Carla Sinclair tilted her head, still chatting with the young man beside her, and didn’t notice the commotion at the entrance.

"Where’s Felix? Why didn’t he come with you?"

"Oh, him? He’s busy with exams."

"Then what are you doing here?"

"It doesn’t matter whether I take them or not."

"..."

A rare, speechless expression appeared on Carla Sinclair’s cool face.

"No offense," Ian Sinclair said, swirling the wine glass in his hand, also finding it strange, "but why on earth are you celebrating a birthday right now?"

"When I saw your invitation, I thought it was summer."

"It was a mass invitation. You didn’t have to come."

"Who said I came for your birthday party?" Ian Sinclair rubbed his nose. "I was just passing by and decided to do you a favor."

"After all, you don’t have many friends. I was afraid it’d be dead. See? On a day like this, even your ’dear’ little brother didn’t show up."

Carla Sinclair shot him a glance and said coolly, "He’s not important. My sister is coming."

"?" Ian Sinclair paused, looking at her. "Who are you calling your sister?"

If it had been anyone else, he would have thought it was a prank.

But Carla Sinclair was dead serious; it didn’t seem like she was joking with him.

"Hasn’t my aunt mentioned it to you?"

"..." Ian Sinclair thought back carefully.

How should he put it?

The two families weren’t exactly close relatives, so his mother and Gwen York hadn’t been in frequent contact in their early years.

Especially since his mother had married into a family in Jynsia early on and rarely returned to Shenlyn.

The two sisters only gradually reconnected after Gwen York married into the Sinclair Family.

Because they had some business dealings with the Sinclair Family, and because they were distantly related, he and Felix Sinclair had kept in touch with Carla Sinclair over the years.

They weren’t particularly close, but their relationship was definitely better than the one between Carla and her fake little brother.

He thought about it. He really couldn’t recall his mom ever mentioning Carla had a sister.

He knew the general gist of the Sinclair Family’s messy affairs. His mom would often bring it up as gossip and complain to him about it.

Especially whenever Carla’s father got remarried, his mom would drag his dad and him into a session of cursing the man out.

His mom always said there was something suspicious about the death of Carla’s mother.

How could someone so young suddenly die from an illness?

She had no history of hereditary diseases or mental illness.

Considering how Carla’s father treated her, his mom had a reasonable suspicion that the man might have murdered his wife.

Unfortunately, there was no evidence. It was only a suspicion.

Just a topic of idle gossip.

"Mention what? Since when do you have a sister? A biological one? You’re not joking, are you?"

Carla didn’t shy away from the topic. "My mother passed away shortly after giving birth to her. That was the main cause of her death."

She hemorrhaged during childbirth, and my sister almost died too. They worked to save her for a long time before she finally pulled through.

But tragically, my mother passed away without ever getting a chance to even see her.

It was very sudden.

Carla continued, lost in her own thoughts, "Not many people know because, not long after my sister was born, she was swapped with a stillborn baby by one of our family’s enemies."

"At first, the family thought she hadn’t made it, that she had passed away along with our mother."

"It was only after an investigation that we discovered she had been taken."

"By the time we found the enemy, he claimed he had already strangled my sister and thrown the baby into the sea."

"A long time later, overwhelmed with guilt, the man confessed that my sister wasn’t dead. He said he had sent her to the slums in Southea."

"My father took his men and searched every surrounding country, but they never found her."

"She must be gone. For all these years, that’s what we all believed."

"It was also from that point on that my father’s personality changed completely. He was like a different person."

On the other side of the hall, the System immediately relayed this information to Mia Grant.

Mia Grant frowned. ’How is this different from what I imagined?’

If what Carla said was true, it meant her father had deeply loved her mother. They were truly in love.

But his subsequent, frequent remarriages were also a fact, as was bringing his first love’s son home in an attempt to make him the heir to the family business.

’How strange.’

Mia had originally wanted to avoid meeting Carla today, but now, she desperately wanted to talk to her.

’First, I have to get Ian Sinclair out of the way.’

She had already been shocked once during her earlier phone call with Kian Keller.

Now, seeing Carla and Ian together in person was another considerable shock.

’No wonder he didn’t reply to my message.’

As she was thinking, one of the figures ahead seemed to sense her gaze, stopping their conversation to look in her direction.

Carla Sinclair recognized Simon Adler at a glance and immediately put down her wine glass.

Of course, her focus wasn’t on Simon himself.

’If Simon is here, then Mia Grant...’

Her gaze swept around Simon, and soon, it locked onto a petite figure behind him.

The last time they met, she had taken note of Mia’s build.

She was a little shorter than her, and thinner. Mia had a small frame, but her legs were long, giving her excellent proportions.

So, even though she was wearing a mask, Carla recognized her in an instant. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

Everyone has unique physical characteristics, and she had immediately memorized Mia’s.

Noticing her stare, Ian Sinclair glanced to the side, following her line of sight. "What, you see your sister?"

Carla told him to watch his mouth. "She’s your sister, too."

"Tch." Ian didn’t take it to heart. "Have you even done a DNA test? Nothing’s set in stone yet, so where are you getting this sist—"

Suddenly, his gaze froze.

In the corner by the floor-to-ceiling windows, a figure stood in a pale pink business suit, but the outfit couldn’t hide her youthful aura.

The color of the suit, however, complemented her very well.

Ian was dazed for a moment, and then, as if remembering something, a flash of surprise crossed his eyes.

’What is Mia Grant doing here?’

He had originally planned to just stop by Carla’s party, say hi, and then bail.

Tonight was Christmas Eve, and he had been planning to go see her.

He wasn’t sure he’d actually succeed in meeting her and wasn’t getting his hopes up, but he thought that just being in the same city, with the distance between them shrinking from thousands of kilometers to just a few, felt different.

’It would be like spending Christmas with her, in a way.’

’I couldn’t just let her be all alone in this unfamiliar city.’

But he never expected... to see her here.

In an instant, the astonishment in his eyes was replaced by delighted surprise.

Ian immediately set down his glass. Without even a glance at Carla, he straightened his cuffs and said, "Something’s come up. I have to go."

He didn’t even bother to explain or wait for a reply before heading straight for Mia Grant.

Mia had been watching him, so she naturally noticed his movement.

Her brow furrowed slightly. She said a quick word to Simon Adler and left the main hall ahead of him.

Outside in the courtyard, the lights were bright.

The winter evening wind blew with a growing chill.

At first, Ian kept a safe distance from her, but when the figure ahead suddenly vanished, he broke into a run to catch up.

Around the corner, it was pitch black. The girl was nowhere to be seen.

Ian frowned, his expression vexed.

"Hey, who are you looking for?"

Suddenly, a familiar, cheerful voice sounded from behind him.