Chapter 2Chasing Lost Time

"You should knock before entering."

My words made her brow furrow. "Are you avoiding me?" she asked abruptly. "Or are you throwing a tantrum because of Ashton?"

"We're not children anymore. I just think we should be mindful of appearances. I don't want your fiancé to get the wrong idea."

I shook my head and offered a small, formal bow. "I'm very happy for you and Ashton. I wish you a long and happy life together."

I tried to sound playful, but for some reason, it only seemed to anger her more.

"Are you sure you mean that?"

"At your eighteenth birthday party, you kissed me while I was drunk and asleep. On your twentieth, you stood outside my door all night. On our graduation trip, you buried a stone with our names on it under the lover's rock at the shrine..."

As I stared at her in shock, a cruel smile spread across her face.

"Caden, did you really think I didn't know? You thought you were being so clever, hiding your feelings, but you were so obvious. Everyone in this family knows you're in love with me!"

She lifted my chin with her fingertips, her red lips parting. "I was adopted by our parents before you were even born. We were raised as brother and sister. But the moment you found out we weren't related by blood, you started having inappropriate feelings for me."

"And what makes me angriest," she continued, her voice dripping with venom, "is that you knew I loved Ashton, yet you deliberately antagonized him at every turn."

In the privacy of my room, she unleashed all the malice she had kept hidden.

"So you should be grateful you never confessed your feelings to my face."

"Because if you had... it would have only disgusted me."

Even though I had already let go of my feelings for her in this life, her words still sent a sharp, stabbing pain through my heart.

I lifted my head, meeting her gaze, searching for an answer for the me of the past. "In your eyes, was I really that terrible?"

"What else would you be?" She pulled her hand back and wiped her fingertips with a tissue from the desk. "Last night, even though I was drugged, I wasn't completely unconscious. I saw the desire in your eyes. And I'm telling you, if you had dared to do anything, I would have killed you."

She threw the used tissue at me. "The thought of you touching me makes my skin crawl."

I never knew. I never knew she had started hating me so long ago.

I pressed my lips together, forcing back the tears. It was a good thing I had already moved on. If I hadn't, this truth would have been unbearable.

"I understand," I said, my voice low. "I'll be more careful from now on."

I lowered my head. My professor from abroad had just emailed me, accepting my application. I just had to get through these last few days. I had no fight left in me.

But I didn't know Luna could be even crueler.

She walked to the window, glanced outside, and then turned back to me. "Ashton's room is a bit damp. He's not sleeping well. Your room gets the best sunlight. You can move out today. He'll take this one."

Sunlight streamed through the window, framing her in a halo of light. I couldn't quite make out her expression.

Her voice turned cold. "What, you're not willing?"

I kept my head down, my voice as neutral as I could make it. "No. This was your room to begin with. You can give it to whomever you want."

This room had been Luna's a long time ago. But when I was seven, I nearly drowned and suffered from a persistent chill for a long time afterward. She had insisted I take her room, the one that got the most sun.

I had almost forgotten. She used to be good to me.

But now, she had someone she loved more. And she was giving him all her affection, without reservation.

Luna narrowed her eyes. "You're really okay with this?"

I just grunted in affirmation.

It wasn't until the servants had moved almost all of my belongings into another room that she finally spoke again, unable to contain her suspicion.

"You used to cry and throw a fit if I was nice to anyone else. Why are you suddenly so well-behaved? Are you plotting something?"

She was testing me. "I don't care what you're planning, but if you hurt Ashton, don't blame me for what I do. You know what I'm capable of."

The last of my things were moved into the guest room. I stepped inside, and just before closing the door, I looked back at her. "A well-behaved, obedient little brother. Isn't that what you've always wanted?"

"I'm not going to target anyone. I just want to be left alone."

I shut the door, cutting off her hissed reply: "You've got a lot of nerve."

She was angry. But this time, I wasn't going to comfort her.