Mira playfully stuck out her tongue, shoving a sizzling piece of steak into her mouth. "So what? I love to eat. This steak is divine." Nina pursed her lips in disbelief. "It's so strange. Kane is smart, and so is his brother William. I'm smart, so why is my sister such a dunce? It defies all logic." Just then, Jessica walked in. She had been over at a friend's place for a hearty dinner and had just returned home.

"Mira might take after Grandpa. He wasn't much for the books either, always scraping the bottom of the class during his school days." Chad had made it from grade school to university on nothing but the family's financial support.

Nina slapped her forehead in exasperation. "Does Grandpa even have one teeny bit of decent gene in him?" Oh, poor Mira was doomed. The perils of atavism were just too real.

"Why is it that our branch of the family had to inherit Grandpa's genes? Dad is like Grandpa, and so is Mira. Aren't we just the unlucky ones?" William let out a sigh, "Someone had to carry on Grandpa's legacy." Skyler, sitting off to the side, secretly stuck out his tongue. It wasn't just Fredric who had inherited Chad's traits, so did Geoffrey.

Aurelia felt a twinge of worry that William might have gotten a touch of it as well. Quite disconcerting.

"Grandpa isn't dumb, you know," Jessica interjected. "He has an IQ of 150 and just never had a passion for hitting the books." He was more interested in playing the field.

Nina exhaled sharply. "So I got Grandpa's smartness, and Mira got his disdain for studying." Mira pouted. "Nina, aren't you forgetting something? My IQ is as high as yours, so I got Grandpa's smartness too." Nina made a face at her. "You just don't know how to take the best and leave the rest, which still makes you dumber than me." Mira threw up her hands in surrender and grumbled, "Fine, I'm the biggest dummy." Aurelia chuckled. There was something amusing about Mira's willingness to concede and poke fun at herself.

Mira was more like the proverbial wise fool, playing coy to catch the cunning.

After dinner, Aurelia took Mira and Nina to Sheryl's villa.

At the sight of their mother, Nina didn't rush over but held Mira back instead.

"Aunt Aurelia, shouldn't we make sure she's our mom first?" She had been tricked by the imposter before and wasn't about to be fooled again.

Aurelia stroked her head, approving of Nina's caution. "Why don't you and Mira each ask her something only the three of you would know? If she answers correctly, then she's definitely your mom." "Okay," both girls nodded in agreement. Nina thought for a moment and asked, "Last spring, when we went skiing in the Alps, we named a newborn Alaskan malamute. What was it?" "Poppy," Sheryl answered without hesitation.

Mira chimed in, "What did we build outside the hotel when we went to see the Northern Lights in Iceland?" "We built a snow lion," Sheryl replied with a smile.

"Yay, she got it right! It's Mom!" The two girls joyfully leaped into Sheryl's arms.

"Mom, I missed you so much." Sheryl kissed their cheeks, "I missed you girls too." After chatting for a while, Nina and Mira went out to the yard to swing.

Aurelia shared her suspicions with Sheryl.

Learning that her divorce from Fredric was part of a sinister plot, Sheryl was on the verge of fainting.

"Someone drugged Fredric to have an affair with Jelena, pushing him to divorce me? And then impersonatedto frme as a murderer? It's downright diabolical, absolutely terrifying." "We've been pawns to them," Aurelia said solemnly. "After Leopold was poisoned and hospitalized, Jessica had Fredric take charge.

That's probably when they targeted your family with this elaborate scheme. Fortunately, Nina's intelligence and kindness saved the day. Something our adversaries didn't see coming. Kids of the Stirling family are too exceptional to be manipulated that easily."

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