Chapter 174
“Yes, I did break your medicine bottle”
“That was a gift from you.”
“And I even yelled at you, calling you a hypocrite, a pretender”
Orion chuckled lightly. “So it’s you who was chastising me? I thought it was just child’s play.”
“Child’s play?”
Xanthea was startled by his peculiar interpretation, “So, you’ve always seen me as a child?”
Like Sebastian, who always grinned and bounded around, thought he’s tougher than he is, but actually was not intimidating at all?
She had thought she held the upper hand in every encounter, but it tumed out he was just indulging her like a child.
Orion stared at her, bemused, “Yeah”
A baby, not much different from a child.
“But she pointed somewhat sheepishly at his chest, “I even bit you.
That bite was filled with spite.
It’s healed now.”
“Healed or not, it still hurt!”
“What should we do about it?” Orion’s gaze casually swept across her chest, “How about you let me take a bite?”
Following his gaze, Xanthea quickly crossed her arms defensively. Jerk!
His laughter filled the air, and only then did Xanthea realize she had been played. Despite being sick, he still had the mood to joke around, which meant he wasn’t very ill.
“Orion, remember, you still owe me a favor?”
“I remember.”
“I want to ask for it today, and you must agree!”
She looked at him earnestly, “I want you to forget everything that happened before, and forgive me for all the bad things I said and did, okay?”
“I never blamed you”
Orion’s eyes, filled with tendemess, melted like the ice in spring, which warmed Xanthea’s heart so much that her nose felt tingling
In the past, she’d taken for granted everyone’s kindness around her, as though she deserved it from birth, until she saw the true faces of Matthew and Miranda. She realized that apart from family, ‘everyone else’s love‘ came with strings attached.
Matthew wanted to use her to gain power and status, and Miranda wanted to replace her as the sole daughter of the Nightshade family. Only he had always silently supported her unconditionally.
“Orion, why are you being so good to me?”
She couldn’t help asking. Orion put down his spoon and avoided her gaze. “Because you had helped me once.”
Lies!
Xanthea pouted, feeling dissatisfied.
And about the past life? She hadn’t attended any gemstone conventions nor had any interactions with him, yet he still
“I don’t believe it. There must be another reason!”
Xanthea pushed away the soup, eyeing him with suspicion.
“You’re so good to me, you must be secretly harboring some unspeakable emotions, right?”
yet he still helped her.
When she mentioned ‘unspeakable emotions, Orion’s gaze froze, and his expression stiffened along with the strong and rhythmic beating of his heart, as if the entire world had gone silent for a second, two seconds, three seconds.
Until she spoke again, her voice charged with excitement, “See, your nervous expression has given you away! Do I look like your late sister or perhaps a cousin? Because of the brutal family feuds, you lost them forever, but you can’t control the longing in your heart. So, when you saw me, who looks a lot like you sisters, you placed all your emotions on me, trying to find some comfort?”