The Double or more Life of the Fake Heiress (Mirabella) novel Chapter 12

From a young age, Delilah always found herself at the center of her friends' playful jests whenever she brought her daughter around her besties. They would tease her incessantly, scrutinizing her and her daughter's faces, jokingly suggesting that maybe there had been a mix-up at the hospital because the child bore no resemblance to her.

It wasn't as though her daughter wasn't attractive. Quite the contrary. All of Delilah's children had been cherubic in their youth. Yet Summer, when compared with her older brothers, seemed remarkably plain, compounded by the fact that both Delilah and her husband were exceptionally good-looking. This only fueled further teasing from her friends.

As Delilah reminisced, there was a painful truth to those playful words. Shaking off her wandering thoughts, she softly called out, "Mira."

Mirabella's expression remained as impassive as ever, lacking the excitement one might expect upon seeing one's birth parents. She merely nodded a polite greeting.

Seeing Mirabella's frosty demeanor, Summer quickly jumped in to explain, "Mom, Mira just got back from the countryside. She might need some time to get used to everything again."

Delilah had encountered Mirabella a few months prior and had sensed her withdrawn nature. So, while she felt a twinge of disappointment that Mirabella didn't call her 'mom,' she wasn't particularly surprised. After all, being mistakenly switched at birth and raised by the Gilbert family in a quaint town before returning to her biological family was bound to require an adjustment period. Patience was key.

Delilah couldn't help but cast a complicated glance at Summer, with a fleeting shadow crossing her face. She quickly masked it with an indifferent smile. "Summer, you've been such a dear, going to the airport to fetch Mira. It's getting late, and your biological parents must be wondering about you. They'll be upset if they know you're here."

She paused, then turned to her eldest son. "Emmitt, would you mind taking Ms. Summer home?"

The shift from 'Summer' to 'Ms. Summer' flushed Summer's cheeks with embarrassment. She opened her mouth to protest, "Mom..."