Except in this current timeline, the gaze the male trained across her features was saturated with an overwhelming, tender adoration.

As for Chloe herself, she was visibly treating his presence with an absolute lack of genuine investment or care.

Auntie J was locked in a casual social conversation alongside the C mother off to one side of the room.

The C mother's attention suddenly pivoted to lock directly onto my physical form.

"Oh, this must be your household's precious Clara, correct? She has matured into such a breathtakingly beautiful young lady."

Spanning across the passage of two entire lifetimes, this marked the absolute first instance where my form was physically positioned in such extreme proximity to the C mother.

Across these extensive years, my consciousness had systematically and deliberately orchestrated a total avoidance of their entire family network.

Consequently, opportunities to cross paths had been exceptionally rare.

"Mrs. C."

I offered a perfectly polite, yet thoroughly detached greeting targeting her person.

The C mother quietly evaluated my features, delivering a sincere wave of praise from the bottom of her heart:

"Mrs. J, you truly possess magnificent fortune. This child Clara is instantly recognizable as an exceptionally sweet, sensible, and well-behaved girl, outside of possessing such gorgeous physical features."

Auntie J beamed with an absolute smile as she delivered her response:

"Our Clara is indeed remarkably sensible and obedient; finding a young lady who possesses such a sweet disposition is truly a rarity in the current landscape."

"I possess absolutely zero knowledge as to the underlying catalyst, but catching sight of your Clara triggers an intense, lingering psychological sensation of familiarity within my chest, as though our paths have crossed previously. If I may boldly venture an inquiry, does Clara currently find herself involved in a romantic relationship?"

Right at that exact microsecond, Sera glided over to our position to call out to my person:

"Clara, the zipper track anchoring my gown appears to be behaving a bit awkwardly. Would you be willing to escort me to the private dressing room to help calibrate it for a brief moment?"

The two of us navigated a path to march toward the dressing lounge.

Sera dropped her vocal register to issue a sharp warning:

"Exercise extreme caution; my mother has visibly developed romantic designs targeting your person, and it is highly probable she intends to introduce your form to function as a romantic match for Christian. Distance your presence far away from her frame."

The C mother harboring an agenda to introduce my person to function as a romantic match for Christian?

Absorbing that specific sentence, an inexplicable urge to laugh rippled through my chest.

"What on earth is driving that smile across your features?"

"Nothing of any real significance."

"My words are delivered with absolute seriousness; do you honestly assume my mouth is tossing out a joke to entertain your ears?"

"Rest your mind completely. Even provided my existence was backed into a corner where only a pair of distinct paths remained open—one directing me to immediately embrace physical death, and the alternative directing me to enter a marriage alliance alongside Christian—I would execute a total leap to embrace physical death without a single microsecond of hesitation, rather than ever binding my life to your biological brother."

Sera was violently startled by the raw intensity of the statement, her hand instinctively lifting to clamp over my lips to silence the air.

"Spit those words out, spit them out this instant! What on earth are you vocalizing? I am genuinely defeated by you, can you please refrain from tossing out such wild statements... Brother, why on earth are you standing inside this corridor?"

I lifted my eyes.

Christian's physical form was indeed occupying the space directly ahead.

He was impeccably dressed in a razor-sharp tailored formal suit, his silhouette exceptionally commanding and tall, his entire aura radiating an aloof, aristocratic composure.

Except the absolute depths of his pupils resembled twin abysses packed with solid ice.

He was training a bone-chilling, silent glare directly onto my form.

A highly dismissive, mocking sneer of pure arrogance exploded from an adjacent position.

"Clara, vocalizing such grandiose, sweeping declarations completely exposes your lack of self-awareness; what sort of delusional daydream are you actively navigating within your skull? You actually harbor a fantasy of entering a marriage alliance alongside my biological brother? A nameless, parentless orphan who lacks basic lineage—even provided your household lacks a standard mirror to evaluate your reflection, surely you possess fluid to evaluate your own worth, correct?"

"You are clinically unhinged. Clara stands in an identical position as your own person, backed by a father, a mother, and an older brother; by what earthly metric do you classify her existence as an orphan? Provided her identity translates to an orphan, then your own identity functions as an orphan right alongside her."

Sera completely refused to indulge a single ounce of her behavioral patterns, opening her lips to deliver a savage verbal counter-strike.

Chloe's psychological defense architecture instantaneously shattered into pieces:

"Sera, what on earth is the implication behind those syllables? Are you actively weaponizing your tongue to lay a curse across our parents' heads?"

"I am laying a curse across our parents? Then your tongue a mere moment ago was explicitly laying a curse across Auntie J and Uncle J's heads. Since your mouth possesses the eligibility to bark insults, for what earthly reason should my mouth be barred from executing the exact same maneuver?"

"You absolute wolf in sheep's clothing, completely devoid of basic human conscience—from what exact household's resources did your physical form secure its maturation?"

"I have never once historically denied the reality that the C family shouldered the burden of my upbringing, yet that reality flatly grants your head zero authority to act like a wild animal at my formal engagement gala."

"You..."

"Enough." Christian barked out a heavy, severe reprimand: "Evaluate what specific calendar date is unfolding today; can the two of you please analyze the surrounding environment before executing this circus?"

I similarly rushed forward to pacify Sera's raging emotional currents:

"Cease engaging in this verbal warfare alongside her person immediately. Chloe is desperately salivating for an opportunity to completely sabotage the logistics of your engagement banquet, solely to clear a path for her form to orchestrate a return assault to plunder Lawrence for herself. You must ensure you never fall into her psychological trap."

The exact instant my words penetrated Chloe's ears, her facial features turned entirely green with venomous rage.

"Clara, what on earth is the underlying implication behind that statement?"

"My words are perfectly aligned with the literal definition of the syllables; since your hands possessed the raw audacity to execute the maneuvers behind closed doors, for what earthly reason should your mind tremble when alternative entities drag the facts into the light?"

I let out a cold, sharp sneer.

Following the remark, I escorted Sera straight through the threshold of the dressing lounge, and right as my hand prepared to pull the wooden door shut, Chloe's palm violently slammed against the surface to force it wide open.

"Magnificent, absolutely magnificent! Are the two of you aligning your forces to settle scores targeting my person?"

"Simply celebrating a minor engagement milestone, yet look at the absolute heights of disgusting arrogance the two of you are projecting."

"Sera, your luck held up exceptionally well during our previous intersection, allowing your form to successfully evade the trap and avoid having your naked photographic assets and video footage captured, but that reality flatly guarantees zero security that your luck will hold up during our subsequent intersection."

Slap.

Sera's entire physical frame was trembling with an unyielding fury, her body surging forward to deliver a ringing slap straight across Chloe's cheek.

This maneuver effectively kicked a massive hornet's nest into explosive motion.

"You actually possess the audacity to strike my face?!"

Right as Chloe's features contorted into a mask of pure, unadulterated rage as she prepared to return the slap with interest, my physical form forcefully lunged forward to shove her frame away.

Yet because the volume of raw physical force I exerted was entirely too elevated.

The momentum completely sent her body crashing down onto the floorboards.

Most notably of all, Chloe happened to be operating her movements atop a pair of ten-centimeter stilettos this evening.

Consequently, the physical fall she endured was exceptionally messy and humiliating.

Chloe was driven entirely, completely insane with unbridled fury.

"Ah!!! I am going to completely tear the two of you to absolute shreds!"

I was genuinely caught in a mild wave of panic.

Chloe dissolving into a state of absolute, unhinged insanity was zero percentage a laughing matter.

My own physical safety was a minor variable.

Yet this gala functioned as Sera's formal engagement celebration.

Consequently, I frantically attempted to negotiate a change of venue:

"Chloe, how about the two of us step outside the hotel parameters to engage in a physical street brawl? Sera is celebrating her engagement today, so ensure you don't compromise or ruin her professional cosmetics application."