Agreed. Normally I hate step sibling romance but they dont rly feel like siblings to me. They didnt see each other for most of her childhood and Luci has clearly never seen her as a sister. And ofc HARD AGREE ab the abuse. Its giving fake care bc how is she playing family with them knowing that the father physically and mentally TORTURED ML and why does ML just act like thats ok. Altho I think they DID address the reason for his hatred very briefly. Its just poor writing on the author's part I think.. if they were going to rug sweep the abuse they should have made it way less severe. Like just make the dad completely ignore him.
Real like he doesn't even apologize to his son and doesn't seem to regret it .... being a victim of abuse doesn't give you the right to become an abuser yourself
Look, unlike some of the other comments, I don't care that MC and ML are step-siblings.
BUT the one thing that really grinds my gears is the way the FL spends so much time with the duke, because how are you going to be all close with a man who abuses his son.... Also she doesn't even berate him for it?? She's just like "we should all get along" like BE FR he's the guy who ABUSES A CHILD because of a generational grudge??? He didn't even get a slap on the wrist — the whole thing was just brushed off without him receiving any repurcussions at all!!
Also she never even addresses the root of the abuse/hatred the duke has of the ML like it's so obvious the duke still bears dislike towards the ML but she's just like "welp he's not physically abusing him anymore so it's all good!! We're all one happy family!!" Like are you taking the piss rn.....