-Diana, do you think I’m old and confused?
Bianca’s voice remained soft, but when Diana heard it, she winced and smiled.
-Mom, don’t be angry, I…. She didn’t mean anything by it, she was just thinking about Albina.
Bianca’s eyes were a bit cold, she kept looking at Diana with indifference, waiting for her to finish speaking before taking a sip of her tea.
-Diana, even though I’ve been indifferent to the world all these years, it doesn’t mean I don’t know anything. I’ve grown up in a fancy family, but you want to fool me like a three-year-old?
Before she could finish her sentence, Diana was already panicking.
-Mom, I don’t, I just…. I may have been thinking too much, but I was doing it for Albina, I….
-Enough! -Bianca interrupted her with a raised hand, her voice no longer as soft and intimate as before, “I just want to remind you now that Albina is my daughter, my own daughter, and even if she never entered it and you were in the Espina family, you couldn’t replace her. The Espina family only has one real daughter, that’s what I told you when I adopted you, isn’t it?
Diana looked at her and nodded.
-Yes, yes, you told me that when you adopted me.
-Then stop your tricks, and if it happens again, there is no way I will allow anyone who would hurt my daughter to stay in my house.
Bianca said this without mercy.
Twenty years ago, she had lost her daughter once because of her neglect, and now that she had finally found her, she would not lose her again.
Diana was already so pale with fear that she could only nod her head.
Bianca rose from the sofa, looked at her with reddened eyes and suddenly spoke:
-Look at Albina’s appearance. When she is standing with Hector and Adrian, anyone can see that she is part of the Espina family.
Having said this, he left the room.
Only when she was gone, Diana collapsed on the sofa.
She had not expected the woman who seemed the mildest and least temperamental of the whole family to take Albina so seriously, and to launch into an even more forceful and merciless fury than Hector. She seemed to have no mercy.
Diana’s heart was filled with fear and regret for having rushed to test Bianca. She should have backed off when she received the message that she would not reveal her identity as an adopted daughter.
She slapped her forehead in disgust. Now that Bianca had a bad feeling about her, she would have to act very carefully.
Diana had a vague feeling that what Bianca had just said might come true.
If next they noticed her malice toward Albina, she really would be expelled from the Espina family.
When the time came, probably none of them would want her to stay, except Adrian.
Her back was sweating as she rose from the couch, and she whispered:
-It’s okay, as long as the party doesn’t announce that I’m the adopted daughter, everything will be fine….
Diana was talking to herself, not realizing that Hector was standing by the railing of the second floor, his eyes staring coldly at her.
Hearing her, Hector curved his lips coolly.
His mother said only that she would not announce her status as an adopted daughter, but there were no further restrictions.
How she valued her position so much and tried to talk to her mother to change her identity to Albina.
She had to remove her skin with her own hands and show everyone how ugly she was.
At this moment, in Albina’s bedroom, Umberto lay on the same bed as her, looking at the big empty room, and finally couldn’t help but let out a sigh.
-Albina, your room is so big it’s a little scary.
Most of the second floor was her room, with a bathroom and closet separating it and a bedroom with plenty of space. The space was way too much for one person to live in.
Albina was also filled with helplessness.
-I, too, was bewildered when I walked in. The Espina family feels so guilty that they are hell bent on trying to make it up to me.
Especially when Hector presented her with the room decorations.
Albina, who had been so excited to play with them in his hands, didn’t even dare touch them when she heard him say how valuable they were.
But…
Albina closed her eyes and arched into Umberto’s arms.
-Umberto, I find myself quite fond of the Espina family.
She was a little apprehensive before she arrived, but when she met these people, she realized that the Espina family was just like the family she had imagined.
-If mom and dad were still around, they would have loved to see the Espina family and all these people,” Albina said, sounding a little forlorn.
Umberto stroked her hair and changed the subject.
-What do you think of that Diana?
Albina’s eyes widened at the sound and she frowned.
-I don’t like her!
Umberto looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
Albina became a little exasperated.
-I dislike this Diana so much that, if I hadn’t been afraid to come on the first day and stir up the atmosphere too much, I would have disliked her terribly.
This Diana, both in her eyes and in her various actions and words, made her quite uncomfortable.
It seemed that she was deliberately showing her closeness to Antonio and Bianca, intentionally trying to provoke her into disliking the Espina family, and trying to stir up injustice in her heart.
But luckily, her parents and brother cared for her and enthused her enough to make her feel welcomed and accepted by them.
There was only one exception.
Albina thought of Adrian, pursed her lips and lay back down, her fingers unconsciously tracing circles on Umberto’s chest.
This was how she behaved when she was bored.
Umberto took her hand and kissed it.
-What’s the matter?
-I feel that this brother of mine is a little strange….
She stopped talking for a moment and then continued:
-It’s not that I don’t like him, I could feel that he was excited when he met me, but then there was hostility in his eyes.
Umberto’s eyes widened.
Adrian’s attitude, of course, was in his eyes.
From the first moment he entered the Espina family, Umberto had been watching the attitudes of everyone in the Espina family, making sure they really liked Albina.
Diana was an insignificant person and her attitude was irrelevant, but the main thing was Antonio and Bianca, Hector and Adrian.
The first three were fine with Albina and were very fond of her, only the youngest, Adrian, was a bit out of place.
-He’s young, he wasn’t even born when you were lost, and unlike mom, dad and Hector, he has no emotional base with you. You were like a sister who came out of nowhere, so it’s normal to be hostile.