The Sweet Rival (Mango Shen and Nathaniel Ye)
Chapter 1174

Nathaniel was startled when he heard Terrance's question.

He thought Terrance was thinking of Dennis when he looked at the painting, but he did not expect the latter to change topic out of the blue.

"Are you talking about Barack Hans?"

Nathaniel asked subconsciously.

It suddenly occurred to him that Mango's father, Dennis was the oldest child. Besides him, Mateo was the third child, and Terrance was the youngest child. It seemed that he had never heard the Hans family mention anything about Barack, so no one had heard of Barack's name before.

"He has been removed from our family tree for a long time, so we can't remember him. Sometimes, I even think that our family only has three sons."

Terrance forced a smile and drew the smoke into his mouth as he said this. However, he ended up choking before the smoke, so he started coughing.

When Nathaniel saw this, he poured a glass of water and handed it to him.

Hence, Terrance took a sip of water to suppress the cough. Then, he looked at the paintings on the wall and said, "In fact, like my eldest brother, he liked painting, travel and photography. However, he liked having freedom more. Also, Dennis and Barack are twins."

Nathaniel was dumbstruck when he heard this.

Were Dennis and Barack twins?

Nathaniel had never thought about this possibility!

After that, Terrance looked at Nathaniel, who was in surprise and smiled, "Everyone thought that Mango could give birth to a pigeon pair is because of the Ye family's genes. But, no one knows that the Hans family also has twins. However, the probability of the Hans family having twins is not high, so only a few people know about it."

Nathaniel did not interrupt Terrance.

This was indeed a little unexpected, but it was not difficult to accept.

Well, if Mango's family had no history of giving birth to twins, she would not have given birth to a pair of fraternal twins, even if Nathaniel's family had a history of doing so.

Thus, he could not help but think of their miscarried child.

The child seemed to have been a single baby.

Hence, even if there were genetic factors involved, it didn't mean that Mango would give birth to twins everytime.

Hence, Nathaniel did not speak, but Terrance continued, "Dennis and Barack were twins. At that time, my father was excited to hear this. After all, my father had always liked his life in the military. He even thought that if he gave birth to a son, he would train his sons to be soldiers from a young age. So, when he learned that he had two sons at a time, my father was very happy, and he trained them personally. Dennis was calm and obedient, but Barack was rebellious and naughty. Thus, Barack's always disliked our father's training."

"However, my mother thought that we only needed one son to continue their father's career. Their eldest son was steady and obedient, and my father had high expectations of him. On the other hand, my mother thinks that as long as Barack is happy, she wouldn't force him to do anything that he doesn't like."

A trace of sadness flashed across Terrance's face as he brought this up.

On the other hand, Nathaniel put out the almost-finished cigarette in his hand.

He looked at Terrance and asked, "Are the paintings here painted by Barack? Not Dennis?"

Terrance was slightly startled as he did not expect Nathaniel to ask such a question. However, he shook his head and said, "Of course not. Dennis is not a despicable villain who steals the works of others. Dennis painted those landscape paintings, but Barack painted the rest of the portraits."

Nathaniel was slightly stunned when he heard what Terrance had said.

He remembered Mango telling him that Dennis mostly painted landscapes, and the latter barely painted portraits. Hence, the only person that he had ever painted was Queena, who was also his mother-in-law. Therefore, Nathaniel was surprised to hear what Terrance had said.

"He only painted one person."

"Yes, is the person Queena?"

Terrance looked at Nathaniel and said wryly, "Do you think that Dennis broke up with Queena so that he could the army?"

"You mean, Dennis and Barack fell in love with Queena at the same time, so Dennis decided to give her up?"

Different thoughts were running in Nathaniel's mind right now.

Well, Terrance had to admit that Nathaniel was smart.

"Mateo and I, and even the entire Hans family, thought the same. However, a woman who looked exactly like Queena came to me today. Then, I knew the reason behind his actions." Nathaniel had already guessed what Terrance was going to say.

"She is Magnolia, who is Mango's aunt and Queena's twin sister."

"Looks like you and Mango know quite a lot of things."

Terrance was not surprised at all, but he forced a smile nonetheless.

"But, at that time, no one knew that Queena had a twin sister. Therefore, both Dennis and Barack didn't know about this as well."

After hearing what Terrance had said, thoughts started running in Nathaniel's mind again.

"Terrance, what do you mean? Are you saying that Dennis loved Queena, while Barack loved Magnolia? But both of them thought that the two ladies were the same person, so the guys were giving way to each other?"

Actually, Nathaniel's guess was pretty close, but it was still incorrect.

Then, Terrance took another deep breath and said, "The twins in the Hans family fell in love with twins in the Xiao family at the same time, didn't they? Unfortunately, my brothers didn't know they were twins and thought they were the same person. Barack met Magnolia when he travelled abroad and fell in love with her at first sight. Unfortunately, she didn't come back with him. When he came back, he thought that the woman he loved got together with Dennis, so he hit Queena in front of Dennis. What happened after that? Dennis was so furious at that time, so he had a big fight with Barack. Our mother finally persuaded them to stop fighting, but both of them grew apart of each other since then."

After that, Terrance took a deep breath and continued, "Barack was so angry that he wanted to go overseas and relax. Hence, he went to Angolla and met Magnolia there instead. However, when he met her again, she was concerned about him. Even though he felt terrible about her cheating on him, he didn't want to bring the issue up since Magnolia never talked about it. However, during that period, he confined Magnolia. After all, he thought that as long as Magnolia was by his side, she couldn't be with Dennis. When they had a child, he would marry Magnolia, so that Dennis wouldn't stand a chance anymore. However, he was too paranoid. So, Magnolia couldn't bear with his domineering attitude, so she ran away."

"However, he couldn't find Magnolia anywhere, so he returned home in the end. Then, he discovered that Queena and Dennis were in love. So, he became very mad and had a big fight with Dennis in front of our parents. He even showed Dennis their intimate images. At that time, Dennis was dumbfounded. He never thought that his beloved woman would have such a close relationship with his biological brother. For a moment, he couldn't accept it."

Nathaniel frowned slightly after hearing what Terrance had said.

"How is that possible? If Dennis and Queena were together all the time, didn't he know that Queena couldn't have been with his brother?"

"Well, coincidentally, Queena went overseas for an exchange program, so she was not around too."

Terrance smiled bitterly at this when he said this.

If this incident hadn't happened around the same time, both of them wouldn't have ended up fighting this badly.

Nathaniel was feeling a little upset when he heard this.

After all, Dennis and Queena were star-crossed lovers.

"Is that why Dennis joined the army?"

Then, Terrance nodded his head and said, "At that time, our father was on a mission outside. He only came back and stayed for a night. When he saw Dennis and Barack fighting over a woman, he flared up and ordered the two of them not to have anything to do with Queena anymore. If they didn't listen, he would chase them out of the Hans family. Barack became very stubborn and angry at that time. He said that he wouldn't care if he wasn't a part of the Hans family, but he'd never give up on his beloved woman in his life. Hence, our father was infuriated at that time."

"The next day, our father went for a mission, and Dennis began to avoid Queena. However, he was hesitant and upset. He had let go of Queena reluctantly as he thought that Queena and Barack had already lived together, so he shouldn't get in the way of their relationship. So, Dennis told my mother that he was going to join the army. My mother knew what he wanted to do, so she said nothing else. She submitted the military application form for Dennis, but all of us didn't expect that our father sacrificed himself in the mission."

"Dennis was the first son. Hence, because of our father's sacrifice, he skipped a lot of examinations and directly joined the army. Dennis felt that since things had already turned out this way, there was no need to make things clear to Queena. Everyone avoided talking about it, so he took the initiative to fulfil Barack's wish. He thought that they would understand, but everyone didn't expect that things would go wrong. After all, none of them knew that Magnolia existed."

Terrance sighed as he brought this matter up.

Then, Nathaniel asked, "Terrance, did you know that Magnolia existed before this?"

"I didn't know until today."

Nathaniel was startled when he heard Terrance's reply.

"Did she come looking for you just for this matter?"

"Yes."

Terrance nodded his head in reply.

"Why did she come to look for you after so many years?"

Nathaniel asked directly, but Terrance evaded his question instead.

"Maybe she wants to return to the Xiao family. She said that she owes Queena a lot, so perhaps she would only feel relieved after saying what she wants."

"Almost twenty years have passed since then, right? How could Magnolia claim that she owes Queena too much now? Does she feel sorry for her sister? Terrance, are you an idiot? Or do you think that I'm a fool? Do you believe such a poor excuse? You can't fool me like this!"

Nathaniel continued to question Terrance sharply.

Then, Terrance turned around and said in a deep voice, "Well, that's the truth, so I don't care whether you believe me or not."

"Then why did you stop Mango from going to Angolla? Is it because Barack is still alive? Is he in Angolla?"

Terrance's eyes widened once he heard what Nathaniel had said. Then, he stared at Nathaniel and said, "Huh? What nonsense are you talking about?"

"Hah! I'm right! Terrance, if the Hans family wasn't involved in this incident, would you be panicking so much now? Would you stop Mango from going to Angolla if Barack was already dead? Oh, wait, let me guess. Did Magnolia come here to ask you to convince Mango to go to Angolla? Did she do this for herself or Barack? What kind of position does he hold anyways? I think his position is quite high, right? Otherwise, why did he not return here when grandma passed away?"

Terrance was stunned when he heard the series of questions that Nathaniel was asking.

He knew that he shouldn't have underestimated Nathaniel, but he didn't expect the latter to catch up so quickly. Now, he didn't know how to change the topic or answer Nathaniel. Suddenly, they heard a 'clang' sound coming outside the room, and it appeared that someone had dropped a teacup. Therefore, both of the men were stunned, and they immediately looked upset.