Chapter 10

Everyone in the room except Julian and Elise looked as though they were seeing things.

Julian Whitmore rarely let anyone read his mood. He spoke sparingly, usually with enough coldness to end a conversation, and had no time to spare for anything unrelated to work. Yet here he was, putting work aside to choose clothes for his sister. He was thoroughly enjoying himself, too.

Even Olivia was surprised. She glanced at Elise. She knew how the brothers doted on Vivian, and how little attention they had ever paid to this girl. But Julian had never appeared when Olivia brought Vivian new clothes, much less stayed to help choose her outfits.

An open laptop rested on his knees. He barely looked at it. After picking out several more things for Elise, he offered some surprisingly sound opinions on which bags and shoes should go with them.

Daniel stood beside him in a state of complete resignation. Buy Elise a car, buy her clothes, sit here and select them for her personally: at this point, nothing could surprise him. This was a man who used to devote every available minute to work. Getting him to spend time on anything so trivial would once have been impossible.

Elise, meanwhile, was growing more uncomfortable by the minute. Having Julian watch her try on clothes was strange enough. Having him choose what she tried on next was even stranger.

“Julian...” She couldn't help speaking up. “If you have something else to do, you don't have to stay.”

“I don't have anything else to do,” he said gently. “Just pretend I'm not here.”

He had only just discovered the pleasures of this dress-up game. He wasn't ready to give it up.

When Olivia held another of her choices against Elise, Julian rejected it and asked for a different one. Olivia finally lost patience.

“What is this new hobby of yours? Trying on clothes is something we women do together. Why are you still sitting here?”

Only Olivia would dare speak to him so bluntly. Daniel looked ill. The others in the room waited nervously, afraid Julian would lose his temper at being challenged.

He took no offense at all.

“She's my sister,” he explained with perfect seriousness. “My own flesh and blood.”

What was wrong with wanting to play dress-up with his little sister?

For all Olivia's objections and Elise's embarrassment, they eventually put together the full set of outfits. Julian had chosen more than half of them himself. He also had a few peculiar requirements: none of the skirts or shorts could be too short, for instance.

Then his phone vibrated, drawing his attention away from Elise. Adrian's name was on the screen.

Julian left the room and went to his study. Only after he had sat down did he answer.

There was a lot of noise on Adrian's end. He sounded tired, his manner loose and rather detached.

“I hear you're looking for Viv's birth parents. And you want to send her back to them?”

Julian rose and looked out the window.

“Yes.”

He had expected this call. Vivian would have gone straight to the other brothers for help.

In his previous life, he had seen her much as Adrian did now: an innocent, outspoken little sister. If she was unreasonable sometimes, well, she was a spoiled young girl. What harm could it do?

It had taken losing that life and returning to this one for him to see how false and selfish she was. When the Whitmores went bankrupt, she had vanished at once, terrified of being dragged down by their debts. Once they had rebuilt their fortune, she had come back to claim them as her family again.

The memory still left him cold.

Adrian's voice lost its casual tone. “Why?”

“Blood ties don't disappear. Finding her birth parents would be good for her. She shouldn't refuse.”

Adrian frowned. That sounded reasonable enough, but they hadn't looked for Vivian's parents in seventeen years. Why start now?

Julian kept looking out the window. When he spoke again, his voice was quiet.

“Have you ever wondered why she doesn't want to find them? Why she hasn't so much as mentioned them all these years?”

Who could offer her more money than the Whitmores? Vivian was clinging to the extravagant life they gave her. She could give up the people easily enough.

Adrian hesitated. He had known since childhood that their parents had adopted Vivian from a children's home. Her birth parents were still her birth parents, though. All these years, she had never even brought them up.

That was a little strange.

“What are you trying to say?”

“Vivian isn't as innocent and kind as she looks.” Julian's voice was cold.

Adrian's hand stilled around his phone. To him, Vivian was simply an affectionate, sweet little sister who liked to be indulged. Why would Julian say she wasn't kind?

He didn't quite know what to make of it. Still, looking for her birth parents was a good thing. However fond he was of Vivian, he could recognize that much.

“All right,” he said at last. “I agree we should look for Viv's birth parents. As for sending her back to them, we'll talk about that when I get home.”

He hung up.

Julian sighed. Adrian was reserving judgment on what he had said. Like the other younger brothers, he still doted on Vivian. Elise had only Julian looking out for her.

And she was their own sister.

His gaze went to a painting in the study. There was a safe behind it. If his parents hadn't told him about it before they died, he would never have known it was there.

Inside was a will.

After their parents' deaths, most of the company shares had gone to Julian, and he had taken over the business. His younger brothers had each inherited smaller holdings in the company, along with some real estate. The inheritance set out in the will in that safe was what their parents had left for Elise.

There was one condition: she could receive it only when she came of age.

In his previous life, the financial crisis had struck when Elise was still a few months short of that birthday. Everything the Whitmores owned had been wiped out, leaving them deep in debt. By then, there had been nothing left to give her.

She had never even learned that her parents had left her an inheritance.

Since the first day of his return, Julian had been preparing for the crisis that would soon hit. He was shifting Whitmore Group's strategic focus, gradually pulling out of the projects that had suffered the worst losses in his previous life.