CHAPTER 68: HARLEY’S REASONING

A deathly silence followed Max’s words, as they both just stared at each other with thoughts of their own.

Max was afraid that she would get offended, but he didn’t regret coming out clean. Her advances towards him had affected him a lot.

He was just a teenager in both lives, so a mature woman like Harley had a drastic effect on his hormones and mind. Not to mention, Max already had affection towards her character.

He knew he wouldn’t be able to resist her any longer if she continued to tease him like this and would definitely fall for her.

Max didn’t have a problem with that, but one thing he knew for sure was that Harley didn’t love him, and he had no time to focus on her.

There wasn’t a single time Max had not gotten the dangerous feeling whenever she flirted with him. It was as if she was a warmth he needed, but getting closer to her would turn him into ashes.

That was why he never acted on his desire.

[You don’t hate flirting with her though.]

’That is the problem, Big Sis.’

Max continued to look at Harley’s face, trying to guess her thoughts. Sadly, she was a master at this and hid everything—her thoughts and even her emotions.

After lingering for a few more seconds, she smiled and backed away. For once, Max felt her smile was a genuine one, making him heave a sigh of relief.

"You’re no fun," Harley pouted. "But I won’t give up. You’re making me more and more interested in you. What do you youngsters say? Playing hard to get?"

Her smile turned devious as she added, "Your constant rejection of my beauty is turning on my switch, so I will declare here and now—I will conquer you."

"Conquering someone this weak isn’t really hard," he snorted. "We’ll talk about this when we are ready for it. Besides, I already have a girlfriend, Miss Harley. I won’t cheat on her."

"That little girl from the Sinclair Clan?" she asked. "Am I really being outdone by a little girl?"

Max took a step closer to her and said, looking directly into her eyes, "You’re more beautiful—heck, you’re probably the most beautiful woman I’ve met, Harley. As cringy and cheesy as it may sound, I prefer personality over beauty."

"So, you do agree that you’re attracted to my body?" Harley smiled, as if ignoring everything he said.

"Miss Harley," Max sighed, "Will you be honest with me and tell me why you’re trying so hard to seduce me? I’m not that handsome, I’m not rich—well, even if I was, it wouldn’t matter to you—and I’m not even strong."

He paused before asking seriously, "So, please tell me why you’re doing this? And don’t say you’re in love with me, because we both know that’s a black lie. You would never fall for someone weaker and less ambitious than you."

"Do you seriously want to know?" Harley asked, dropping her smile.

He gulped and nodded, "I do!"

"Too bad for you then, because I’m not telling," Harley shrugged her shoulders.

Max’s brows twitched hearing that, as he wondered if he had done something wrong to her in a previous life or something.

[Technically, you did!]

He was speechless.

"Alright, since you’re being so sincere and also helpful, I’ll let you in on a few things," Harley sighed and went to sit on a table.

She patted her sides, gesturing for him to sit alongside her, which he happily did.

"I knew your mother," Harley said, shocking him to the core. "She’s one of the main reasons I am what I am today. Without her... I can’t even imagine myself living this life."

"Wait! How is that possible? Wasn’t my mother a maid?" Max asked, too confused by the turn of events. "How does someone like you even know her?"

"Yes, she did say she would become a maid," Harley muttered in a distant voice. "Now that I think about it, I should have stopped her back then. Though, it isn’t like it would have worked, as she was stubborn as hell."

Max sat there in silence, as many thoughts passed through his head.

’What the hell? Don’t tell me it’s one of those tropes of having powerful secret parents? Well, at least one of them, since the other is a big piece of shit.’

"She was an Oracle, and the future she saw happened the majority of the time," she continued. "It isn’t like she could see everything though. She could just see mainly the dominant timeline and some minor ones if she really focused hard."

’Yup! That’s OP as hell. Wait! If she could see the future, then why did she even bother marrying that old bastard?’ Max was growing more and more confused.

Then a thought crossed his mind, "A prophecy?"

"Most likely, yes. Because I can’t imagine her marrying anyone," Harley nodded. "What she told me was that something horrifying awaits us, and whatever it was, it had even managed to scare her—someone who never even flinched in the worst situations."

She took a deep breath and said, "I can’t tell you more because she forbade me from telling you."

"She saw me in her future?" Max asked, feeling strange that someone had already seen his future.

’Wait! Which one did she see? Mine or the previous Max’s?’

[Don’t ask me because I’m also confused.]

’The hell? Aren’t you a Goddess?’

[I am, and I wanted to keep the suspense, so I let the world fill the holes in its existence in a way you would have done. You only wrote that Max’s mother was a maid in the Royal Palace—nothing else.]

Max wanted to facepalm, remembering how much he had overused the trope of hidden powerful parents. No wonder the world filled that hole like that.

"She never told me what she saw because she was afraid things would change," Harley sighed. "She looked so hopeless back then, but also determined to change the future. She was ready to do everything to change whatever she had seen."

"Then, shouldn’t it happen sooner or something? Remember that saying—like the more you try to avoid a fate, the closer it’ll be to you?"

"It isn’t fated! We don’t have Fate!"