The tips of his ears quickly turned red. His voice carried a helpless smile.
“Get down. What does this look like? You’re not a kid anymore.”
But Kelsey refused to let go. She pressed even closer, smiling without a shred of shame.
“I don’t care. In front of you, I am a kid.”
Then, as if she suddenly remembered something, her peripheral vision swept over me.
She slowly released him, stood properly, and her expression turned awkward and cautious.
“Oh… I forgot.”
She lowered her head, her voice soft.
“My sister-in-law… Oh no, my sister is still here.”
“Verity, are you maybe… uncomfortable because I keep sticking to my brother all the time? That’s why you… didn’t really want to give me allowance?”
My head buzzed.
“That’s not—”
“I’m sorry.”
She didn’t give me a chance to finish. Tears welled up immediately.
“I really didn’t mean to. I’ll be more careful in the future. I won’t cling to my brother anymore…”
The moment those words fell, I clearly felt the air around Tucker turn cold.
He didn’t look at her. He lifted his eyes and stared at me coldly instead.
“Tucker, I didn’t—” I opened my mouth to explain.
But he cut me off, looking away first.
He reached into the inside pocket of his suit, pulled out a bank card, and handed it to Kelsey.
“If you run out of money, use this.”
His voice was calm.
“This is dividend income from shares I bought under your name. It doesn’t belong to the marital assets I share with her.”
As he said that, he looked at me again.
There was an unmistakable warning in his eyes.
“She has no right to touch that.”
Verity’s POV
At that moment, it felt like the air was being slowly pulled out of my lungs.
What Tucker did hurt more than if he’d questioned me directly, far more than if he’d accused me like my brothers did.
He’d built everything from nothing. I knew how hard it was for him, so I’d never once asked him for “allowance.”
I had my own income, my own savings.
He rarely gave me anything. Gifts were few and far between.
And I never complained about it.
But now, he handed over the money he earned himself to Kelsey—so casually.
Shares under Kelsey’s name. That meant that when Tucker started his company three years ago, he’d already counted her share in from the very beginning.
At some point, my phone screen had gone dark.
All those bank statements. All that proof. Suddenly, none of it mattered anymore.
No one would believe me. No one even wanted to.