A pained whimper escaped from Iris' throat. Her vision was blurry due to her tears, but she couldn't look away from Jin Liwei who was still keeping a firm hold on her chin.

"Is what Lu Zihao said true, wife? That the two of you share a big secret?" Jin Liwei's tone was soft and gentle, a total contradiction to the gravity of his words.

He focused on observing her every reaction and he didn't like what he was seeing. It was clear that his questions were affecting her to an extreme level. He wasn't expecting this. 

All he wanted was to probe her a little about what Lu Zihao spouted during their tense confrontation earlier which he thought was total bullshit. But seeing her extreme reaction now had planted a seed of suspicion deeper inside his heart. He already thought that something was amiss some time ago but it wasn't enough to bother him. Now, however, he wanted some answers.

His woman was now very pale that it looked like all her blood was drained from her body. In fact, she had become so pale that her pallor was starting to turn a little ash grey. She was also shaking so hard that he feared she might bite her own tongue.

When it looked like she would soon forget how to breathe, he couldn't take it anymore. He pulled her into an embrace and immediately started comforting her. He patted and rubbed her back and murmured soothing words directly to her ear. 

"Sssh. You'll be okay, baby. Sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you. Breathe, love. Come on. You can do it. That's it."

Iris clasped at him like a lifeline. Her eyes were wide open, like she had seen something frightening. Seeing her like this worried him and made him feel guilty.

Shit. What the hell was he doing? His woman was pregnant with his twin babies. This was a sensitive period for her. If he only knew that her reaction would be this extreme, he wouldn't have questioned her to the point of upsetting and frightening her like this. 

His main priority now was to calm her down. Yet there was also a part of him that felt furious about not knowing anything. It was clear as day that there was an important secret between his woman and former sworn brother. He felt a twinge in his chest when he referred to Lu Zihao as his "former" sworn brother even if it was only in his thoughts. 

As for whatever secret the two of them were hiding, he wouldn't have minded it if she just brushed it off. If she did, he would've assumed that it was nothing of importance. So when she showed such an extreme reaction, he couldn't stop himself from becoming suspicious. It wasn't a great feeling to have between lovers. 

He needed to calm her down for the sake of her health and their babies inside her and that was what he was doing. However, what he really wanted to do the most right now was to rage and beat up something in order to ease the mess of emotions which were almost reaching a boiling point inside him. 

'No more fighting today,' he chanted to himself but the ugly emotions remained inside his chest, making him feel suffocated. 

"Li-liwei…."

He forced his tight jaw to loosen and his tone to remain gentle on her. "What is it, love?"

She blinked her tearful eyes at him. Her hands that were holding the front of his robe were still trembling but not as much as before. It looked like she had calmed down a little. 

"I'm s-sorry," she told him in a shaky whisper.

He didn't reply and instead waited for her to speak more. 

"My brother and I…yes. We have a s-secret."

His expression turned dark at her admission. "What is it?"

She opened and closed her mouth a few times but no words came out. 

"You don't want to tell me?" he asked.

"No! I want to tell you, Liwei. Believe me! I…I really do."

"Okay." He waited but she still didn't say anything. His nostrils flared as he controlled his anger. "Tell me, Xiulan or Evelinka or whatever your name is. Be honest with me."

Her eyes watered again and widened even more but she still nodded.

"That secret between you and Lu Zihao…"

She swallowed and waited for him to finish speaking. [This novel is a contracted work with W e b n o v e l . c o m (remove spaces). If you're not reading this chapter on W e b n o v e l, it has been stolen. It's very discouraging to see thieves profitting from my hard work. Please read this novel on W e b n o v e l. Thank you! -Arria Cross]

"Is it about the two of you having an affair? Did you and Lu Zihao have an affair?! Is that it?! Tell me!"

Her expression showed absolute horror. "No! What…no! How could you think like that, Liwei?! He and I are siblings! That's incest! Disgusting!"

He studied her and concluded that she wasn't lying. The horror and disgust in her face couldn't be faked, especially for such a straightforward person like her. He felt relieved but not enough to improve his grim mood.

The truth was that he wasn't really suspecting that she and Lu Zihao were having an affair. Not at all. He trusted his woman and had no reason to doubt her loyalty to him especially after they professed their mutual love for each other. 

He also trusted Lu Zihao even after falling out with him earlier today. Although Lu Zihao had drastically changed and began to feel like a stranger, the man's treatment towards Iris never crossed the line in a sexual or romantic way. Their strong sibling bond might be weird but it was indeed a pure bond between that of a brother and sister.

It was just that Jin Liwei couldn't think of anything else that the two of them had to hide from him. If it wasn't an affair, then what was it? What was so difficult for them to tell him? This was all so frustrating!

"You and Lu Zihao keep on saying that you are brother and sister," he said in a hard tone. "We all have accepted that special yet odd bond between the two of you. But don't forget that you and him aren't real siblings. You're not blood-related at all so even if you have an affair with him, it won't be incest."

"You're wrong, Liwei! He's really my brother! The only one."

Now he felt bewildered. He frowned as he tried making sense of what she said. Was she talking figuratively? She couldn't be possibly talking in a literal sense, could she?

If she and Lu Zihao were really blood-related siblings, Grandpa Lu would've surely known about it. There was no way in hell that the old man would allow a blood-related grandchild of his to be raised outside the family. 

And besides, Iris Long was a public figure. Everyone knew that her real, biological parents were President-CEO Long Tengfei and former model Wei Lan. Genes also wouldn't lie because she inherited physical features from both her father and mother. Likewise, Lu Zihao also looked like a Lu. There was no need for any DNA tests because just by how they looked like, Iris and Lu Zihao couldn't possibly be real, blood-related siblings.

Jin Liwei forced himself to take a few deep breaths. Afterwards, he said in a calmer voice, "Explain to me so that I understand because I'm very confused right now."

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