Under the Veil I Rule
Chapter 66

The atmosphere between Amara and Finnian had now become awkward, and Amara was desperately searching for a topic to break the tension. Suddenly, Finnian remembered something and headed to the bathroom.

A few seconds later, he emerged holding a bright green snake, waving it in front of Amara's face. Amara screamed in terror and scrambled backward in a frenzy.

"Don't be scared," Finnian explained, his voice tinged with amusement. "It's fake."

Amara remained silent, freezing in a rather undignified position, her backside awkwardly sticking out.

Quickly regaining her composure, she looked back. Finnian was holding the snake by its tail, and the snake dangled limply, its posture unnatural and not at all like a living creature.

Upon closer inspection, Amara noticed that despite the snake's scales gleaming realistically, the lifeless, beady eyes gave away its artificial nature.

Her eyes widened. "Is this remote-controlled?"

"Probably."

Finnian placed the snake on the ground. He fiddled with it for a moment, extracting a couple of batteries from its head, upon which the "snake" immediately went limp.

Relief washed over Amara, but it was quickly replaced by anger. She gritted her teeth. "This has Elowen written all over it!"

Elowen knew about her fear of snakes. In the past, she'd used real ones to scare Amara. With Finnian around, she probably opted for a fake one this time.

Finnian nodded. "I thought so too."

This kind of remote-controlled prank was easy to trace, and after having dinner, Finnian had figured out that while Fiona was cunning, Elowen was not the sharpest tool in the shed.

So, it wasn't surprising that Elowen would pull a stunt like this.

Finnian fiddled with his phone for a bit. A few minutes later, Will sent him the evidence he needed. With snake in hand, Finnian headed to Larry's room.

"Dad."

Finnian recounted the snake discovery in the bathroom, conveniently leaving out the awkward incident with Amara. He continued, "Amara is genuinely terrified of snakes. I think this prank went too far, so I had my assistant look into it, and we found this."

He showed Larry the evidence on his phone, proof of Elowen's remote control antics. Larry's face darkened with anger, the veins at his temples pulsating with irritation.

Considering Finnian technically an outsider, Larry couldn't chastise Elowen in front of him, so he gruffly assured, "Finn, don't worry. I'll make sure Ama gets an apology for this."

Amara had followed Finnian into the room, remaining silent until now. She stepped forward, head bowed and said Dad, please don't be too angry've gotten used to things like this. I'm just worried about Elowen. She's old enough to know better than to pull stunts like this.

If this happened within our family, we might brush it off as a prank. After all, we won't take this trivial matter into heart. But if she tries something like this outside to other people... Elowen's personality could get her into trouble."

Amara spoke sincerely, and Larry's frown deepened as he stared out the dark window, his thought unfathomable.

After a few moments, he turned back, his expression softening. "Amara, you're a good kid."

Hearing this, Amara's lips curled into a smile, though it was hidden by her mask.

Their conversation hadn't gone unnoticed by someone Fiona and Elowen infiltrated into the family. The duo had already arrived but were too apprehensive to approach, lurking nervously around the corner instead.