Chapter 188: She Is A Liar

LOUISE’S POV

I walk back to the desk, ignoring the ink staining my fingers as I pull open the top drawer. Inside lies a small stack of notebooks, a spare set of car keys, and a thick white envelope addressed to Leon Vassilis in my mother’s neat, elegant handwriting.

I pick up the envelope. It isn’t sealed yet.

I open the flap and pull out the letter inside. I skim the lines, my eyes narrowing as I read her carefully manipulative writing.

She was writing to Leon right before she fled, laying the groundwork to push him into taking the Vassilis seat, promising him that Louise would be a dutiful, obedient wife once Orion was removed from the picture.

She was selling me to Leon. Even as she ran away from me, she was still trying to trade my life like a piece of livestock to secure her own future.

A sharp, ugly laugh tears through my throat.

I rip the letter in half. Then I rip it again, and again, until the white paper is reduced to a handful of tiny, shredded scraps. I throw the pieces onto the floor, watching them scatter over the ink-stained desk.

Alice spent years carefully building her web.

She’s spent months trying to manipulate Leon, convincing that insecure, pathetic boy that he needed her guidance to survive his mother and his cousin.

She spent years cultivating ties with Lady Dimitra, playing both sides of the Vassilis family, waiting for the exact moment to strike and take control of the wealth she will leave behind.

She wants a legacy. She wants power, position, and respect.

I am going to burn every single piece of it to the ground.

I pull out my phone again and open my encrypted messaging application. My fingers move fast across the glass, typing at a fierce speed.

I don’t message Alice. I know she won’t answer her phone. Especially seeing as the texts will be coming from me.

Instead, I directly transfer a file to Leon’s private number.

I upload the unedited audio recordings I kept from the meeting I had with Alice three months ago; the recordings where my mother openly mocked Leon’s intelligence, calling him a weak, sickly puppet who would gladly hand over his family’s assets the moment someone stroked his ego.

I upload the bank transfer receipts showing how Alice was quietly siphoning funds from the businesses she deceived Leon into investing in into offshore accounts that Leon’s name was never attached to.

Let us see how much he trusts you now, Mother, I think, a dark, venomous smile spreading across my lips. Let us see if he still looks at you like a savior when he hears how you laugh at him behind closed doors.

Though, I honestly doubt that even he was stupid enough to believe in Alice Dubois.

Next, I open another file on my phone.

This one contains the private correspondence between Alice and her contact from Masamune.

Oh, this one was truly a surprise. Even I would have never done what she did. I wonder just how long she had been salivating at the thought of getting her desires. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ

Probably long before I even started dating Orion.

Alice thought she scrubbed and deleted these files from every database. She didn’t realize I had cloned her hard drive three days before I even agreed to break up with Orion.

I don’t send this file to Leon. Leon is too cowardly to use it properly.

Instead, I send it to Adrien. It’s time he actually started thinking and stopped running. It’s time for all of us to face our ghosts.

Yes. It is time.

My heart hammers wildly against my ribs, but the cold, suffocating terror I felt an hour ago is entirely gone. It has been replaced by a sharp clarity.

The front door of the lake house creaks slightly as a stray breeze pushes against the old wooden frame. Outside, the sun glares down through the windows, casting long, sharp shadows across the floor.

I freeze, my head snapping toward the hallway.

Outside, far down the long gravel driveway, I hear the faint, low rumble of an engine. It isn’t the light, sputtering sound of a local delivery truck. It is the deep, steady purr of a high-end sedan moving slowly over the gravel, under the blinding morning light.

They are here.

Orion’s people have tracked me down. Adrien is with them. I can feel it. The naive, foolish boy brought his little heart full of questions, hoping to hear me confess and ask for his mercy, believing he is the main character in this tragedy.

I put my phone back in my coat pocket. I reach into the desk drawer one last time, my fingers brushing against the cold, thin metal of a small pocketknife Alice left behind years ago.

I slide it deep into the inner lining of my coat, hiding it in the thick folds of the fabric where a quick pat-down won’t catch it.

I am not going to run. I am not going to climb out the back window and stumble through the sunny woods like a frightened deer, only to be shot in the spine by a sniper hiding in the trees.

I wouldn’t put something like that past Orion.

I walk out of the study and step into the main entryway, standing right in front of the front door.

I smooth the front of my coat. I lift my chin, pulling my spine straight, assuming the exact rigid posture my mother forced upon me when I was a child to make me look untouchable.

If this is where my story ends, if this house is where the consequences finally catch up to me under this cruel, mocking sun, I am going to make sure the splash reaches everyone standing on the shore. Especially my dear mother.

The car engine stops outside. The sound of heavy footsteps crunching over the gravel begins, moving steadily toward the porch.

I look at the doorknob as it slowly begins to turn.

A slow, bitter smile curves my lips.

"Come in, Adrien," I whisper into the quiet room. "Come see what your mother’s runaway puppet has left behind for you."

******

Hi everyone!

I’m pleased to announce that my omegaverse

BL (You’re Courting Me?! (MxM)) is now live on WebNovel and completed with over 200 Chapters!

Search for it to read and enjoy! It’s on my other account

— TheLovePoet