The maid froze and looked panickingly at the girl. However, the girl was calm as she sat casually by the table. The way she shook her napkin spoke of natural elegance, like that of a medieval-era princess.
“There’s nothing weird about that. Why would I save someone whose name I don’t even know?”
Frowning, Rachel could not formulate an argument. After all, the girl had saved her life. So, she could not be too rude toward her. “Who exactly are you?”
“If I refuse to answer, you won’t feel like eating, will you?”
“Yes.” Rachel nodded as she confessed, “I guess you don’t have any evil intentions toward me. Regardless of the reason, at least I should know who you are and why you saved me.”
“My name is Regina Hudson.”
Rachel was stunned. “Regina Hudson?”
“Isn’t it pretty?”
“It is.” It sounded really familiar too. This is probably just a coincidence. Rachel tried to suppress her confusion.
Regina rested her chin on her hand while looking at Rachel innocently. “As for why I saved you? I think if you were in my place, you would never let your older step-sister be kidnapped without intervening, would you?”
A step—what?
Rachel froze. “What did you just say?” She could not believe what she had just heard.
“You don’t believe me?” Regina asked while touching her face and muttering to herself, “Well, I guess we don’t look much alike. Both of us didn’t seem to inherit much of our father’s features and we looked more like our respective mothers instead.”
“What on earth are you saying?”
“I said, you are my older sister.”
“What do you mean by that? Both my parents are long gone.”
“Who told you that?”
Rachel was speechless. She did witness her mother’s death, so she was sure about that. As for her biological father?
At that moment, there was the sound of the door opening.
“Regina!” A deep masculine voice called as the door opened with sounds of heavy footsteps following.
Rachel turned and saw a tall figure standing in the doorway. He was wearing a suit and his gaze still carried the remnants of his past. Even if the man was over fifty, there were traces of his past good looks. The man seemed refined while the graying hair at his temples made him look warm and sincere.
He did not need to introduce himself. Rachel already knew who he was as she had felt the pull of kinship toward him and recognized his eyes, which were slightly similar to her own. It was Lionel Hudson. I can’t believe he’s still alive…
“Dad?” Regina stood, looking astonished. She glared at the maid with annoyance. “You got here so quickly. Who was the one that spilled the beans?”
Lionel walked into the room and paused when he saw Rachel. Then, he turned to Regina with a stern expression. “You’re the one tossing the blame? Why didn’t you tell me about such a serious matter and chose to deal with it yourself? Aren’t you worried that something might go wrong?”
“How was I going to tell you? Am I supposed to wait until my sister was kidnapped to tell you, hoping for you to save her?”
Obviously, he did not mean to truly put the blame on her. He had lost his temper, which had not happened often in the past, but now he was slightly desperate.
Rachel was still staring at him. “You are…”
She could not continue her words. She refused to believe her father was still alive. How is this possible? Everyone has said that he is dead. Besides, why did he not show up before this if he is still alive? Had he shown up earlier, Mother, Grandma, and I wouldn’t have…
“Our dad, of course.” Regina grabbed her hand. “I just told you; we are sisters. Dad has been thinking about you all this time. The purpose of this visit is to take you back with us.”
“Back? Back where?”
“Yatruinia.” Regina spread open Rachel’s palm and placed a small finely-made metal badge on it. “Come back with us.”
The badge was the shape of the Yatruinian flag carved in elaborate detail. At once, Rachel realized that this was a badge belonging to the Yatruinian royal family. “What do you mean by this?”
“Regina!” Lionel tried to stop his daughter, but could not prevent her frank words in time.
Regina answered, “I haven’t had the time to tell you this, but my mom is a member of the Yatruinian royal family though just a distant relative. This badge is proof of that.”
All members of the royal family could give two of those badges to people they deemed most important, deeming them a member of the royal family as well. Seeing that Regina had so readily given Rachel one meant that Regina recognized her as her sister, even though they did not share a mother.
However, Rachel did not think the same. After a long while, she lifted her head to look at the man facing her. “So, you have been alive all these years, living peacefully and having a family abroad?”
Lionel’s face tightened. “Rae.”
“Answer my question.”
His silence explained everything.
Rachel added, “How did you manage to live happily abroad the way you did? You can abandon me and my mother, but how could you abandon your parents? You are way worse than Jefferey!”
He clenched his fists as his face paled. “I’m so sorry.”
“What’s the use of saying all that now? What are you doing back here?”
“I just wanted to see everyone.”
“To see what? To see that everyone from your family is worse off than you, the fact that Hudson Pharmaceuticals is in danger, or that the daughter whom you never knew existed is currently being hunted down?”
Rachel had been trying to rein herself in, but she could not control herself. Before this, she had considered Lionel to be a refined and responsible gentleman, who was worth everything her mother, Selena, had sacrificed for him. However, that was based on the assumption that he was dead. Now that it was proven he was not, that meant that all the suffering Selena had gone through was a joke.
Selena had carried the mandate of continuing the Hudson Pharmacy business as she fled into the deep forest. All of this happened when Lionel, who was supposed to support the family, had vanished abroad while creating a new peaceful life and family.
Speechless, Lionel knew he could not argue with that as he had truly owed it to them.
Rachel clenched her fists. “I’ll pretend that I never met you.”
As soon as she finished speaking, she walked toward the door.
“Rachel, where are you going?”
“Regina.” He held his daughter back.
Regina was frustrated. “Dad, what are you doing? We finally found Rachel! I finally have a sister and I want to bring her back with us!”
“Regina, you are too reckless!” He was rarely this angry and Regina was scared by it.
To that, her eyes reddened. At the thought of something, she choked out, “Do you really plan to stay here and never return?”
In response, Lionel frowned. They were both his daughters and he loved them equally. He would never abandon Regina after he had found Rachel. It was just that he owed Rachel way too much.
