No wonder he had historically attempted to weaponize his personal financial funds to fully subsidize my international education within the United Kingdom.

And following my explicit rejection of the offer, he had gone to the extreme length of booking an international flight to return to the country for the sole purpose of personally changing my mind.

Once upon a time.

My consciousness had firmly categorized Julian as an individual who was zero percentage aligned with the archetypal pure-love romance framework.

To think.

He truly was the absolute living definition of it.

38

Securing the definitive knowledge that Julian was a fellow reincarnated entity.

I was actually flooded with an intense wave of genuine happiness.

Once upon a time, navigating my existence within this world would occasionally trigger a lingering psychological sensation of functioning as a complete, freakish anomaly.

Yet that definition evaporated entirely right now.

I officially possessed a member of my own specific species to stand alongside my frame.

A pair of days drifted past, and Sera materialized within the borders of the J family estate to deliver a piece of magnificent news:

She had successfully completed the official process of meeting the parental figures within the C family household.

Next month, she and Lawrence were officially locked in to celebrate their formal engagement ceremony.

Sera harbored a deep desire for Uncle J and Auntie J to step forward to represent her official maternal and paternal elders on that date, presiding over her engagement banquet.

Stepping outside that variable, Sera had additionally extended a formal invitation to the orphanage director mother who had overseen her childhood.

Auntie J was practically ecstatic out of her mind.

On the spot, she executed a total legal transfer of a premium luxury villa estate over to Sera's name, weaponizing the asset to function as her official bridal dowry.

Sera experienced a massive wave of intense embarrassment, frantically moving to clarify that her presence hadn't arrived to fish for financial assets.

"Your mind didn't harbor that explicit intention, but your auntie's mind completely harbors this explicit intention. Across the passage of these extensive years, Auntie J has long since evaluated your form as half of her biological daughter."

"A daughter is preparing to enter a marriage alliance, so what earthly issue could there possibly be with a mother gifting a piece of real estate? Secure the asset properly without further arguments."

Sera's eye sockets turned instantly crimson with unshed tears, wrapping her arms around Auntie J's frame as her vision blurred with moisture.

She murmured that starting from the tender age of seven, every single milestone where Chloe systematically cast her form out of the residence, her footsteps would automatically navigate a path to materialize right here.

Within the vaults of her consciousness, the J family residence functioned as her ultimate, unyielding safe harbor.

In truth, she had long since categorized the J family estate as her own genuine household.

Evaluating Auntie J and Uncle J as her own biological mother and father.

39

To be perfectly candid, I similarly hadn't anticipated that the romantic trajectory binding Sera and Lawrence would navigate such a thoroughly seamless path.

My historical assumptions dictating elite households assumed they would relentlessly demand an exact alignment of socio-economic pedigree and family background.

Yet evaluated against the current landscape of elite structures, that rule appeared to have lost its absolute grip.

"Regarding the logistics of your formal engagement, does the C family possess awareness of the reality?"

Sera offered a quiet nod of confirmation.

"I placed a digital call to the C mother, but I possess absolutely zero knowledge as to whether their forms will materialize at the venue."

"Word has reached my ears that a handful of days ago, Julian and Christian engaged in a massive physical brawl—does that rumor hold validity?"

I hadn't anticipated that Sera would suddenly pull that specific variable into the light, leaving me momentarily stranded as to the premium methodology to deliver a proper response.

"Presumably, yes."

"Clara, I need your person to deliver a perfectly serious, unfiltered answer to a single question."

"What is the nature of the question?"

"Does my biological brother harbor romantic feelings targeting your person?"

"Zero."

"Does that statement hold absolute validity?"

"Naturally. I share an absolute lack of deep familiarity alongside his person, so for what earthly reason would he develop romantic designs targeting my head?"

"Tracking basic logic, that definition should hold up, yet didn't he explicitly direct my person to transfer your personal WeChat contact info over to his device previously? Christian is flatly zero percentage the type of entity to execute such maneuvers without a highly calculated underlying catalyst."

"Your mind is simply over-analyzing the variables."

Sera let out a massive sigh of relief.

"Provided your assessment is correct and my mind is merely over-analyzing, that is the absolute premium outcome. You must ensure you never weave any thread of connection linking your life to Christian's person. Stepping outside all alternative variables, simply being saddled with an absolute nightmare of a sister-in-law like Chloe would be enough to curse an individual's luck for eight consecutive lifetimes."

Thank you for the validation.

My consciousness had already endured an absolute curse that consumed one entire lifetime, and I harbored zero desire to extend that curse across seven additional lifetimes.

"Regarding the details of that recent emergency, does the remainder of the C family household possess full awareness of the facts?"

"They presumably possess full awareness by now. Christian explicitly extended a formal apology to my face, and even attempted to force a financial card into my palms, but I executed a total rejection of the asset before returning it. Utilizing that maneuver, they should easily comprehend the exact implication dictating my position moving forward."

Sera appeared to suddenly recall an additional piece of data.

"Word has it that Chloe is currently navigating the waters of formal matchmaking dinners. The target is the son of one of my father's legacy associates, an individual who literally just concluded his international educational stint abroad to return to the country a short while ago. The parental figures on both sides appear to be exceptionally gratified with the match."

I pondered the variable briefly.

This specific male individual should be the exact same boyfriend who had historically entered a brief romantic relationship alongside Chloe in our previous lifetime, before subsequently launching a total legal cancellation of their formal engagement.

This time around, it was highly probable the alliance would successfully solidify.

After all, the current incarnation of Chloe in this timeline was zero percentage a carbon copy of her past self—who had historically failed to secure a university degree, endured a teenage pregnancy milestone, and suffered the physical removal of a biological kidney.

Rather, she was a standard aristocratic heiress who had been cradled in the palms of the entire C family to grow up swathed in absolute luxury, successfully navigating elite British high school and British undergraduate academic institutions.

40

The calendar pages flipped rapidly until we materialized on the official date of Sera's formal engagement gala.

The engagement venue was physically established within the grand ballroom of the largest six-star luxury hotel operating within the city lines, serving as definitive verification of the immense gravity and respect the groom's family assigned to this celebratory milestone.

The J family naturally executed a total turnout, with every single member materializing at the venue.

What bypassed the borders of my expectations, however, was the reality that the entire roster of the C family household had similarly arrived in full force.

Though analyzing the psychological currents, the scenario wasn't particularly difficult to comprehend.

Sera was thoroughly disillusioned with the C family, desiring to initiate a clean, absolute break.

Yet the C family hierarchy would flatly never harbor an identical mindset.

Sera securing her status as the future daughter-in-law of the elite C medical family was already an unyielding, rock-solid reality.

Lawrence's household had dominated the medical landscape across three entire generations.

Most crucially of all, the elderly patriarch of the family—the historical founder of Mercy Hospital—functioned as an elite figure whom every single powerful politician and wealthy aristocrat within the city boundaries desperately clawed to flatter and build alliances with.

Solely leveraging that singular variable, it was flatly impossible for the C family to willingly abandon their biological connection linking them to Sera's person.

Consequently, their entire household materializing within the borders of this engagement gala was genuinely zero percentage shocking.

Chloe was dressed exceptionally extravagantly this evening, draped in a crimson off-the-shoulder haute couture gown, accessorized with a pristine white fur shawl, a blinding diamond necklace, and brilliant emerald teardrop earrings.

The sheer extravagance of her presentation was practically threatening to eclipse Sera's status as the absolute leading lady of the evening.

Precisely as my mental calculations had predicted.

The male individual whose arm she was actively looping her fingers around was none other than that exact specific boyfriend from our previous lifetime who had historically courted her for a brief window before executing a total engagement cancellation.