Chapter 126: Sorry doesn’t fix it

[Congratulations, Host.]

[You have gained the mysterious key to unlock the forbidden vault]

Tom’s lips parted and his eyes twinkled at the mere thought of what could be in the forbidden vault. The word alone was saying half of what could be in.

The system continued;

[Do you want to unlock now?] Tom barely allowed the words to land before nodding his head. The suspense was killing, he wanted to see what was inside it already.

An object that looked like a miniature vault floated in Tom’s vision then it rolled around dramatically...

[UNLOCKING FORBIDDEN VAULT TIER 1....]

After a few seconds, it opened and a scroller popped up. It unrolled and the text on it was; SEXUAL FANTASY REVEALER.

"It reveals sexual fantasies?" Tom asked without utmost curiosity.

[Yes. With enough System Points, Host could read the sexual fantasies of a chosen woman. Harem members cost less. Women outside the harem cost more.]

[Note, Incomplete bonds returned incomplete answers therefore deeper access required deeper payment.]

"Uhn uhn.... That’s one interesting ability." Tom mumbled, a small smile tugging on his lips. He understood this ability would make intimacy get spicier between him and his harem members.

Then an idea popped up... ’what would be Stella’s fantasy that she had never told him?’

He already knew Stella was not mild under polished composure, but knowing and seeing the structure of her hunger were different things. He wanted the comparison. He wanted to know how wild the vault would mark her against what he had already tasted himself.

He almost activated the scan but a knock sounded against his door, interrupting the moment.

"Tom?"

It was Sienna’s voice.

He closed the system panel, rose and walked to open the door.

Sienna was standing in the hallway with a serious frown already set into her face. She was controlling her expression with effort, her jaw was tight while her shoulders were held too carefully, as if anger was present and being forced into a more respectable shape.

"Hey," Tom said, already reading her body language.

Sienna held his gaze. "Can we talk?" The words came out careful. She was trying hard not to sound rude. Trying hard not to sound as angry as she clearly still was. Tom could tell.

Knowing that, Tom didn’t let the question linger too long, he stepped back and opened the door wider.

"Sure."

Sienna walked into the room, but she did not sit. She stopped a few paces into the room, narrowed her eyes on him, and remained quiet long enough for the silence to thicken. With the way her jaw was tightening, whatever she had come to say was sitting heavily on her tongue like she had prepared the speech.

Then she bluntly asked, "What is happening between us?"

Tom’s brows drew together in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Don’t you notice how awkward things have become?" Sienna’s hands stayed at her sides, her fingers tense.

"Nothing beyond casual greetings. That is all we do now." she pointed out.

Tom thought about it for a moment, then answered simply, "We were never friends enough to go past casual greetings." He said simply. It was supposed to be simple but Sienna wasn’t treating it as such.

She swallowed hard.

She could not dispute that but the way it had come from him that sharply was somehow... From the beginning, their arrangement had not been built on warmth. It had been built on use, image, and distance. Hearing him say it aloud still made something in her face tighten.

So she changed the angle.

"Is that why you already told your personal assistant that we aren’t a real couple?"

Tom’s mouth opened, then closed again as a realization dawned on him. Bree... He knew that since the System had assigned her, it had definitely fed her every information about him, including the structure of this home’s situation from the start. There was no point looking shocked by information she was never supposed to learn through ordinary means.

He kept his expression calm as he replied her; "I told her that so there wouldn’t be confusion. She’s my personal assistant. She’s going to be around often."

"Even if I hadn’t said it, she would have known from the way this house runs. It’s glaring, you know. We sleep in separate rooms, there’s enough distance between us. We barely sit together, barely talk, barely do the smallest things couples do. Anyone paying attention would see it." he said everything in a very calm way.

Sienna blinked. Then again and again.

Her throat moved as she swallowed, and for a moment she seemed unable to find a smooth counterpoint. Because there was none. Everything he listed was visible. She had helped build that visibility with her own choices.

After a stretch of silence, she finally said, "Even at that, your personal assistant shouldn’t be disrespectful towards me." the words tumbled out like she was forming them on the go. It was obvious that hadn’t been what she wanted to say. That was only an improvisation.

Tom nodded anyway. "I’ll ensure she doesn’t do that."

Sienna exhaled deeply, some of the immediate exasperation leaving her posture. She turned as if to leave, got halfway toward the door, then turned back again. When she spoke this time, her voice was lower.

"Can’t we at least not act like people who hate each other while we’re living under the same roof?"

Tom looked at her steadily. "I never acted like I hated you."

That made her frown slightly. He continued;

"This way of relating is what your actions constructed from the first day I packed into this house."

Sienna’s lips parted, then pressed together again. Denial would have been convenient. It also would have been false. She had set the temperature of the house early, and she had maintained it long enough for the coldness to settle into routine.

Still, discomfort moved openly across her face now.

"Yeah, okay. But could we start all over again then?" she asked, her voice going more lower.

Tom looked at her as if she had walked into the room as a different woman from the one who used to treat him like furniture. He shook his head.

"No. We’re way past that." he said firmly.

Sienna blinked. "Why?"

"Because your actions already built the wall," Tom said. "Unless you can turn back time and choose differently from the start, I don’t see a clean restart here." He let the next words follow without decoration. "You treated me badly enough that it can’t just be undone."

Sienna swallowed hard. Her face fell, the controlled frown giving way to something more sullen and exposed. Tom could read it in her body language clearly enough; the drop in her shoulders, the stillness in her hands, the way her eyes no longer held the same challenge. She felt bad. Whether that regret was deep or simply inconvenient, he couldn’t say but it was present.

"I’m sorry for how I treated you," she muttered. The words did not come easily. She swallowed hard then continued, meeting his gaze.

"I thought you were what you weren’t. I was trying to protect myself from getting used." Her throat worked again. "I know sorry doesn’t fix it. But I still wanted to let you know that I’m really sorry."

Tom stared at her for a split second, in silence, wondering why she was acting differently. He shrugged flatly; "What’s been done has been done."

Sienna remained standing there, caught between the urge to push further and the reality that she had no leverage left in the conversation.

Tom narrowed his eyes on her, waiting to hear whatever it was she had left.

After a long moment of awkward silence, she lowered her eyes slightly.

"Good night."

She walked out without waiting for an answer, and the door clicked shut behind her.