Chapter 194: …Are Too Hard For Me To Understand

Louise stops laughing.

Her eyes snap to his, cold and entirely devoid of warmth. "You really are stupid, aren’t you, Adrien?"

He flinches, but he doesn’t look away.

"You still think the world revolves around your little feelings. You think every terrible thing that happens must somehow be about you."

"That’s not what I said."

"Isn’t it?"

"No. I asked you a question."

"And I answered it, didn’t I?" The smile she gives him is so sour, it would put lemons to shame.

"You called your own mother a coward because she abandoned you. You said this was your chance to get back at her. What does that mean?"

Louise’s lips curl into a bitter smile. "It means you should stop asking questions you aren’t prepared to hear the answers to."

"Then tell me!" Adrien’s frustration finally breaks through his confusion. He takes a cautious step toward her. "Explain it to me. Why would you want to ruin her life if she was helping you? Why would she leave you here if the two of you were working together?"

For a moment, Louise simply stares at him.

Something flickers across her face, too brief for Adrien to identify. Then it disappears, buried beneath the same hard expression.

"You want an explanation?" she asks quietly.

"Yes."

"Go ask your precious Orion. I’m sure he can buy you one."

Adrien’s mouth tightens.

"Don’t do that."

"Do what?"

"Turn everything into a game. I’m standing here trying to understand what happened, and you’re acting like— "

"Like what, Adrien? Like I owe you something?"

He stops.

Louise tilts her head. "You want the truth because you think it’ll make you feel better. You think if you understand why people hurt you, you’ll finally be able to put everything behind you."

Her eyes narrow. "It doesn’t work that way."

Adrien has no answer.

Because, beneath the cruelty, there is something in her words that hits a little too close to home.

He has spent so much time trying to understand the people who hurt him that he has almost forgotten what it means to stop asking them for permission to move on.

But that doesn’t mean he can walk away now.

"Maybe you’re right," he says after a moment. "Maybe knowing won’t change anything. But I still want to know."

Louise’s expression hardens.

She gives him nothing. She does not confess to the scandal, reveal the nature of her l fight with Alice, or offer a single word that might help him understand the damage. Her silence is deliberate, a wall built to keep him out.

Orion has had enough. He steps between them, his tall frame blocking Adrien from Louise’s view.

"That is enough."

His voice cuts through the room, flat and cold.

"Take her to the cars."

Niko moves forward, reaching for Louise’s arm.

Adrien reacts before he can think. He catches Orion’s sleeve with trembling fingers.

"Wait."

Orion looks down at his hand before slowly lifting his gaze to Adrien’s face. "Let go."

"Not until you listen to me."

The guards go still.

Nobody touches Orion Vassilis without permission. Everyone in the room understands that, including Adrien, whose fingers tighten around the expensive fabric even as his stomach drops.

Orion’s expression doesn’t change. "Be careful, duckling. I only have so much patience to spare."

Adrien swallows hard. Lately, he’s spent time with the Orion who seems to want to crawl into his skin that he forgot that Orion is not always an easy person to talk to.

But he still needs to speak.

"Don’t let Niko handle this your usual way. Keep her alive. Keep her safe long enough for me to talk to her properly."

Orion’s eyes narrow. "She is not worth it, Adrien. Keeping her around creates more risk for everyone involved."

"I’m not asking you to let her go."

"Then what are you asking?"

"Time." Adrien’s voice catches, and he hates that Orion can probably hear it. "Just give me time to understand what’s happening. I can’t be the person who decides someone I grew up with simply disappears. Not without knowing why."

"Your concern for her is touching."

"Don’t make fun of me," he almost snarls at him.

"I’m not."

"You’re doing that thing with your voice."

"What thing?"

"That thing where you sound like you’re considering whether I’m worth the trouble."

For the first time, something almost resembling amusement touches Orion’s eyes. "Perhaps I am."

"Orion."

The amusement vanishes.

Orion studies him for a long, agonizing moment. Adrien refuses to look away, even though every instinct tells him to release Orion’s sleeve and step back.

Finally, Orion lets out a quiet breath. "Fine."

Adrien’s shoulders loosen slightly.

"But she stays under my security," Orion continues. "She goes where my people tell her to go, speaks when I permit it, and remains where I can find her. If she attempts anything, I will not wait for you to finish another emotional appeal."

Adrien nods quickly. "All right."

"Do you understand me?"

"Yes."

"Good. Now let go of my sleeve."

Adrien releases him immediately.

Niko grabs Louise’s arms and secures her wrists with heavy zip ties. She doesn’t fight back or utter another word. Her gaze passes over Adrien once, lingering for a moment on his face before moving away.

There is no gratitude in her expression. No relief. If anything, she looks almost offended that he has intervened on her behalf.

Adrien watches as she is led toward the entrance.

"Louise," he calls.

She doesn’t stop.

"Please. When we’re alone, just talk to me."

She pauses at the doorway, her face turned slightly toward him. For one brief moment, he thinks she might answer.

Instead, she laughs under her breath.

"Still begging people to tell you the truth," she murmurs. "Some things never change."

Then she steps into the blinding sunlight.

Adrien remains inside the lake house, staring at the open doorway long after the guards have followed her out.

He came here expecting answers. Instead, he has been handed another question, one that reaches backward into his past and threatens to unravel everything he thought he knew.

Beside him, Orion adjusts his cuff. "You got what you wanted," he says.

Adrien turns toward him, bewildered. "No, I didn’t."

"You got her alive."

"That’s not the same thing."

"No," Orion agrees, his gaze settling on the doorway. "It isn’t."

Outside, the car doors slam shut, and the engines start.

Louise is leaving the lake house alive, but whatever truth she carries with her remains locked behind her silence.

And for reasons Adrien cannot yet understand, he has the unsettling feeling that Alice’s absence is far more dangerous than her presence ever was.