As the two cousins stared at each other, Matthias held his breath. He could see that, due to the sharpness in Heather’s gaze, distress was already starting to show on Everly’s face. Even he himself could not bear it.
“I must have been very annoying when I was young,” Heather sneered. Now that she had a better understanding of Everly, she was shocked and even felt a little bit hateful.
She never minded the people who were enemies of her from the beginning, like Blake Langston. At worst, they would fight to the death. However, she hated those who acted kindly toward her in the beginning and turned around to stab her in the back. In short, Everly’s behavior had greatly disappointed her.
Not only had Everly hurt Heather, but she was putting all of the Langston Family in danger. Her selfish actions crossed the line, much more than Blake’s idiocy did.
Meanwhile, Everly offered her own derisive sneer, feeling like Heather was hinting at something. “That’s not possible, Heather. You were always the most welcomed one in the family.”
At that, Heather’s smile grew even more frigid. “The family is scared of me. I’m the least welcomed one.”
It wasn’t proper for Matthias to interrupt but Heather’s pointed words genuinely made his heart ache. He stared at her profile, thinking about how she wore callousness around her heart like a shield, preventing people from getting too close.
Nevertheless, she turned to him now and looked at him imperiously. “Did you need something?” Her frustration was bleeding over and she snapped at him even though he had done nothing wrong.
Of course, this was not an impulsive decision. The truth was that Heather had long planned to allow Everly to observe everything yet not be able to confirm the truth, so that the latter could feel a sense of urgency and start leaping to her own conclusions.
At this moment, Everly’s mind was, indeed, filled with doubt. She didn’t know why Heather acted so venomously toward her. Her cousin’s rage was coldly cutting and so fierce that it was hard to bear.
Yet, Heather did not intend to give Everly too much time to mull things over. As Matthias finished stammering the reason he was here, she immediately had him go outside with her.
After they walked out of the living room, she suddenly said, “So, you cower away from telling me the real reason you’re here and only give me a bunch of overbearing excuses. Why are you becoming more and more of a coward, Matthias?”
Startled, he looked at her, having no idea what he did wrong or why he was being lectured by her.
“I missed you so I came to find you,” he said as he reached out to take her hand.
“No PDA. This is my house,” Heather said with displeasure. Unfortunately, he was becoming bolder and bolder and much to her regret, her words only provoked him.
“Why don’t we go to my house, then?” He smiled suggestively. When Matthias thought of the scene that could await him at home, he felt eager.
Unfortunately, she shrugged his hand off and eyed him coldly before she said expressionlessly, “Stop throwing a fuss. I’m not in the mood.”
Upon hearing that, he looked at his abandoned hand in resignation. Once again, he was being cruelly rejected—it seemed he would still need to put quite a bit of effort into seducing her.
“Have you been alright lately?” he asked with concern, as her mood had been simply too odd and unpredictable these days.
However, she didn’t feel like elaborating or answering such an upsetting question. As she was being spied on, she could not say too much to him.
“I’m fine. I just haven’t felt like seeing you much.” Apart from using her words to hurt him, she had no idea how to chase him away. Right now, she simply had no way of facing him calmly.
Long used to her venomous tongue, Matthias did not fear it. Instead, he only laughed, wanting to cheer her up a bit.
In truth, she hated it when he behaved like that. He would never know, but the guilt she felt whenever he did it surpassed the love that surged up in her.
“Did someone make you unhappy?” he asked her carefully now, quite used to her little temper tantrums.
She gave him an exasperated look in response. Does he think I am as petty as an unreasonable child?
What she didn’t notice herself, perhaps, was how tolerant he had been of her unreasonable moments during this period.
“Don’t come looking for me during this time, Matthias,” she informed him sternly.
At this moment, Matthias couldn’t help but sober up. The fact that she said that was not good news. Women were so difficult to understand, especially Heather.
“It seems I’ve angered you somehow,” he said. After all that, he felt that the problem turned out to be him.
Upon hearing that, Heather felt like slapping her hand against her forehead. Why is it so difficult to get through to him? Sometimes, it’s so tragic that it is very nearly funny. Internally, she was still thinking about how to get rid of him and no matter what motives he had, she could not get in contact with him ever again.
Since he was jumping down another rabbit hole, she had to change tactics. Why are men so difficult to teach? she grumbled to herself. Out loud, she said, “If you truly don’t wish to anger me, then I beg you to please listen to me.”
“Alright, I understand,” he told her confidently.
In truth, Heather didn’t think he did, or he wouldn’t still be standing here. Even after a long time, he made no move to leave. Never did she think he could use such methods to confront the changes in his life.
Since he still wasn’t moving, she was forced to ask, “Well?”
“Yes?” Mattias asked her innocently and completely shamelessly.
She never understood why he acted like he might die if he didn’t see her for one day. Even though she liked him, she didn’t cling to him like a limpet.
“You can go home,” she said, pointing at the door. Since he was pretending like he didn’t understand, she had to make things clear.
“I don’t want to,” he told her directly, irritating her to no end.
“You said you understood so if you really do, you must listen to me,” she coaxed him, as if he was a child.
In her heart, she had already decided to chase him away if she couldn’t coax him to leave. Currently, she had too much to do and investigate. She barely had time to go to work, let alone lose herself in a relationship.
“If I’ve angered you in some way, Heather, you can tell me. You don’t need to beat around the bush by telling me to leave,” he informed her with unusual sternness, leaving her at even more of a loss.
If they kept going this way, they would only be talking in circles. Thus, she came up with a new method to shake him off and she gave him a sly smile.
“Matty.”
Her sudden, intimate form of address made Matthias’ heart thump, and he instantly knew that she was up to something.
Sensing the unease and that knowing he understood her, Heather had to think carefully about what she would say next. In the end, she settled for trying to convince him to change his personality, since there was no way she was going to change hers. “Don’t be so stubborn, Matty. It’s not good for two people to have such similar personalities.
“I’m afraid you’re more stubborn than I am,” he answered honestly. He couldn’t keep being controlled by her and had to fight back where he ought to.
“Alright. I’ll admit I’m stubborn—very stubborn, apparently. In that case, won’t you do as I say?” She batted her eyelashes, trying to look beguiling so that he would feel guilty for rebutting her.
“I have been doing as you say, but haven’t I done enough?” All of a sudden, he felt wronged. Nothing he did was enough. No matter how much patience and compromise he offered her, she never felt like it was enough.
“Well, can you do as I say one more time?” she cajoled. It repulsed her to wheedle like that, especially at home where her family members could hear her and embarrass her.
Seeing that she was giving it her all, Matthias no longer felt like he could argue with her anymore. After a moment of thought, he said, “Alright, I promise.” Even though he didn’t know why she suddenly made this decision, he would do as she said given her insistence. Pulling his resolve from the depths of his soul, he said, “I promise that I won’t come to find you during this period.”
Gratified, Heather smiled widely. “I knew you were the best, Matty.” Even she knew by now that she was asking for too much, but she continued to do so despite her guilt.
As she watched him leave, she suddenly felt desolate. More and more lately, she was feeling confused—there were so many things she couldn’t understand, including her own feelings.
If there weren’t so many schemes and plots between them, perhaps things wouldn’t be as complicated as they were now and perhaps there wouldn’t be so much suspicion.
She craved a relationship where she would be able to love wholeheartedly. Sometimes, she envied Matthias for his ability to devote his entire heart and soul to the relationship.
Such a thing was never a possibility for her. Since she was always thinking about other issues, romantic relationships were barely worth a mention to her. This reality was very different from what she imagined, where she would be able to have someone in this world who belonged completely to her, and whom in turn she would completely belong to.
When it came to her relationship with Matthias, she was beginning to doubt the nature of love and whether she truly loved him. In all honesty, the sayings she heard of love weren’t like her relationship and she felt a little lost.
On this day, she had yet to receive a call from the kidnappers. Nonetheless, she wasn’t anxious, for she believed they would make the next move very soon. By her estimation, they would quickly lose their patience and expose their true motives.
As she watched Matthias get farther and farther away, Heather suddenly felt a little sad, for she didn’t know how long his feelings for her would last.
Her instincts told her that their relationship would not, ultimately, succeed. She feared that they would separate in the end and even had nightmares about such an event.
The fear was one of the reasons she didn’t dare invest fully in case she made it difficult for her to extricate herself in the end. Romance was never as simple as she imagined them to be.
Rubbing her temples, Heather turned and went back into the living room. Unexpectedly, Everly was still there. When their eyes met, the apology in Everly’s eyes gave her a great sense of satisfaction.
These were the results Heather wanted. The more apologetic Everly looked, the more it proved the latter had done something wrong. With that, not only could Heather confirm Everly’s betrayal, but it allowed her to disturb Everly’s mood as well.
She was confident that she would be able to make Everly feel incredibly restless. A breakthrough with Everly would lead to a large reward, and Heather trusted her own judgment completely.
