Chapter 220: You're aren't you!
A history of toys shared, of attention divided, of expectations unevenly distributed, now crystallizing around this single, impossible man.
Isabella felt the conversation slipping from her grasp, sliding down a slope she hadn't anticipated. She had come prepared for denial, for practical arguments, perhaps even for tears of a different, more frustrated kind. She had not come prepared for this icy, pre-emptive strike, this assumption of bias so profound it felt like an indictment of her entire motherhood. She took a steadying breath, clinging to her intended purpose.
"Dear… I didn't come here to say that." She forced her voice to remain calm and placating. "I came to convince you not to leave the man for your sister, but so that the both of you will abandon such unruly thoughts of chasing after him." She laid the truth out plainly, the universal solution she had crafted in her mind.
