This Time, I'll Be the Villain's Favorite Daughter novel Chapter 203

Chapter 203 Fearsome

At least both of them were young, and their mutual scheming at home stayed within manageable, low- stakes territory.

Edric was a different matter entirely.

He’d been independent early stepping into a leadership role that reminded Maya a little of her father.

He was emotionally dis one truly registered

He and her dad sh

The difference. grousing at th her mother

Edric wa

He

poken on the surface, easy to talk to in appearance, while in reality no

1. ty.

nd had been worn smooth by years of ordinary life, spending his days s about not wanting to work, complaining about clients and contracts, until hoved him back into line.

on who occupied the absolute top of the hierarchy by nature, with no effort

tive, bone–deep reverence for people like that.

r, bright sound of her apology and smiled just slightly.

moved toward her without any warning whatsoever.

ss of it made Maya’s heart lurch. For one terrible second she thought she’d offended him that he was about to do something deeply undignified, like actually hitting a child.

d breathing and pulled her neck back on pure reflex.

g, pale hand reached over and plucked the last sticky note right off her forehead.

d the little white strip between his fingers and gave it a small, idle wave.

f

know,” he said, his voice warm and unhurried as a breeze through an open window, “you’re not ibly sharp, are you?”

aya stared at him.

he stood there complete angling from his finge

ric set the sticky

he straig

Own.

leasant face, then at the little strip of paper

1. d.

ed to his desk, pulled out his chair, and

I’ll have someone take you both home.

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Chapter 203 fearsome

Finish

Oh.

So the “last supper” really had just meant the last meal of their stay.

“Whatever works,” Maya said.

Alfred had no preference either.

Across the room, the subordinates who’d been quietly waiting to give their reports finally let the rigid tension ease out of their bodies, just a little.

They exchanged a few covert glances, and every set of eyes drifted toward the sofa without anyone planning it.

Strange.

They’d worked alongside Edric for years and had never once seen so much as a distant relative materialize in his orbit.

Their boss seemed to have appeared fully formed from nowhere, with no personal history anyone had ever been able to trace.

The outside world knew almost nothing about the Clark children, and any post that surfaced online about them disappeared within minutes.

This was the first time any of them had seen two of the other Clark children in the flesh.

“The boss,” one of the waiting assistants murmured to the colleague beside her, barely moving her lips, “looks like he’s in a decent mood right now.”

Edric sat behind his desk, the lamplight catching the side of his face and softening it considerably, his brow and eyes relaxed and unhurried.

It was nothing at all like the low, oppressive weight he’d carried when he first walked in.

They’d been right behind him on the way here and had felt his displeasure radiating off him with perfect clarity.

But now, thanks to one small child deciding to square up and talk back to him, that coiled, eerie tension had unraveled into something almost comfortable.

That was good news for them.

A boss in a good mood meant the rest of them didn’t have to absorb the surplus pressure.

“Maybe,” the assistant said, half–joking as she nodded toward the two kids, “even someone as cold as the boss turns soft when there are little ones around?”

The boy looked like a delicate ceramic figure. The girl was strikingly sweet–faced, and the sight of them together, the brother stepping forward and the sister hovering just behind him with that wide, wary expression, was genuinely funny in the most endearing way.

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Chapter 203 Fearsome

Fineffet

They exchanged one last amused look between themselves, then snapped their attention back to the task at hand, determined to get through their reports while the boss was still in a forgiving mood.

By the time Edric had worked through everything, it was deep into the night. The fatigue had settled into him completely, and he leaned back in his chair and let his eyes fali shut for a while.

Then he reached over and picked up a second phone, the one reserved for personal use, which had sat untouched and silent for a long time.

A wall of notifications greeted him.

As it turned out, over the past seven days, the thing that had weighed on him more than the two reasonably well–behaved children was the relentless rotation of fafhily members reaching out by call and

message.

His father. His mother. George. Toby.

Even Philbert.

Edric scrolled through all of it and replied to none of it.

He’d been disconnected from the word “family” for so long that he’d genuinely stopped remembering what a normal version of it was supposed to look like.

He’d been brought into the Clark family when he was still very young.

His mother had been deeply opposed to it, but Edric/had understood, even then, that from a purely practical standpoint, staying with the Clarks was the superior choice.

Access to the best educational resources in existence, a vast and formidable network, and wealth without a visible ceiling. These were concrete, real things.

There was so much to take in and navigate in this unfamiliar family. There simply wasn’t room for thoughts of family bonds or emotional connection.

By the time he’d grown, and finally had both the ability and the time to stop and look around, it was already a little late. The closeness that might have been there had gone stiff with disuse.

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