Layla subtly shifted away from the boy, trying to put some distance between them. She turned to her mother, her eyes serious. "No, he's not my brother, Mom! Ever since we returned from the picnic, he hasn't been my brother. Mom, my brother's gone. This boy isn't him; he just looks like him."
Ellinor was confused by her daughter's words. She looked at the boy, who seemed to be an exact replica of her son, Adrian. How could there be two children who looked exactly the same?
She had only given birth to twins, a boy and a girl. It was impossible for there to be another child who looked exactly like her son.
"Layla, stop talking nonsense." Ellinor warned her sternly.
Layla looked at her mom, her face serious. "Mom, I'm not making this up. He really isn't my brother!"
The boy didn’t challenge Layla. He just stood there, silently looking down at his shoes.
Ellinor felt something was off about the two children. She looked at her daughter. "How can you prove what you're saying is true?"
Layla was stumped by her mother's question. She didn't know how to prove that what she was saying was true. The boy next to her did indeed look exactly like her twin brother. As a twin, she could feel that this boy wasn’t Adrian, but she had no way to prove it.
After seeing her daughter speechless, Ellinor couldn't understand what her daughter was trying to do and assumed it was just kids being kids.
"That's enough! I don't care what's going on between you two, but hitting each other is not acceptable. Apologize to each other right now, or I will ignore both of you!" Ellinor commanded them sternly.
The boy, after some hesitation, complied with his mother's command and took the initiative to apologize to Layla. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to step on your doll. I'm your brother; I shouldn't have hit you back."
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