Just then, out of nowhere, Zelda suddenly appeared. She spotted her youngest son talking with Calliope and a few others. She had no clue what was going on, but saw a crowd on Calliope''s side and her son standing there alone. Instantly, she jumped to conclusions: her poor boy must be getting picked on.


    Without a second thought, Zelda stormed over. She immediately started yelling.


    "Calliope, what are you doing? Are you bullying Uly? He''s your brother for heaven''s sake! Are you ganging up on him with those random guys?"


    Zelda was absolutely furious, hurling usations at Calliope without a pause. She even protectively stepped in front of Ulysses, ring daggers at Calliope as if she were the Big Bad Wolf.


    Calliope just stood there, at a total loss for words.


    Sometimes, when you''re so speechless, all you can do isugh.


    She hadn''t even opened her mouth before Zeldaunched her verbal attack. And what the heck did she mean by "random guys"?


    "Mom, please just stop!" Ulysses blurted out,pletely caught off guard by Zelda''s outburst.


    He was mortified.


    "I''m fine. Callie''s not bullying me at all. Please, go back to your room. I need to talk to Callie alone."


    "Actually, you should apologize to her first! She didn''t do anything wrong and you just used her out of nowhere!"


    Ulysses frowned at Zelda, suddenly seeing things much more clearly.


    It hit him. Zelda hadn''t even asked what happened, she just jumped to me Calliope.


    Thinking about it, Callie must feel pretty crappy about this. It''s always the same: no matter what Callie does, their mom finds fault with her.


    But if Lisette did the exact same thing, Zelda would act like she''d invented sliced bread. She was shamelessly biased.


    The crazy part? She wasn''t favoring her biological daughter. She was doting on her adopted one.


    Ulysses tried to imagine how he''d feel if he were the biological child and his mom acted like this towards an adopted daughter. He''d probably have packed his bags and left ages ago. He definitely wouldn''t waste his breath on it.


    Bute to think of it, Callie always tried to patch things up with their mom, no matter how unfair it was.


    Comparing the two, Callie really tugged at your heartstrings.


    Ulysses furrowed his brow, looking at Zelda with a seriousness she wasn''t used to. "Mom, you owe Callie an apology, not just for today, but for a lot of things you''ve done in the past. You shouldn''t treat Callie this way. She''s your daughter, for crying out loud!"


    "What are you talking about? Have you lost your mind?" Zelda stared at Ulysses like he''d grown two heads. She couldn''t believe he was defending Calliope, insisting she apologize. He''d never done that before.


    "You really have hurt her, Mom. You''ve made her miserable. You should apologize." Ulysses said, "Just because you''re the parent doesn''t mean you can do whatever you want, no matter how wrong."


    "Are you out of your mind?" Zelda waspletely baffled by Ulysses''s attitude. She shot Calliope a furious look and demanded, "What did you do to my Uly?"


    Calliope was speechless.


    What did she do? She hadn''t even had a chance to say a word!


    Calliope couldn''t be bothered to argue. She had no clue what kind of mood swing Ulysses was having, so she simply headed inside.


    Ss and the others naturally followed, all of them filing into the hotel together. They waited at the elevator.


    Calliope could still hear Ulysses and Zelda arguing behind her.


    Finally, Ulysses came jogging over, looking at Calliope with pleading eyes. "Callie, can we talk for a minute? I''m serious. If you don''t talk to me today, I''m just going to keep following you around."