But rieka remained indifferent, seemingly not caring about what she

said or did.

The fury boiled in rissa’s chest. She had to wipe that look off ricka’s face and see her get upset!

“Kieran, I want you and Rose to get along. I won’t let anyone mess with you guys. Do you think I’m doing okay?”

For some reason, rieka nced at Kieran.

Kieran wasn’t looking at her. He lowered his eyes, put his hand on Roschelle’s shoulder, and said in a deep, smooth voice, “I’ll show you to your room.”

Kieran didn’t answer rissa directly. It wasn’t like he was saying no, but more like he was saying rieka couldn’t offend Roschelle.

rissa had a triumphant smile on her face.

rieka left quietly. The same thing had happened in this living room before, but this time, she acted differently.

Back then, she tried every way to stop Roschelle from staying, insisting that Kieran had broken up with her. But her efforts only turned her into a joke.

The servants watched indifferently, and Wace didn’t seem to care at all.

Roschelle stood behind Kieran, unscathed, elegant, and poised. It was a total contrast to rieka’s crazy behavior.

She remembered that Kieran forced her to apologize and made her kneel in the courtyard in the middle of the night to think about what she had done.

That night, she saw Roschelle go into Kieran’s room. His room stayed lit. all night, and she could faintly see the two of them through the closed windowsill.

rieka suddenly stopped on the stairs.

It urred to her why she had tried so hard to stop Roschelle from living in the Argent’s vi.

At that time, she followed Kieran to Birkwell and stayed in the same hotel as Roschelle.

Roschelle had drugged the drinks she and Kieran shared, not to push them into sex, but to step in at the right moment and paint her as the one who tried to seduce him, so that he’d hate her.

But the door lock of his room was broken that day.

When Roschelle broke in with others the next morning, it was toote.

Just as she had nned, Kieran came to despise rieka utterly, as if her very existence were a stain on his life.

That night, rieka conceived Nina, a child never meant to be born.

Because of the pregnancy, she dropped out of school without ever earning a high school diploma, cutting off any chance at a respectable job for the rest of her life.

Her brief pause on the stairs didn’t escape rissa’s notice.

“rieka, drop the act! Rose’s moving in must be killing you, right?”

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Though she had her back towards them, rieka could feel Kieran’s sharp eyes on her, like he was checking if she was a threat to Roschelle.

It was the same look she used to see all the time.

She could barely steady her breath. Her heart thudded as she hurried up the stairs and shut the bedroom door behind her.

Leaning against the door, she took deep breaths to calm down.

She didn’t know if Roschelle would drug her like in her past life, but either way, she had to be ready this time.

The vi remained quiet all afternoon. rieka never came down for lunch. The servants came to get her twice and then gave up.

In the evening. Roschelle knocked on her door. She smiled warmly and handed her a ss of fresh juice.

“You haven’t eaten this afternoon, so I made some juice for you.”

rieka’s hand rested on the doorknob. She didn’t let Roschelle in. Her voice was calm, distant.

DL59