiled faintly, a strange bitterness flickering in her eyes.
"What the heck..." she murmured. "I always thought Lana was extrely pampered here. Looks like she wasn’t living the perfect life she showed to others after all."
Garrison continued, as if justifying himself,
"Even though Lana did have a few million dollars to her na, that money was earned by her own efforts. She joined competitions occasionally and made rare appearances on television shows."
Brenda paused, surprise flashing across her face. "Lana did TV shows?"
Garrison thought for a mont before replying,
"She did. At that ti, she wanted to buy a gift for Ashton but didn’t have enough money. So she participated in one of those shows to earn it."
His voice lowered slightly as he continued,
"Even after part of the money went to the family, she still kept a considerable amount. Later, she used it to buy gifts for all three brothers."
As he spoke, an image of the cute dolls Lana had once bought surfaced in his mind, and an unexpected pang tugged at his heart.
’If only she had been related to us by blood,’ he thought briefly, ’maybe things wouldn’t have turned out this way.’
But those thoughts vanished just as quickly.
Everything was different now. Since they were no longer related, it was better for everyone to walk separate paths.
More importantly, the mories he had regained clearly showed that Lana was nothing but a viper, soone who would eventually bite them even if they never provoked her.
Because of that, Garrison never once believed that he had wronged Lana in any way.
Brenda, however, stared at him in disbelief, frustration tightening her expression. ’Shouldn’t brothers do sothing for their sister?’ she thought angrily.
’Shouldn’t they have stopped her from joining TV competitions just to earn money to buy them gifts?’
For the first ti, a strange doubt crept into her heart. ’Is the Almond family... really that poor?’
Garrison frowned slightly and spoke in a asured tone,
"Lana was spoiled and needed to be taught a lesson. However that’s all about past, I will help you. Things are different now."
The implication behind his words stung sharply. Brenda’s chest tightened, and offense flared almost instantly.
"Different?" she challenged. "Just because you all thought Lana would turn out spoiled?"
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