Reborn Young Miss: Phoenix Burning Red-Chapter 128: Circle of Friends (2)

Adrienne knew Valerie could see past Ayla’s pretense, but how come she couldn’t see beyond Airi Xia’s mask? As she thought of that person, Adrienne couldn’t help but wonder if Airi Xia would dare to show herself today.

Adrienne didn’t manage to meet that person in her past life, but she was curious to see who made Valerie commit a bloody murder because of an affair with her husband. The news depicted Valerie Xia as a deranged woman who lost her sane mind after finding her husband in an intimate scene with her sister.

However, Adrienne didn’t need to wait long because a young woman dressed in light pink came to greet Valerie. Adrienne subtly gave the newcomer a good look. Airi Xia was originally the daughter of the former head maid of the Xia family.

"Val, are these your friends? High school must be so much fun. They are all beautiful, just like you, sister."

Sister? Adrienne tried not to show her disgust to Airi and lowered her gaze to her drink. Airi Xia was just like her mother. She had a poisonous tongue that knew how to deceive others with sweet and innocent words.

When Madam Xia was pregnant with Valerie, she fell victim to a kidnap-for-ransom scheme. The head maid was said to have sacrificed her own safety in order to help Madam Xia escape. Two years later, this same maid gave birth to Airi and when she died from childbirth, Madam Xia adopted Airi to repay the maid’s loyalty.

However, there was a dark secret that the maid was hiding from the Xia family. The only reason why those kidnappers captured Madam Xia was because she instigated it. However, she overheard that the Xia family had sought the Shen family’s help along the way.

The maid feared that her secrets would be discovered by Katherine’s family so she decided to let Madam Xia escape. Also, by injuring herself in the process, made Madam Xia felt indebted to her and would do anything to return this favor, not knowing she was tricked!

What a cunning way to control someone. Adrienne thought. However, such a trick would only work once and Airi’s mother had gambled on Valerie’s mother to believe her.

Valerie never knew she was following in her mother’s footsteps—getting fooled by the maid’s daughter. As to how Adrienne found out about such a secret, Alistair was the one who told her about it. They were once husband and wife after all and though Alistair had kept her against her will, he trusted her enough to say these words, knowing that the information was useless to her.

’Alistair Han, I suppose I have to thank you.’

Adrienne smiled at the thought. Alistair had underestimated her. Alistair was able to expand Han Corporation by using devious means and that included using other families’ darkest secrets against them. Although most of them were loyal to him, Alistair didn’t like to get betrayed by anyone. He needed something to use as a leash on those people so that they would obey him.

It was the same for the Xia family. When Valerie’s brother succeeded as the head of the Xia family, Alistair used this information to make her brother cooperate with him. Arthur Xia had no choice but to cooperate, but Valerie’s action of committing murder had rapidly pushed the Xia family to hit rock bottom.

Valerie never knew that her action had forced her brother to commit suicide, ending the lineage of their family. His sudden death annoyed Alistair greatly, that he willingly shared this confidential information to Adrienne as he released his pent up anger.

"Who’s this, Val?" Adrienne asked her friend. Since Valerie had self-proclaimed that they were best of friends, how could she not take advantage of this now?

"I’ve never heard of you having a younger sister. I’m really envious. Elise dislikes me, but you and your sister look very close to each other." She added.

Airi was smiling, but Adrienne could see the stiffness of the younger woman’s smile. It seemed that like Elise Jiang, Airi Xia hated being regarded as someone’s little sister. Did Airi feel she was being sponsored by the Xia family and did not belong to it? Was this why she tried to covet and get everything from Valerie before?

"Addie, this is Airi. She’s sixteen now, but isn’t she a beauty? She looks more beautiful and refined than me, so my brother started teasing me that she’s better to be presented as the Xia family’s young miss than me, his own sister! Do you know how annoying that is?!" Valerie huffed. "Anyway, though Airi and I didn’t crawl out from the same womb, she and I were raised together and we’ve been sisters since then." 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Adrienne turned to face Myrtle. "Myrtle, do you think Elise and I would get along just like them if we were raised together?"

Myrtle shot her an annoyed look. She didn’t know what Adrienne was up to this time.

"What the hell are you saying, Addie? Are you really considering treating that excuse of a trash as your sister? That same person who tried to scheme on you by tricking you to go to a gentlemen’s club? Something’s wrong with your head, Addie, if you still forgive Elise after what she’d done to you."

"She did that?" Diana frowned, while Katherine and Stephanie didn’t seem surprised at all. Adrienne wondered if such occurrences were already a norm for those two young ladies.

"Yes!" Myrtle visibly bristled. "You don’t know how much I want to rip off Elise’s face with my own hands after I found out what she tried to do to, Addie! I really don’t understand why little sisters act innocent and kind in front of their older sisters only for them to stab them in the back in the end!"

Airi Xia, who was ignored by everyone for sometime now, lost the colors in her face when she heard Myrtle’s words. Adrienne smiled inwardly. Myrtle reacted the way she expected she would.