"Clara, can you step outside the residence for a brief moment? I possess questions that require your explicit answers."

I swept a brief glance across the active screen to evaluate the incoming caller digits.

It was Christian.

I possessed absolutely zero knowledge as to where on earth he had secured my personal contact information.

"What is the nature of your business?"

"What exactly transpired surrounding Sera's circumstances yesterday evening?"

"Direct those inquiries to her person directly."

"She immediately terminated my call."

"That serves as definitive verification that she harbors an absolute lack of desire to communicate with your family."

"Yet I must possess the facts."

"Whether you possess the facts or remain completely oblivious holds absolutely zero relevance to my life."

"I am currently idling directly outside the perimeter gates of the J family courtyard. If your form fails to materialize within the next five minutes, I will simply march inside to track you down myself."

He was genuinely an absolute lunatic.

A severe, clinically certified lunatic.

Five minutes later.

Anchoring a perfectly icy, severe expression, I marched outside the borders of the courtyard, and as expected, Christian's silhouette was idling directly beside the asphalt road.

His facial features were weighed down by a profound, severe gravity.

"Yesterday evening... did Sera suffer any catastrophic violation?"

I delivered a perfectly blunt, razor-sharp response:

"Zero. Chloe had presumably spiked her beverage utilizing a significant chemical sedative yesterday evening, harboring an agenda to recruit a third party to violate her form while capturing video evidence. Fortunately, Julian and I materialized at the perfect second to secure her safety."

"The exact individual your biological sister recruited happens to be that exact street thug from seven years ago, who was previously sent behind bars for a solid two years by your family's corporate legal team. This time around, courtesy of your sister's magnificent orchestration, he will presumably be tracking a return flight back to prison for another two years."

Absorbing the summary, Christian fell into a prolonged, suffocating silence.

A vast block of moments drifted past before his lips slowly parted to vocalize a line:

"Sera... how is her current condition?"

"She is holding up perfectly fine, yet she desires to completely sever any microscopic shred of connection linking her existence to your C family for the remainder of her life. I am begging your family to show a shred of basic human decency and simply grant her absolute peace."

"You must perceive yourself to be exceptionally fortunate to have escaped being adopted by our C family, correct?"

Christian suddenly tossed out the observation.

The edges of my lips curled into a sharp, mocking smirk:

"Precisely. I perceive myself to be exceptionally, profoundly fortunate."

"Clara, I possess one final inquiry. From what exact source did you secure my new personal phone digits yesterday evening?"

I froze slightly.

I hadn't anticipated that his brain would suddenly pivot to focus on such a hyper-specific detail.

Consequently, I tossed out a completely fabricated, casual explanation:

"Sera disclosed the digits to my person previously. Is there an issue with that reality?"

Christian trained a razor-sharp, unyielding gaze straight into my eyes, as though attempting to pierce clean through my skull.

"You are fabricating a blatant lie."

"For what earthly reason would I require a lie?"

"I systematically updated this specific phone number barely a single week ago. Sera possesses absolutely zero knowledge regarding its existence. Not merely Sera—Chloe, and even my own parents remain completely oblivious to this number."

A sudden wave of ice-cold sweat instantly erupted across the skin of my back.

He was entirely correct.

In my previous life, Christian's personal contact digits had indeed undergone a single mandatory replacement.

If my memory served me correctly, his smartphone had been stolen during an international travel stint.

Because his legacy number was linked to an overwhelming maze of sensitive corporate platforms, and fearing the old number would be exploited by malicious forces, he had executed a total numbers change, manually re-binding every single corporate social media and financial banking asset from scratch.

To think that specific milestone was unfolding at this exact juncture of the timeline.

The convergence of variables was entirely too precise.

"Deliver the truth to me. How on earth did you possess full knowledge regarding my brand-new contact digits?"

Christian began to systematically close the physical distance between our forms, stepping aggressively into my space.

I executed a swift step backward, exerting a monumental volume of effort to project an aura of absolute calm:

"What earthly reason makes my knowledge of your digits a source of immense shock? You possess full knowledge regarding my personal digits as well, and I retain a perfect memory of never once disclosing them to your person."

"I actively approached Driver Wu this morning to extract the information; he delivered your digits to my palm."

Damn it.

I harbored an absolute lack of desire to continue navigating this mental labyrinth with him.

"Provided you possess zero additional matters to discuss, I will take my leave."

Christian's palm abruptly shot forward to grip my wrist with iron intensity, his eyes darkening into a profound, murky abyss as his facial expression turned intensely erratic.

"Clara, what on earth are you hiding from my consciousness?"

"Why on earth do my instincts continuously scream that you possess absolutely zero business residing within the borders of the J family? Nor should you have ever been adopted by their household."

A violent jolt of pure panic shot straight through my nervous system.

Could it be possible that Christian was similarly beginning to experience residual cognitive fragments bleeding through from our previous life?

There was flatly no way!

"Release your grip."

"Why do you harbor such a profound, deep-seated loathing toward my person? In what earthly way have I ever managed to offend your sensibilities to such an extreme? To a point where from our childhood all the way into maturity, you continuously evaluate my existence as though you were staring at absolute garbage."

"Christian, release my wrist this instant. Do you hear me?!"

"Are you romantically infatuated with Julian? In what earthly metric does he surpass my parameters? What is the true nature of your dynamic—are you siblings or are you a romantic couple?!"

"Have you completely lost your mind?!"

"You possess a fierce adoration for being sheltered by the J family, yet you loathe the concept of being adopted by the C family, correct? Why? Is carrying the designation of Clara C something you perceive to be unacceptable?"

The exact instant the words 'Clara C' vibrated through the air.

It felt exactly as though someone had marched forward to hurl a massive bucket of freezing water straight across my face.

My entire physical form turned entirely, rigidly cold.

"Clara C... Clara C..."

Christian stared blankly at my facial features, his lips moving to softly murmur the designation to himself in a trance-like state.

My physical frame began to undergo a visible tremor.

Those three syllables, 'Clara C,' functioned as an absolute, inescapable psychological nightmare.

I had clearly executed a massive escape that placed a monumental distance between my existence and the borders of that nightmare.

Yet at this exact second, it felt as though invisible, spectral hands were reaching out from the dark to violently drag my soul back down into the absolute depths of that abyss.

Right as Christian's fingertips were preparing to make physical contact with the skin of my cheek.

A silhouette abruptly vaulted into the space, his fingers instantly clamping around the fabric of Christian's collar with terrifying force.

A split second later, a muffled grunt of raw pain echoed through the air.

Christian was violently sent crashing onto the ground.

It was Julian.

Before my brain could even process the sudden intervention.

Christian rapidly scrambled back onto his feet, unleashing an equally devastating, savage punch that connected squarely with Julian's face.

The duo instantaneous dissolved into a brutal, unrestrained physical brawl.

Every single strike delivered was packed with raw, meat-crunching velocity.

Each individual was executing their strikes with a visible desire to completely dismantle the other.

Within a handful of seconds, the facial features of both men were heavily painted with vivid streaks of crimson blood.

My consciousness finally snapped back into full operational awareness, and I lunged forward into the center of the chaos, exerting every ounce of my physical strength to violently tear their forms apart.

Julian, who had continuously projected a perfectly gentle, refined, and courteous aura throughout the entire duration of our interactions in this life, anchored a gaze at this exact second that was as savage and feral as a stalking leopard.

"I am delivering a final warning to your head, Christian. Remove your presence far away from the borders of our household. Remove your presence far away from Clara."

Christian let out a sharp, dismissive sneer, explicitly making zero effort to harbor even a microscopic shred of respect for his directives.

"What sort of pathetic entity do you consider yourself to be? On what earthly authority should I ever comply with your definitions?"