A replacement for her sister 14

Posted by adminh, ? Views, Released on April 4, 2025

#Chapter 14 – Jealousy, Jealousy

Third Person POV

Stella sighs and closes her laptop screen, rolling her head back into the headrest of the car. A small smile creeps up onto Sebastian’s face as he watches her.

“Your hacking skill shave gotten better,” his praise catches her attention, opening one eye to look at him, “you’re much faster than you were before.”

*1 had a lot to free time in the hospital,” Stella shrugs. A weight falls onto Sebastian’s chest at her casual revelation.

He watches as her hands move to her neck, quickly undoing the metal casp of the necklace, Stella barely even looks at it before holding it out to him.

“Here you go,” she says, eyes finally meeting his, “thanks for letting me borrow it in there.”

“No, it’s yours,” Sebastian pushes the necklace back towards her, shaking his head, “if you don’t want it, we can throw it away.”

The truth is that Sebastian casually bought it for Stella, thinking that the necklace would look best around her neck instead of anyone else. He didn’t plan, or know, that her adoptive family was going to cause a scene at the gathering. He was happy to step in and resolve it for her, though; he would do anything to help Stella.

Don’t throw it away!” Stella says in a panic, looking down at the necklace, “I don’t want to lose or misplace it, that’s all.”

Having such an expensive piece of jewelry in her care made her anxious. Stella couldn’t possibly be in charge of it, especially since it is two hundred million dollars.

Sebastian nods. He looks out the car window and waves one of his subordinates over. They nod and cross the distance, Sebastian rolling the car window down.

“Give it to him. He’ll take it back for safe keeping, okay?” Sebastian nods his head to the man. Stella takes one final look at the necklace before passing it over, the small glimmers of rainbows flashing across her face.

Clara watches from afar, her eyes trained on Stella who sits inside the luxury SUV. She sits inside with the delivery man from before, the two of them engaged in conversation, Clara inches closer, catching the tail end of the conversation.

‘Give it to him,” the words pierced Clara’s ears and she didn’t hear anything else, watching a man rush towards

the car.

She gasps when the necklace is passed to a man who stands outside, her hand flying to the one that hangs around her neck.

How could she be so carless with a valuable piece of jewelry like that? That means it has to be a fake, right? Of course, Stella has been putting on an act the entire time.

The blonde turns around, quickly spotting her parents and Adrian as they leave the hotel doors, engaged in conversation. Clara musters up tears in her eyes, wiping them away as she approaches them.

“Stella has ruined my mood! She’s so materialistic and selfish. How could she ruin a day like today?” Clara whines, looking at Adrian with glossy eyes.

Adrian internally agreed but knew that he was also in the wrong due to him blindly believing Clara over her. He juggled his discontent with the regret that he feels, unable to wrap his head around the situation. He didn’t really

+25 BONUS

#Chapter 14–Jealousy, Jealousy

know how to feel about Stella, still conflicted with the way he has been acting towards him and others lately. Clara glances at Adrian, instantly noticing his distracted expression. She inches closer to him and nudges herself into his side.

“Adrian,” Clara looks up at him, sniffling, and wraps her an around his. “Don’t forget about the retreat we’re going to in two days.

Adrian hums in response, his attention elsewhere. Clara huffs and squeezes his arm, beaming up at him.

“I heard that there is a shooting range there…will you teach me how to shoot? I’m really looking forward to Clara bats her eyelashes up at him, pulling out all of the stops.

“Yeah, sure,” Adrian hums in response, barely paying attention to what it is that he just agreed to do.

His eyes narrow on the black luxury SUV. It looks familiar to him, reminding him of the one he saw at the hospital the day Stella disappeared for a few days. He drops Clara’s arm and quietly excuses himself, crossing the parking

lot.

Adrian approaches the car and notices Stella and Sebastian talking and smiling from the inside. A coil tightens in his chest, the man taking a deep breath to calm himself down before his irritation gets the bets of him.

As Adrian walks, he fixes his clothes to busy his angered hands and to make himself look presentable, to be superior to whoever it is Stella is talking to. He clears his throat and forcefully knocks on the window of the car.

“Stella, get out of the car right now,” Adrian demands. His eyes move to the man beside her, recognizing him as the delivery man from inside the hotel, glaring at him. The car window slowly rolls down, fully revealing their faces to him.

“Did she hire you to provoke me? Are you trying to make me jealous?” Adrian asks, half–amused by the idea of Stella wanting to make him jealous. With the way she’s been acting towards him recently, though, he would not put it past her.

Stella turns to look at Sebastian. Anger and annoyance are written all over her face, a scowl etched into her face. She takes a deep breath, telling herself to calm down before she blows up.

Stella turns back around to look at Adrian, her face now stoic. Neither of them respond. Heat rises in Adrian’s chest, his anger only growing more and more.

“You shouldn’t waste your efforts on such trivial things, Stella,” Adrian adds, his anger prominent in his tone of

voice.

“You are overthinking things, Adrian,” Stella coldly snaps back at him, “if you have a point to to what you are going to say, I suggest that you get it out already.”

anger

and

Adrian’s face flushes, the blood draining from his face before his cheeks heat from both embarrassment. He grumbles obscenities under his breath, low enough that Stella and Sebastian cannot hear, and slips a check book out from his jacket pocket.

He scribbles an obscene number on the pad, singing his name and leaving the memo line blank for her to fill in on her own. He rips it out and tips it inside of the car. Stella takes it with a raised eyebrow, glancing at it.

“This is compensation for wrongfully accusing you of stealing Clara’s necklace,” Adrian forces the explanation out of his mouth. He takes a deep breath, an uncomfortable silence filling in the space between him and Stella.

Stella looks into his green eyes and holds the check up. She slowly rips it into tiny little pieces, the paper descending towards the ground before a gust of wind comes and picks it up. The pieces of paper fly away, gliding away and out of their sight.