A Ruling Passion – Chapter 1799

Melanie seemed to have read Arianne’s mind. “No, Arianne. This has got nothing to do with you. Even if you kept this a secret from me, I would have found out about this, so don’t think this happened because of you,” she pointed out. “In fact, I’m happy and grateful... You didn’t choose to be biased toward him despite his connection to you. If we really think about this... He’s your brother-in-law, isn’t he? He’s family. I’m not.”

Melanie’s analysis of their complex relationship had reached a depth beyond Arianne’s cognizance, and it made her feel pretty ashamed of herself. Frankly, she had never once cared for Alejandro the way a decent sister-in-law was supposed to do, particularly since Mark did not exactly enjoy the warmest of kinship with him. Granted, with a backdrop as charged and tumultuous as that, Arianne felt as though she could never be a good sister-in-law even if she tried.

Mateo was always in his restaurant these few days, but at least he was not as busy as he used to be a few days ago. Naturally, after seeing that the women had arrived, he sat with them and in on joined their conversation. While they were waiting for food, he brewed a kettle of savory rose tea for them and personally served the girls.

He poured the cup in front of Arianne first.

The women froze. Out of the three, Melanie should be Mateo’s closest friend, so why did he opt to serve Arianne first? This was especially since she was sitting on one end of the table with Tiffany while Mateo sat on the other end with Melanie. People usually pass drinks to their neighbors sitting next to them first, do they not?