"Ryan? What are you…"
Julian Sterling was shocked by his younger brother's sudden appearance.
Especially since he was standing so protectively in front of Evelyn Grant.
'When did these two get so close?'
But in front of his own flesh and blood, Julian Sterling composed himself. He gave a few light coughs, his face regaining some of its usual cold, noble air as he straightened his suit.
"This has nothing to do with you. It's a family matter between her and me. You should go back to the estate."
His words were clearly meant to send him away.
Ryan Sterling didn't let go of Evelyn Grant. He just calmly lowered his gaze, took off his black jacket, and draped it over her to cover the clothing that Julian Sterling had torn during their struggle.
"Does it hurt?"
He gestured to her wrist.
Evelyn Grant shook her head and said in a low voice, "You should go back. I'm fine. He can't do anything to me."
She didn't want to drag Ryan Sterling into this mess. After all, he and Julian Sterling were brothers. If their relationship soured, how would they ever face each other in the future?
He had already helped her so much with this! Evelyn Grant didn't want to see the brothers grow apart because of her.
"So by being here, I'm getting in the way of you and my brother handling your family matters, am I?"
Ryan Sterling put a heavy, deliberate weight on the words "family matters."
It sounded less like a question and more like a warning.
Evelyn Grant instinctively looked up, only to find his jet-black eyes locked onto hers.
His expression was impossible to read.
Ryan Sterling was so different from the ever-composed, aloof Julian Sterling. He was far too aggressive.
He didn't even have to say a word. Just by standing in front of Evelyn Grant, his shadow cast by the sun behind him, he enveloped her, and the simmering anger radiating from him seemed to seep into her very bones.
The stalemate of their gazes didn't last long before Julian Sterling, his face like ice, pulled them apart.
"Ryan, stop this nonsense! No matter what, Evelyn Grant is still your sister-in-law. If anyone sees you two carrying on like this, you'll disgrace the entire Sterling Family!"
"Sister-in-law?" Ryan Sterling raised an eyebrow, finally deigning to look at his older brother. "As I recall, didn't you two get a divorce?"
"…"
"Brother, the fact that you sent your own wife to prison—to death row—for Jane Jacobs is the talk of Kyro. The Sterling Family has no more face left to lose."
Julian Sterling's sore spot had been hit. His thick eyebrows knitted together as he instinctively snapped, "You just got back in the country, what do you know? That evidence was probably forged by Evelyn Grant to escape justice! Jane is gentle and quiet; she would never speak in that tone!"
"Oh." Ryan Sterling smirked, his narrow eyes like an abyss. "So you're saying Evelyn Grant managed to bribe the entire judicial system to protect her, pull strings for her, and fabricate testimony?"
"I—"
"Well, I haven't seen her in three years, so I had no idea Evelyn Grant had become so incredibly influential in Kyro!" He finished, then yanked her back behind him. "But I do know that this has alarmed Mom and Dad. They're flying back overnight from Port Caligo. They said they want to see Evelyn Grant, so I'll be taking her with me."
Ryan Sterling had actually intended to grab Evelyn Grant's wrist.
But his fingertips paused, and he gently guided her by the shoulder instead, leading her all the way to the passenger seat of his car.
"You're pregnant, and yet you're this thin. Were you trying to starve my son on purpose?"
Evelyn Grant froze, enveloped by Ryan Sterling's scent—a faint smell of tobacco.
After a long moment, she spoke as if waking from a dream. "I couldn't eat in there… And… thank you."
The evidence, Evelyn Grant knew, had come from Ryan Sterling—
The person she had never really liked, ever since they were children.
It wasn't that she hated him.
It was just that Ryan Sterling always had an unapproachable air about him.
Though a smile often played on his lips, it never reached his eyes.
Whenever he opened his mouth, it was either to say something infuriatingly blunt or to make a cold, sarcastic remark.
Evelyn Grant still remembered a time, back when she'd just started high school, when she was caught in a thunderstorm on her way home. She didn't have an umbrella and was about to be soaked to the bone when Ryan Sterling appeared. He unceremoniously pulled his raincoat right over her.
Evelyn had been about to thank him when she heard him say, "Don't you know enough to get out of the rain? You're hopelessly stupid!"
Soon after, Julian Sterling had appeared with a spare umbrella. He'd scolded his younger brother in a deep voice, "Ryan, stop bullying Eve all the time!"
There were many other incidents just like that.
And so, by comparison, the gentle and elegant Julian Sterling, like a breath of fresh spring air, had become the secret preoccupation of a young girl's heart.