Page 23 of The Sins of Noelle

"But you weren't this rude to people," she weakly made the excuse.

"No, I was worse. But because I'm a man, it was excused," he pointed out, raising his eyebrow at her and waiting for anotherexcuse.

"But…"

"My tutors lasted each a couple of weeks maximum. Or do you not recall that either?"

Elena blinked, taken aback by his sudden change in demeanor.

Cisco suspected it was because he rarely disagreed with her—and it was all because he knew it was a waste of time to do so. She had her views, he had his and they rarely overlapped.

But he couldn'tnotintervene when he observed the way everyone was banding up against Noelle.

He may have been a loner growing up, but he'd been just as blunt as outspoken as his sister currently was. He'd never shied away from giving his opinion if asked. The only difference was that he'd quickly learned most people weren't worth his effort. Why argue when he could just ignore them?

But he couldn't ignorethis.

"But it's different. You were…"

"A boy. Yes, I think we've established that," he muttered dryly.

Elena regarded him warily, taken aback by his sudden attitude.

"I'll be completely honest with you, mamma, because I think it's high time someone did that. You're spilling your frustrations onto Noelle because she didn't fit your expectations. You wanted a girly girl to parade around but instead you got an independent child who cared more about Mozart and Handel than she did about Barbies and pink dresses."

"But…"

"You know it's true," he didn't let her protest for he knew she would just come up with more excuses. In her delusion about Noelle, she'd convinced herself there was something seriously wrong with her when she was just that. Different. And no one wanted to accept it.

"But she's embarrassing us," she added weakly.

"Someone can embarrass you only if you let them," he rolled his eyes. "You're adding too much weight to what other people are saying instead of paying more attention to your child."

"Cisco… How can you say that?" She asked in a hurt tone.

He felt bad for doing so, but he suspected it was high time someone gave his mother a dose of reality.

"Instead of criticizing her all the time, maybe cut her some slack. I'm sure you'll be surprised by the results."

"The results? She'll become even worse. God, you saw how impertinent she was and you want me to leave her alone? Continue to be so rude?" Elena asked, horrified.

"So you'd rather she let herself be a pushover instead of standing up for herself?" he fired back.

"How wasthatstanding up for herself?"

Cisco realized that no matter what he told his mother it was unlikely to change her opinion. The teacher's tone alone had been a cause for alarm, for it suggested a history of animosity. But his mother decided to overlook that and just focus on Noelle's replies.

Belatedly, he regretted not looking into Noelle more closely as he'd never had cause to worry before. With his father's poor health, he'd had to take over the family business and he'd been swamped with work for years. He'd had to give up his dreams of a formal university education in favor of devoting himself to the family business.

Noelle soon reappeared with her bag and Cisco gave his mother a harsh stare which promptly shut her up. He may be her son, but he was also the head of the family, and his mother respected his authority.

As they went outside, Cisco turned to Elena.

"You should go home with your guards, mother. I'll take Noelle with me," he said before he steered Noelle towards his car, not waiting for his mother's reply.

Noelle looked curiously at him, but she didn't speak either, simply falling into step with him. As they neared the parking lot, Cisco's bodyguard, Yu, was already by the car, nodding dutifully at him and handing him a cup of coffee. Cisco took it, surprised to see Yu remove a lollipop from his pocket and hand it to Noelle.

He expected his sister to refuse the offering, but she accepted it with a shy smile.

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