"Uh, n-no, it’s nothing!" Ryan stammered, quickly shaking his head. He tried to smile at Calliope, but it was the kind of forced, crooked grin that pretty much screamed something’s up.
Calliope saw right through him. She knew Ryan too well—when he got anxious, his eyes darted everywhere, and right now, he was practically begging Neil for help with his gaze.
Neil had already set down his fork and gotten up from the table. "Callie, really, it’s nothing. I’ll go talk to him. You guys finish your dinner, okay?"
He started to lead Ryan away.
But Calliope stood up right away, her chair scraping against the hardwood.
Silas followed suit, towering over the table.
"Ryan, just tell me straight," Calliope insisted, her tone leaving no room for argument. "What’s going on that you can’t tell me? Weren’t we best friends growing up? If you need help, spit it out."
Silas nodded, arms crossed, looking every bit the guy you wouldn’t want to mess with. "Yeah, seriously, Ryan. If you’ve got a problem, say it. I brought some friends with me—if you need backup, just say the word. They’re not exactly pushovers."
Ryan glanced helplessly at Neil, whose look said, “You’re not getting out of this one.”
Finally, Ryan sighed, his shoulders slumping. "It’s the people from Ivory Town. You know how jealous they’ve been since our town started doing better? They keep saying we ‘stole their luck’ or whatever, so they’re always trying to mess with us."
"Today, things just boiled over. We tried to talk it out, but they went straight to throwing punches. I was with Jacob and a few others, and… Jacob got hurt. Badly."
"Tourism could’ve boosted both towns. We’re only five miles apart! They didn’t want in, but now that we’re finally putting our town on the map, they’re pissed?"
"Let’s go," another said. "Ivory Town’s got numbers, but we’re no small town ourselves."
"Exactly! I told you, those folks have always been trouble. This isn’t the first time they’ve pulled something like this!"
The room buzzed with frustration and solidarity until suddenly everyone seemed to remember Calliope and Silas—outsiders to the recent drama—were standing there.
"Uh, Callie," one of the neighbors said, glancing sheepishly her way, "You’ve been gone a while, so you probably don’t know the whole story with the towns…"
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: A Reborn Bride Pearl Emerging from Dust
Oh wrestling expert ey? So is this Khamzat Chimaev or Shavkat Rakhmonov? Because Khabib's would be too haram....
Oh no. Million is just mix of Conor McGregor, Islam Makhachev, Mike Tyson, Max Holloway, Anderson Silva... I bet he lands 5sec flying knees like Jorge Masvidal too. Oh nope, 1sec knees. And has faster left hooks than Alex Pereira. Definitely would win UFC championship in every weight division including women. Poor Zhang Weili....
Okay so.... Million is now from East. Arctic wolf from East, modified genetically so he can manage his own Instagram and probably also box like Mike Tyson and snapping left hooks like Alex Pereira....
This is starting to be the same twister of abilities as Cassandra Yates and Tiffany. But question is, why the hell Silas can't just open his mouth and tell Caliope that she's the one whom he has in his heart. He would prevent a lot of misunderstanding. Seems like despite capability of talking with modified arctic wolf, she's not like telepathic....
Oh no, so FL is again another hidden genius with both hemispheres working on hundreds... Ffffuuuu. Cassandra Yates and Tiffany were already enough, ughugh. And Tiffany was even more exaggerated than Cassandra....
That's weird, in the first chapters there was said that her bio parents and bros doteď on Caliope but then they adopted Lisette, but this chapter suddenly says otherwise. Did author forget what he wrote?...
I REALLLYYY REALLLYYYY REALLYYYYYY WANT TO SLAP THE 3 BROTHERS WHENEVER THEY OPEN THEIR MOUTH !!! AND THEIR MOM !!!...
Why has this not been updated ?? there were 5 more chapters which was released and it has not been updated.. Please do update on regular basis......