27

When Louis noticed she was staring too much, she immediately looked away and put her attention on her food instead.

“You seem comfortable with Bruno. I am expecting you would feel comfortable with me too,” he said.

Helena then realized that he might have seen the way she laughs at Bruno’s jokes earlier and noticed that she is indeed more comfortable with Bruno than the way she behaves when she is with him.

“I just find you too intimidating sometimes; that’s why I am still trying to… adjust to you,” she reasoned.

“You don’t have to adjust, you know. Just be yourself.”

“Bruno is quite funny; that’s why I laughed at him earlier,” he pointed out.

Louis’ brow arched. “Is that low-key telling me that I’m boring?”

Her eyes widened so much that she shook her head in a panicking way. “No. I mean, you are way too serious sometimes, and it is hard to talk to you since you seem like you would blatantly say mean things to me if I didn’t answer you right.”

“Well, I’m used to being like that, but… it doesn’t mean I am mad, you know.”

She calmed down and nodded.

“Just talk to me about everything you want to say and act comfortably around me. I won’t be annoyed or scold you for that.”

Her chest was banging for a reason, and all she could do was nod at him. It was enchanting for her to be able to hear it from Louis himself that he was not annoyed with her. Knowing Anna had told her about Louis that Louis doesn’t like noise, the reason why she kept quiet was that she didn’t want to disturb him.

“But Anna said you don’t like noise.”

“You’re not a noise,” he clarified.

She could feel her stomach churning for whatever reason, and she could barely say anything. She started eating instead, but deep inside, she was already gasping for air because his words really screamed something else to her. It was making her blush.

“Your sister attempted to visit you the other day. The guard told me about it,” Louis shared while they were eating again.

“Really?” Helena couldn’t believe it, but at the same time, she knew that her main concern there was only Louis.

“Yes. You weren’t in the mansion, so I told them not to let any visitors in,” he explained.

“Why? Don’t you like hanging out with my sister? She is an Asher after all. If you let her in, no one would think anything bad since they know that the Ashers and Montville are building a connection now,” Helena said, fishing for an opinion from Louis to know his insights about those things.

His expression seemed to scream that he wasn’t that type of person.

“I have nothing to prove to her. Yes, she is an Asher and your sister, but it doesn’t mean she would have gotten casual with me. Besides, I am just respecting her own image too. She has a fiancé. I might not want to flirt with her, but if her fiancé knew about it, he might not like it. It is better to avoid a future conflict than to assume that no one would get mad once you’ve done something.”

Helena could sense that Louis is a man with principles the moment he had spoken about Helena wanting to take her spot instead and marry Louis. His opinion during that time was on point, and he had seen what Darren was lacking in her as a boyfriend.

She could now see the difference between Darren and Louis. He is the type of man that she would never doubt whenever she is away, and her best friend is just around him because she knows that he is man enough to keep a boundary with everything that would hurt the emotions of his girl.

“Aside from that, I also consider yours,” he said in a rasp, looking at the food while Helena completely froze. She didn’t see it coming.

“You might not like it. I don’t want to give you things you might overthink,” he clarified.

She looked at him with amusement. It was so foreign to her because, in her entire life as Alana, no one had considered her emotions or prioritized what she would feel. She always got the end of the stick, and she was always less prioritized…

“I actually… don’t mind. Besides, I trust my sister,” she blurted out, trying to act like her past self… trying to see what Louis would say about it.

“Well, I don’t.” There was a finality in his voice.

She knitted her brows, barely touching the food because of how invested she was in their talk.

“I just don’t.”

“She has a clean image here in Emerald Ville. Everyone loves her. She is sophisticated, friendly, and…nice.” She wanted to puke all of the words she used as a compliment for Ingrid, knowing that she knew too well she was the opposite, but she is acting like Helena, the woman who adores her own sister and who doesn’t know what her true colors are yet.

“That’s not what it seems to me. I know genuine people act more than those pretentious ones,” he mocked.

Helena couldn’t believe how Louis was so bold about his opinion of Ingrid Asher, knowing that her image is clean. But knowing that Louis is really well-known for being blunt and snobby with girls, he might be just acting according to his nature.

“That’s weird,” she stated.

Louis looked at her with furrowed brows. “What’s weird about it?”

“I didn’t encounter someone who doesn’t like my sister. Everyone loves her…” She chuckled a little, but she knew how much she wanted to puke about it.

“Then I am an exception,” he added.

“Because you are a snob with girls…”

“I just don’t entertain someone’s bullshit, Helena. I don’t like wasting my time on impostors.”

Helena was kind of weirded out by why he was calling her like that. She wanted to assume that he knew her true colors, but Louis is so unpredictable that she thinks he might only be hating on her for some petty reasons, just like how he is snobby with every girl in the town.

But despite it, there was a small hope in her that she had finally found someone to relate to.

Oh no, Helena. The last time you trusted too much, you were betrayed. So don’t even think that Louis might be an ally. What if he is not? What if he knows what is going on and he would throw you under the bus once the truth is out? Don’t get so fooled so easily.

And just like that, her little hope vanished, and she couldn’t put a little bit of doubt on Louis, at least. She was just too traumatized to trust anyone; she wanted to trust only herself because she knew that the second life the moon goddess had given her was already the last chance. If she dies again in Helena’s body, she knows it’s going to be over.

Meanwhile, at the Asher mansion, Ingrid was throwing tantrums in her room when she wasn’t welcomed to enter the Montville mansion twice, despite how she begged that it was Helena who requested her.

“Oh, that damn woman! How dare she control Louis like that, telling the guards not to let me in! I fucking hate her!” she shouted in pure rage.

Her phone rang, and she answered it with a shout.

“What?!”

“Ingrid,” Darren called.

Ingrid shut her eyes and tried to calm herself down when she realized it was her own fiancé. She sat down and sighed heavily.

“I’m just not in the mood right now, Darren. Just give me some space for a while,” she stated.

“Oh no, baby. I wanted to see you now. Come here. You have been too busy lately. I missed you, you know,” he said in a slurry voice, and Ingrid could already sense what he wanted from her.

She rolled her eyes while there was already a distant feeling lingering on her. Because as soon as she saw Louis Montville up close, she felt like she had fallen in love as soon as possible, not just because it was a Montville, but because of how ethereal the man was.

She also wants the satisfaction she could feed to her ego that she is the woman of the one and only Louis Montville. It was like a trophy that everyone would wish for, and only those women who are too perfect and heavily gorgeous would own the throne.

And that’s what is making her frustrated. She cannot believe that she would be replaced by her own sister when it comes to that honor. She wanted that recognition for herself because it would make her the luckiest and prettiest woman in the town. Other than that, the townspeople would not even question it because she is, after all, Ingrid Asher, one of the prettiest women in the town.

“Darren…you know the Montville, right?” She opened up.

If there was someone who would burn the world for her, it was him. Darren is just like him, who mirrors her greed and hunger for power. He is perfectly built to match her freak.

“And what about that asshole?” He sounded bitter.

“They were more powerful than your clan,” Ingrid confirmed.

It wasn’t just a rumor because everyone in the town knows that the Montville were more powerful than the Adams.

“I don’t like where this topic is going, Ingrid. I hate that fucker,” he hissed.

“Well, I am just curious what makes them at the top, and… what could be their weakness? Aren’t you curious to know what would bring him down?” she asked in her sexy voice, luring him into her own darkness again.