Be Your Lover Forever (Alicia)

Livid, Caroline turned to their front only to be flabbergasted by the two familiar faces when she looked up. Trevor? Duff?

Hurt by the tugging, Selena slightly frowned as she looked up, only to be rendered speechless when their eyes met. Trevor was chatting while it happened, stumped for a few seconds when he looked over to see who had interrupted.

"Caroline? What are you doing here?"

Caroline's face fell as she snapped back into reality. However, she only got more upset when she checked the serial number of the collector's album in her hand.

Nine? Her book?!

She then flipped it open to find a long line of Jopenzo, evidently more words than Victoria's. Clearly, more words were added. In an instant, her face was livid with rage.

The book was back in her hands, but right then, the collector's album she had been longing for was like money that had fallen into the sewer; absolutely disgusting whether she chose to keep it or not! Worst, the culprits were her brother and Duff! She couldn't lash out even if she wanted to!

Caroline chewed on her lips, evidently upset when she had to bottle up her anger!

Trevor noticed it then, taking a gander at Selena in bafflement. Selena's expression, on the other hand, didn't look too good either, awkwardly chuckling when a familiar face had criticized her and in front of an outsider at that.

"I took it from a table when we were walking around in the exhibition in the afternoon. I thought no one wanted it... The attendant said I can ask for an autograph and attend this panel with it, so I did. But no one asked me to pay for it or said it belonged to someone. I didn't know..."

Trevor followed merely to keep her company, having no interest in this sort of thing. So he had no memory of the panel in the afternoon. But when she said there was another panel she could attend for free at night, and he happened to have a client and friend attending, he said yes.

He was clueless about the ins and outs, but seeing how upset his little sister was and that the two were butting heads while an outsider was next to them, he tried to smooth things over.

"C'mon, it's just a book. Take it if you like it!"

However, his indifference only made things worse, and Caroline instantly blew a fuse.

"Just a book?! I traveled all the way here and spent over an hour and a million dollars to get this limited edition! I had wanted to gift this to my sister-in-law as a thank you present! One for each of us! If you're so great, go and make an identical set; make book six and book nine, and have Ichi Miyamoto sign my name and write the message I want him to leave!"

With that, she chucked the book at Trevor.

"Easy for you to say! Of course, you feel nothing when it has nothing to do with you! If you're so great, try and get collector's items for nothing then! If I hadn't kept the receipt, I wouldn't have even been able to come in! I would've come to Barrington City for nothing! How did I end up with a brother like you?! All you do is favor outsiders!"

"Since you like your cousin so much, stay with her then!"

Caroline glared daggers at Trevor as she roared before shoving and passing between them, striding toward Victoria, grabbing her arm.

"Let's go, Victoria! What f*cking bad luck. There must be a broken mirror!"

While she strode toward the exit, dragging Victoria with her, Trevor's expression changed greatly when he looked back; their gaze missed right then.

Victoria?

What... what was she doing here as well? Did she see everything too?

But she said nothing the entire time.

After dragging Victoria all the way back to the hotel, she shut the door and kicked her shoes off before lashing out in the room, evidently furious.

"F*cker! F*cking sc*mbag!"

"How f*cking absurd! How is she everywhere..."

"Did I come here to get pissed?! We're leaving!"

"Stupid f*cking Barrington City! It's right in the name, barring! What sh*t luck! We're leaving!"

After venting her frustrations, Caroline turned to Victoria.

"We're leaving! I'm f*cking pissed! Let's go! We're leaving this sh*thole, Vic! I'll never come back here for the rest of my life!"

With that, she dragged her luggage out and quickly packed things up.

But before Victoria could even move, Caroline remembered something and came back, pulling out her phone as she spoke.

"Let's get tonight's ticket. We'll go home now! Stay here any longer, and I'll puke! We'll sleep

on the train!"

In the end, Caroline genuinely booked two midnight tickets home after estimating the time.

Once they were done packing up, the two hurried over to the train station.

Finally, after they sat down in the waiting hall, Caroline held Victoria's arm, all apologetic. Victoria, on the other hand, seemingly hadn't, or more accurately, hadn't had a chance to speak since leaving the appreciation panel.

Caroline clung to Victoria's arm while resting her head on her shoulder as she sighed. She shouldn't have gone to retrieve her book. Why her brother and that woman of all people?

But how come Duff was with him? When had she returned? Why did she get herself involved with her brother again? If her parents found out...

With that thought in mind, she looked up at her dear sister-in-law. "I'm so sorry for making you go through all this trouble, Victoria."

Victoria smiled as she ruffled Caroline's hair. "Did you lash out just to drag me all the way here? Scared that I'll be an embarrassment when your brother and I fight?"

Eventually, she was considering the bigger picture and defending Trevor's pride, wasn't she? Caroline awkwardly smiled as she sat straight up. Had she figured it out? But was she not upset?

They each understood the other when their eyes met, stopping the subject there. Instead, Victoria asked, "You don't seem to like this cousin of yours, Selena, I mean."

"You know about her?! Then she and Trevor..." She couldn't have possibly learned about their history, had she?

"I mean, this isn't major. No secrets can be kept forever! I'll naturally know some things with time. Everybody has a past. Besides, the law bans marriage between relatives of the closest three generations. Cousins marrying isn't even a big deal to places that allow it in the past and even now. What's more, everybody was once young and immature! You two are about the same age, aren't you?

And you two must've spent a lot of time living together. You and her..."

She didn't seem to like Selena!

Love affairs between cousins only sounded absurd today, but in reality, there were plenty of cases of fathers defiling their birth daughters, let alone cousins falling in love? To be honest, she didn't think it was something to be freaked out about!

After calming down, Victoria thought she could see Selena as only Trevor's conventional past. However, she was indeed surprised to bump into them here.

She'd be lying if she said she wasn't upset or didn't have any ideas! But compared to when they first met in the hospital, she was far more calm and rational now.

Seeing Victoria had embraced the situation, Caroline felt a lot better.

"I loathe her! I don't like her in the least bit! You probably don't know this, but she would already claim my things and my family for herself when she was little, and she was even more outrageous when she grew

up.

Ungrateful aside, she even tried to

hook up with Trevor. Is she trying to

ruin his life? Now that we're all happy as a family after he's married and you've joined our family, she popped out of nowhere and started stirring up trouble again. You have no idea how exasperated I am with that woman. She's always acting all terminally ill like the whole world owes her, like she's the most pitiful woman in the world. I honestly don't get why Trevor feels so sympathetic toward her?"

Caroline was even more worked up as she recalled the past, ranting one thing after another.

"Anyhow, there's nothing I like about

her at all! When she lived with us

back when we were little, she made me look like I was either a spoiled rich kid or a stepmother's child who constantly bullied her. I hated it when my parents always said, should learn from Nana and

humble and modest, Carolin, Slice

Nana have this and that this time, okay?' They'd say that every time they got us presents. Sure, no one is as sweet as her; no one is as aggrieving as her. She'd almost always end up getting the first pick and all the good stuff! And Trevor, she'd get envious at everything he gets me, always making it look like he owes her! I'M his little sister, ME! All of us treat her like family, but look how she treats us?!" "My mom had already said she and Trevor are cousins, so they can't be together, or she'd ruin his reputation and our lineage. Trevor had even accepted that they separate, but she went and got herself sick so coincidentally, making it look like we had abused her. But the truth? We've been supporting her all this while. I even had to work to support myself after I reached eighteen, but what about her? My family is still helping her and even giving her money!

We're raising an ungrateful b*tomet

cause

aren't we? She'd pop up and trouble whenever Trevor's life got a little better. Has she decided to leech on our family? I would feel a little bad for her when she's not around, but when she's right in front of me, I'd be pissed! There's really nothing anybody can like about this woman. Our first meeting after so many years, and she has already stolen my book! SHE stole it, and yet she said nobody wanted it! Did she think we're all idiots? Limited edition book, high-class panel; did she think there are so many free lunches in this world?! She sure knew how to bag a bargain! It must be that she didn't manage to get it but still wanted to attend the event, so she took mine! My pig brain of a brother has no interest in these things, so he wouldn't bother himself with it; she must've dragged him along! Look at her frail, sick look; who knows what excuse she used this time? I really loathe the sick front she puts up! Even the most terminally ill would try to live a positive life but look at her; she'd even act all piteous when she isn't sick. She makes me want to puke! And yet, men love her type. Don't you think they're all mad? Seriously, unbelievable..."

Caroline couldn't stop rolling her eyes as she ranted, her disgust for Selena inconcealable. Seeing her indignant expression for once, Victoria suddenly thought they were very much alike. She, too,

couldn't bring herself to like a woman who'd moan whether she was sick or not!