My Fiancé's Scandals Never End, So I Married His Uncle Instead-Chapter 111: Kian Sterling’s Turmoil

Something was wrong.

Those three words sent a chill through Kian Sterling.

He slowly set down his beer, leaned back slightly, and crossed his legs. Adopting a more relaxed, languid posture, he half-hid in the backlight of a dimmer night lamp. After a long silence, he finally asked nonchalantly:

"Wrong in what way?"

A thousand thoughts raced through Silas Norwood’s mind, but his words were tactful. "If you look closely, it really just comes down to a matter of boundaries."

Before Kian Sterling could speak, he continued in a calm voice, "Of course, I know about the Sterling Family’s situation. You and Cece have relied on each other all these years, Kade. You’re closer than most siblings. I can understand that."

"You understand?" Kian Sterling scoffed, his voice extremely low. "What could you possibly understand?"

In those chaotic years of raising his sister, outsiders only knew that he constantly threw money at Cece. No one knew that, compared to everything else, throwing money at her was the easiest part.

Countless nights, the little girl would cry for her mother, and he would have to bring some of his work home, holding her and cooing softly while he worked. When she got a little older and grew accustomed to life without parents, he began the difficult days of supervising her studies. The little girl would clutch her pencil as tears dripped onto her homework. He would drop everything to sit with her, praising every word she wrote and giving her encouraging kisses, hugs, and lifts into the air for every problem she got right. After two long years, he finally got her on the right track with her studies. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Then came the various extracurricular classes. She liked to dance but found it dull and boring, crying her eyes out coquettishly time and time again. The powerful head of the Sterlings had to secretly learn trendy, high-energy dances from the internet in private, performing them for his sister night after night. He finally coaxed the sobbing girl into smiling and rekindled her interest in dance. For as many years as she studied, he secretly danced for her. Now, Celia Sterling was all grown up, and her dance skills were decent. But no one knew that Kian Sterling—the untouchable icon who drove the Capital Circle wild—had perfected a sexy, passionate dance style entirely on his own, making him even more professional than the formally-trained Celia.

Later on, the girl hit puberty. With him being the only man in the house year-round, and the butler and maids knowing how much he doted on the young miss, none of them dared to get close to Celia Sterling. They were always respectful but distant, serving her cautiously and never prying into her private life. Her identity was no secret at school either; being the daughter of a top tycoon meant she didn’t even have any close female friends. This led to the naive girl bursting into Kian Sterling’s study one night, pale-faced. She shrank into his arms, trembling, as tears streamed down her face for free:

"Brother, I’m dying."

Kian Sterling looked at the bloodstains from her body smearing the corner of his clothes and fell into a strange silence.

He spent several days finding relevant books. He was only nineteen at the time, still a green fruit himself, but he powered through his own awkwardness and embarrassment. He pretended to be calm as he helped her learn about the secrets of a pubescent body and had the housekeeper teach her how to handle her period. As the girl gradually blossomed, the young punks outside became a major target of his vigilance. He was terrified that the treasure he had poured his heart and soul into raising would be foolishly tricked by some young punk. He guarded her with extreme caution, raising her bit by bit in a state of constant trepidation...

Celia Sterling was never a well-behaved girl. He raised her as if she were made of gold and jade, which also cultivated a proud and delicate temperament. Beneath her soft and tender exterior was a fiery spirit like an untamed mustang, ready to cause a mess at the slightest lapse in attention. The man famous for being domineering and autocratic at his corporation was then forced into the miserable role of a life mentor, mustering all his patience to guide his little ancestor’s values. It took him several years to mold her into a more docile and restrained person.

But the grown-up girl, exquisite and beautiful, was also a handful.

At her coming-of-age banquet, countless men took an interest in her. For the next year, sons of wealthy families—far more dangerous than the young punks—swarmed around her like locusts, Declan Norwood among them. Once again, Kian had to turn himself into an advanced firewall. Outside of work, all his thoughts were consumed with fending off the pack of wolves...

In his twenty-nine years of life, the only things he had exhausted his heart and mind on were his work and her.

And the effort he spent on her far exceeded that which he spent on his work.

"On what grounds are you talking to me about boundaries?" Kian Sterling’s glacial eyes were filled with mockery, his voice cold and flat. "How long have you even been with her? I’ve been with her for so many years. From the time she started kindergarten, I was the one who personally tied up her hair. When she studied dance for years, I was the one who practiced with her, hand in hand. Holding her waist, pressing her legs—that was all routine. For the first two years after she started her period, she’d spend her nights in my arms, having me rub her belly. When she was sick and refused to take her medicine, I had to personally coax her, feeding it to her mouthful by mouthful. Silas Norwood, the many years between us are not something you can just erase with a simple mention of ’boundaries.’"

Silas Norwood had no idea that in just a few short minutes, Kian Sterling had replayed the last twenty years with Celia Sterling in his mind.

But he keenly perceived a myriad of complex emotions in Kian Sterling’s eyes.

Those emotions were a dizzying mix. There was the doting affection and helplessness he could understand, but also a strange, dark undercurrent he couldn’t.

The atmosphere remained cold for a long moment.

Silas Norwood dropped the pointless argument. His goal wasn’t to pick a fight. "I don’t know what you and Cece have been through all these years, Kade. My words were inappropriate. I apologize. It hasn’t been easy for you to raise Cece. From now on, you can entrust her to me. Let me share some of your burden, and we’ll raise her together, to give her an even better life."

He had said they would raise her *together*, not that he would possess her exclusively.

For some reason, the tension between the two men eased at that phrase.

Kian Sterling’s expression was cold. "Back then, when I handed her over to Declan Norwood, that was the first time I let go. Now, handing her over to you is the second."

He lowered his gaze, the beauty mark by the corner of his eye looking dim, his voice as cold as snow:

"Silas Norwood, this will also be the last time I let go."

Silas Norwood’s pale gold eyes watched him quietly, hearing the unspoken meaning in Kian Sterling’s words—

’If Cece is let down again, Kian Sterling won’t let go again.’

’So, who would he keep Cece for?’

’Himself?’

The light in Silas Norwood’s eyes dimmed slightly. He studied Kian Sterling searchingly, but could read nothing on that cold, calm face. He suppressed the absurd idea, which had sprung from his intuition, but didn’t dare to drink any more. Alcohol muddled the mind; it must have been what spawned such a preposterous delusion just now.

’They’re biological siblings, after all.’

’He’s probably just a bit of a sis-con.’

’I’m the one who’s being overly sensitive. It hadn’t been easy to win her over, so now I’m seeing enemies everywhere.’

He suppressed that fleeting, distracting thought and said warmly, "Rest assured, Kade. I will never let her down."

’She was a treasure I myself had spent years pining for, enduring countless torments before a strange twist of fate finally brought her to me. Pouring everything I have into doting on her still feels like it isn’t enough.’

’Let her down? Impossible.’

That night, the two men sat and talked until dawn.

Their interaction, which began with drawn swords and taut crossbows, mellowed into a calm rapport. Kian Sterling would occasionally tell Silas Norwood about some of Celia Sterling’s preferences. Even though he didn’t say it outright, Silas could tell that he was truly in the process of slowly handing over the sister he had raised for so many years. This handover had already shown its first signs at the airport, when Kian had voluntarily withdrawn his hand from her waist.

He was making a graceful exit.

Silas Norwood listened intently, taking mental note of everything his girlfriend liked to eat and do. When Kian Sterling finished, Silas said softly:

"What you’ve mentioned, Kade, are just the preferences any normal girl would have. What about the rest?"

"The rest?" Kian Sterling asked coolly. "What ’rest’?"

Silas Norwood spoke calmly. "For example, the fact that she likes to find male models at clubs, occasionally gets into brawls, and reads smut..."