The Unveiling of Secret Queen

There was a hint of reluctance in his eyes, but he forced the card into Nathalie Quinlan's hand and made her take it. Looking at her fair face, he asked in a soft voice, "Have you collected all your belongings? You can wear the necklace I bought you for your 10th birthday. It was a gift from me, so it's yours! It's fine to wear it."

Cindy Lawrence immediately frowned upon hearing this, disdainfully glancing at Nathalie standing there. However, because of her status, she ultimately didn't feel it was appropriate to make a fuss over a necklace worth three thousand yuan.

Ghania Quinlan stood obediently at her side, gently echoing Jeff Quinlan's words, "That's right, sister, Dad gave it to you, so you should wear it. Maybe… you'll need it later…"

She didn't finish her sentence, but Nathalie could hear the implied meaning behind her words. Lifting her eyelids, she looked at her coldly and defiantly!

Ghania returned her glance with a proud smile, that superior, patronizing expression identical to that of all the Quinlan family members present.

Nathalie lifted her single shoulder bag, returned the card to Jeff Quinlan, and said indifferently, "That necklace is in the drawer in my room. If you're not at ease, you can go look for it. I haven't taken anything from the Quinlan family except for the laptop that I bought myself."

Her words made it hard for the Quinlans present to save face.

Especially Cindy Lawrence and the previously self-important Mrs. Quinlan, who both turned a different color in response.

This Nathalie Quinlan never knew how to be tactful and was always putting people in an awkward position.

Ghania glanced at the backpack on Nathalie's back, her eyes flickered dismissively, and she casually said, "Sister, Mom, Dad, and Grandma didn't mean that. You're too sensitive. We've lived together for over a decade; even if you've found your biological parents, you're still my sister. We all want you to do well. If you don't want the necklace, at least take the ten thousand yuan Dad gave you. Hillwood County and McKinney are different; you'll have many more expenses."

Jeff Quinlan came to his senses, his face looking unpleasant as he forced himself to say, "Yeah, take the money."

"I don't need it." She had some money.

Nathalie didn't take his card, nor did she plan to have any further relationship with the Quinlan family. Just then her phone rang, and she placed the bank card Jeff Quinlan had forced back on her onto the table, glanced at the caller ID, and said to the Quinlans, "My family has arrived; I'll be leaving first."

Upon seeing the upright figure walking out, Cindy Lawrence couldn't help but snort derisively at the air, scoffing, "Hmph, she's truly an ungrateful white-eyed wolf! You've raised her for so many years for nothing, and she didn't even bother to call out to you when leaving."

"Grandma, maybe my sister is just too eager to see her biological parents," Ghania's voice floated lightly into the ears.

What a pity that Nathalie's biological parents were so poor they couldn't even enter the villa area. Ridiculous!

"Sister just said she only took her laptop, but her backpack looks quite bulky; it doesn't seem like there's just a laptop inside…"

Mr. Quinlan shook his head and sighed with hypocrisy, "Let it be, we've raised her for so many years. If she wants to take something, let her take it. Anyway, our family won't miss that little bit of money."

Leaning on her cane, Cindy looked at the retreating figure with scorn in her voice, "It's good that she's gone, she was never truly a Quinlan anyway."

"Ghania, don't call her 'sister' from now on; that kind of person doesn't deserve to be your sister! Go change your clothes quickly. We're going to the Waterfront Pavilion for dinner, you need to seize this opportunity well…"

There's always someone better out there.

The Quinlan family, although decent in McKinney, still came up a bit short compared to the Zachmann Family, the Tucker Family, and other such families.

Nathalie could no longer hear clearly what was being said behind her; she only vaguely heard Ghania's undeniably happy response and the Quinlan family's harmonious voices.

*

The sun was beating down fiercely, and the outside air was like fire, with hot waves rolling up on the street. Except for a few elderly people seeking coolness under the shade of the trees, the road was almost empty.

Outside the Rose Garden, a black Phaeton sat quietly at the side of the road.

Audrick Zachmann glanced at his wristwatch. The minute hand had swept nearly half the circle, but he had seen no one come out of the villa area yet.

Impatiently, he rolled down the car window to look outside.

The hot air outside immediately surged in, and the car's air-conditioning was overwhelmed by the heat, prompting a low, husky command from the back seat, "Close the window!"

The voice was faint, tinged with a hint of bloodlust, yet it carried an undeniable force.

Audrick turned his head back anxiously upon hearing the voice from the back seat. His hands quickly obeyed, raising the car window, his mouth unable to hold back his murmurs.

"I say, Amadeus, it's not your sister so you're not in a hurry! I was supposed to get here the day before yesterday, but you insisted I pick you up from Kingsbury, which delayed us until today! Just now my old man called to scold me, giving me strict orders that if I don't bring someone back tonight, I shouldn't bother coming back at all. He would come to fetch the person himself..."

Amadeus Yancey hadn't slept for three days and was both headachy and irritated. The chirping voice in his ear buzzed like a drill, and he suppressed the bloodlust churning in his eyes, leaning back and lifting his eyelids, he gave the young man in front a look devoid of emotion, his voice hoarse, "She's also my fiancée."

"She's also my fiancée." These brief words quieted the car.

Looking back three generations, the Zachmann Family was not bad.

But compared with the Yancey Family, there was still a world of difference. He and Amadeus had grown up together in that big yard, but over the years, he had gradually realized that Amadeus and he were different, the Yancey Family was different too.

In this generation, the person the Yancey Family cherished the most was sitting in his car—the notorious heir in Beijing's elite circle.

If it weren't for his old man and that person sharing a life-and-death bond, a debt felt owed to his family, the good fortune of becoming Amadeus's fiancée would never have fallen to their family...

A trace of worry couldn't help but surface in his eyes.

His little cousin from his family had been lost for more than a decade. He had checked; she was remarkably ordinary in all respects, and feared she wouldn't match up to Amadeus.

...

"She's coming out!"

As Audrick's concern flickered, a figure slowly emerged from the villa area onto the asphalt road in the corner of his eye.

"Looks like it's my sister. I'll go down and check."

Audrick swiftly informed those in the back and unbuckled his seatbelt. He opened the car door and stepped out.

Under the sunlight, the slender silhouette drew closer and closer.

The first thing that caught his eye was a pair of fine, white legs, uniform and straight.

So white.

Audrick, accustomed to his playboy ways outside, had seen plenty of beautiful women in the entertainment circle, but he couldn't help staring blankly now.

The girl approaching was only seventeen or eighteen, her skin so fair it was almost unreal, with the fine purple-red blood vessels visible beneath the skin in the sunlight. Her porcelain face, the dark depths of her pupils, eyelashes as long as little brushes—three parts serene, three parts pure, with an inadvertent wildness that was untamed.

Even though he had seen countless beauties, at this moment, he couldn't help but exclaim internally, "Stunning!"