Though paralyzed, still radiantly charming!

Chapter 294: Drip… drip… drip…

Alice lay on Ryan’s back, her eyes peacefully closed, but the sudden jerking of his body almost sent her tumbling off.

Annoyed, she opened her eyes wide, puffing her cheeks in frustration. Her hands instinctively tightened their grip on Ryan’s shoulders as she tried to steady herself.

Given Ryan’s behavior earlier, she had every reason to suspect he was doing this on purpose. Her brows furrowed, and her voice carried a clear note of displeasure.

“What’s the deal? Am I too heavy for you?”

“I’ve been keeping in shape, you know. I can’t be that heavy. Maybe I should start thinking about losing some weight.”

Her attempt at humor fell flat. The sarcasm in her words was obvious to anyone listening.

Alice wasn’t usually one to engage in petty arguments, so her uncharacteristic remarks made it clear just how upset she was.

From her perspective, Ryan was doing this deliberately. He was too proud to show affection in front of Bella, so he was using this as an excuse to distance himself.

Sure, he’d agreed to carry her, but now it felt like he was going through the motions, defying her in his own passive-aggressive way.

A cold glint flashed in Alice’s eyes. Her fingers dug into Ryan’s shoulders, her nails piercing his skin just enough to draw a small streak of blood.

Ryan, however, didn’t notice the change in her demeanor. His mind was racing, thoughts swirling in and out of focus, like fleeting dreams that dissolved before he could grasp them.

“It’s not that, Miss Alice…”

“I didn’t mean… it’s just…”

He hesitated, unsure of how to explain himself. Instinctively, he turned his back to Alice, trying to block her view of Bella, hoping to avoid any eye contact between the two.

“Then what is it, Ryan? You’d better not tell me ‘no’ again today.”

“My patience is running thin.”

Alice didn’t press him further, closing her eyes as if to drop the matter. But the chill in her voice was unmistakable.

This was just her way of handling things. She wasn’t letting it go,she was simply biding her time.

Ryan could feel the weight of her serious threat, and it left a bitter taste in his mouth. He hadn’t meant for things to go this way, but Alice had clearly misunderstood him.

How could he clear up this misunderstanding? He had no idea what to say.

He couldn’t tell her about the system, and there was no way he could reveal the details of the mission either.

If Ryan’s interpretation of the situation was correct, the truth was terrifying.

The mission had revealed that Bella harbored a deadly intent toward Alice—so strong that she was ready to act on it.

And yet, they were all supposed to live under the same roof. Bella and Alice would be in close proximity, day in and day out.

Someone in the same house wanted Alice dead, and she had no clue. The only person aware of this dangerous development was Ryan, caught in the middle.

What kind of sick joke was this?

Bella’s earlier threats weren’t just empty words. She was serious. She really wanted Alice dead.

Ryan steadied himself, deciding that Alice’s mood would have to take a backseat for now. What were feelings compared to someone’s life?

He took a deep breath and glanced toward the white Audi parked nearby. To avoid raising Alice’s suspicions, he positioned himself so that he was facing the villa instead.

The Audi’s high beams had finally turned off, and under the dim light from the villa, Ryan could just make out the figure in the driver’s seat.

That one glance made his blood run cold.

At that moment, Bella felt so unfamiliar, yet… so disturbingly familiar. Familiar to the point that it sent chills down Ryan’s spine.

Her eyes—what terrifying eyes they were.

They were nothing like the cold, indifferent gaze she had used to pretend not to know him back at the banquet. Now, in the shadows, her eyes burned with an intensity that seemed to melt the coolness of the night.

The heat in her gaze was hotter than glowing embers, and Ryan could almost feel it scorching his skin.

And maybe it was just the angle or the lighting, but for a moment, Ryan could’ve sworn her eyes were filled with a deep, blood-red hue.

What… is happening…?

His brain was on the verge of shutting down. Unpleasant memories, long buried, began to resurface, flooding his mind with violent, bloody images.

“Brother, why are you looking at someone else?”

“Brother, is it because I did something wrong?”

“A brother like this needs to be punished, doesn’t he? You can’t just let him off the hook.”

“Hungry? Beg me for it…”

Scene after scene, those memories he had desperately tried to forget came rushing back, and he could almost feel the cold metal of handcuffs against his skin.

“No way… this can’t be happening…”

Ryan exhaled deeply, his breath warm, yet it formed a mist in the air. The autumn night wasn’t that cold, was it?

Their eyes locked, and Ryan felt as if Bella’s seemingly gentle hand had once again reached out to grab him, pulling him into a deep abyss from which there was no escape.

He remembered the first day Alice had brought him to the villa, how he had been forcibly locked in the basement. The overwhelming sense of resistance he had felt.

Even though the basement was furnished just like the rooms upstairs, and even though the bodyguards, tasked with ensuring his safety, were stationed right outside the door, he couldn’t bring himself to turn off the lights.

He had spent the entire night curled up in the corner of the basement, staring blankly at the familiar yet alien surroundings.

In the dead of night, some people gasp for air, desperately trying to fill their lungs with oxygen to stave off the fear. It’s a primal, inexplicable terror that comes from the deepest part of the soul.

The system had bound itself to him, altering many things to ensure he completed his tasks. He shouldn’t have been alive, but the system had given him a second chance.

There were things he shouldn’t have forgotten, but those memories had been buried because they interfered with the mission.

He had always wondered about one thing: why, if he had loved Bella so much, had he been able to let her go so easily?

Was it really just for her own good? Was that reason truly enough?

He didn’t understand why, when he saw Bella’s note, his heart had been filled with such resistance. Why had he been so reluctant to meet her?

If he truly loved her, how could he have let her go so easily?

Was it really just the passage of time that had changed everything?

Now, he understood. He understood it all. His body had been giving him warnings all along. His past self had been trying to send a message to his present self.

Something had definitely happened between him and Bella in the past—something he absolutely did not want to remember.

And today, under the weight of her gaze, it all came flooding back. He remembered everything.

The basement. Yes, that place. He never wanted to go back there. He couldn’t go back there.

Bella. It was all Bella. She had come back for him.

The basement was a terrible place. Mold grew slowly in the unseen corners, spreading silently.

Could you hear the sound of the broken water pipes? In the stillness, the rhythmic dripping of water became the final straw that broke a person’s will.

Drip… drip… drip…