CHAPTER 93: WHY.

Chapter 93

Katya’s POV

I didn’t even remember leaving the room.

One second I was standing over Romeo’s bed, hands shaking with guilt and horror — and the next, I was stumbling down the hallway like someone trying to outrun her own skin.

My chest felt too tight. My breaths came too fast, too shallow. I clutched at the wall as I half-walked, half-fell toward the elevator.

I needed to get away. From the machines. From the smell of antiseptic. From the unbearable thought that I almost—

The elevator doors slid open with a soft chime. I stepped inside, pressing the button to the top floor with trembling fingers.

My room. I just needed my room. Four walls, a door, and silence — enough space to fall apart where no one could see me.

The doors began to glide shut but then, a manicured hand shot between them.

They parted again with a hiss, and in stepped a woman wrapped in the kind of expensive elegance that made the air feel colder.

Red hair. Glaring green eyes.

Adelasia.

Of course.

Of course it had to be her.

The last time I’d seen her, she’d been laughing softly, hand on my shoulder, telling me to call her by her first name as if we were equals, while we were on our way to that club.

But before that accident—The night I hit her with that vase, whipping out her memory and bad attitude— she’d been the woman who treated me like dirt beneath her heels.

Ordering me around like a pet, throwing things at me and sneering at the fact that I didn’t work well.

And now... now I didn’t know which version was standing in front of me. I swallowed hard, shrinking instinctively into the corner of the elevator.

After all, she carried herself like someone who didn’t associate with people below her social class.

Would she even remember interacting with a lowly maid like me? My heart pounded. Would she recall our previous encounters and lash out — or had she forgotten about me, since it’s been so long since we crossed paths?

Slowly, her head turned to me and she just looked at me. No words. No greeting. Just looked.

And then she smiled.

"Katya."

The way she said my name made my stomach drop. She remembered my freaking name.

My eyes flicked down — and that’s when I saw it. The faint metal where flesh should have been.

Fingers that weren’t fingers at all, but cold, polished steel catching the light.

I froze.

What... happened to her?

Her left hand was metal. Full metal. No human flesh, no softness — just a weapon disguised as fingers.

Before I could piece the thought together, she stepped closer. The confined space suddenly felt smaller. Tighter. Her perfume cloyed in my lungs.

"You look... surprised," she murmured, voice still soft — but every syllable was sharpened to a blade. "Didn’t think we’d meet again, did you?"

I swallowed hard, my back pressing against the wall as if I could disappear into the metal. "I... didn’t know you were here."

Her smile faltered — just slightly — and for a split second, I saw the raw, ugly anger flash in her eyes before she smoothed it over with another practiced grin.

"Oh, I’ve been here for a while," she said, each word precise, deliberate. "Watching. Waiting. Remembering the good old memories." The word remembering landed like a weight in my gut.

"I wasn’t sure if you’d still recognize me," she went on, lifting her left hand and turning it slowly under the light.

The polished metal caught every reflection, cruelly deliberate. "But I see you do."

I should be the one saying that. My eyes stayed locked on the steel. I couldn’t look away. What had happened to her hand while I was gone?

"Beautiful, isn’t it?" she asked, and now her tone tightened, venom seeping through. "So... efficient. Stronger than the ones I was born with. They say replacements are supposed to be upgrades."

A humorless chuckle slipped from her lips — brittle, like glass about to crack. "Funny how that works, don’t you think?"

I didn’t trust myself to speak. I didn’t trust myself for anything anymore.

Her gaze drifted over me, lingering just long enough to make my skin crawl. "You look pale, Katya. Shaky. Like someone who’s seen a ghost."

I clenched my fists. "I’m fine."

Her smile twitched — too quick, too thin. "Oh, I hope so," she murmured, stepping close enough that her breath brushed my cheek.

"Because the last thing I’d want is for you to collapse before we’ve had a chance to... catch up."

The elevator hummed softly as it climbed, but the silence between us was deafening.

"You know," she whispered, leaning just slightly closer, "people tend to forget the little things that happen in moments of chaos. But I don’t."

I forced my breathing to stay steady. "I don’t know what you’re talking about."

"Don’t you?" Her smile widened, but this time it trembled with suppressed rage. "Strange. Because I remember everything."

The metal fingers brushed against the panel beside my head — a soft clink that made my pulse stutter. "Every word. Every scream. Every choice that led me here."

The doors dinged. Top floor. My lungs burned as if I’d been underwater.

"See you around," she purred as I stumbled out, pausing just long enough to glance over my shoulder.

Her eyes gleamed with something dark. "And don’t worry..." Her voice dipped, colder, sharper. "I always make sure debts are repaid."

The doors slid shut, her grin burned into my skull long after she was gone.

My head spun with everything that had just happened. Miss Red had definitely regained her memories and she knew I’d escaped that night. But why wasn’t she lashing out at me like she always had before?

What happened to her hand? Why was she looking at me like I’d done something so unforgivable — when all I ever did was try to stay out of her path?

Why.

Why.

Why.

I had no answers. None at all. Just the echo of that cold, metallic clink and the suffocating weight of her words, chasing me long after the elevator doors had closed.

†††

Hello guys, quick question

Am I still consistent with these recent Chapters?

Like they don’t seem different than the former.

I’m trying to not forget anything like plot, characters and all.

Soo, how do y’all like miss red comeback, was it what y’all expected when they met again?

Comment your thoughts please