This Time, I'll Be the Villain's Favorite Daughter novel Chapter 205

Chapter 205 Sigh

“If only we were both already grown up.”

She’d always longed for that, in the deepest, most persistent corner of her heart.

But in her past life, neither of them had ever gotten the chance.

finisher

December came, and snow fell through the entire night outside her window. When she pushed the front door open in the morning, a thick, unbroken layer of white had piled up against the threshold.

Maya stood in the doorway and breathed out a small cloud of warm air, watching the snowflakes drift and spiral down through the pale winter light.

Today was her birthday.

She didn’t feel anything particular about it.

2

She’d never celebrated in her past life, and this life hadn’t given her the habit either.

Wendy, however, felt very differently about it. She’d been pulling the whole family out the door to shop since the crack of dawn.

“The whole family” was a generous term. Maya was really the only one who went along with any genuine enthusiasm.

The three men of the household managed to look increasingly lazy, each outdoing the others.

Mother and daughter swept through the grocery store together and came home loaded down. Ingredients. snacks, decorations, and one beautiful birthday cake carried carefully in hand.

On the way back, passing the neighbor’s house in the adjoining row, the elegant woman from next door was outside with her husband, photographing the snow.

C

She caught sight of the birthday cake in Wendy’s hands and stepped forward with a warm smile. “Someone’s celebrating a birthday?”

Wendy smiled right back. “My daughter’s.”

“Oh, how lovely. That deserves a proper celebration.”

The woman pulled her husband along and showed up at their door

not long after with a gift in hand.

At some point during the visit, Raymond let his gaze rest on the woman for two quiet seconds.

Then, in the tone of someone making idle conversation, he asked, “Where’s your child? Maya mentioned you had a little one?”

Maya blinked.

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Chapter 205 Sigh

She was fairly certain she’d never actually told Raymond that the neighbors had a child.

The woman’s expression didn’t flicker. Her smile held perfectly steady. “Oh, they board at school and don’t really come out much. That’s probably why you’ve never crossed paths.”

Raymond said, soft and unhurried, “Is that right?”

Whether he believed it was anyone’s guess.

After the woman hustled her husband out the door, Raymond unwrapped the gift without any particular ceremony and found an impressively expensive coffee maker set inside. He contemplated it for a moment with a quietly meaningful air.

“Our neighbor next door,” he said, “appears to be extraordinarily wealthy.”

Maya’s birthday turned the house into something gloriously, thoroughly loud.

It was the kind of loud that starts the moment your eyes open in the morning and doesn’t stop for air.

In the kitchen, Wendy and Raymond were deep into preparations for the evening feast.

Wendy commanded the stove. Raymond played support. They talked at each other across the kitchen island.

“You put in too much salt! How do you function in daily life?”

“My apologies,” Raymond said. “Should I add some sugar to balance it out?”

“Get out of

my

kitchen.”

In the living room, Wendy had assigned Maya, Alfred, and George a very specific task.

Hang up the decorations. Make the house feel like a birthday was actually happening.

The division of labor was clear. George handled the string lights. Alfred and Maya handled the assorted trimmings.

C

The problem was the execution.

George was standing on a chair with a strand of fairy lights in hand, pressing small adhesive clips into the wall. He was doing it entirely by feel, and the result hung in a graceful, wandering curve, like a snake that had celebrated a little too hard the night before.

Alfred stood below, studied it for a long moment, and finally spoke.

“It’s crooked”

George didn’t turn around. “What’s crooked?”

Alfred pointed. “Third clip from the left is about an inch too low, Fifth from the right is angled outward. The overall arc has no flow, and there’s a visible dip in the middle

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Chapter 205–Sigh

George looked back over his shoulder. “Why does it need to be perfectly straight?”

Alfred’s face stayed completely blank. “Because yours looks terrible.”

“You look terrible.”

“No, you.”

Maya had been watching this for a considerable amount of time. “Both of your taste levels are genuinely concerning.”

George and Alfred both turned to look at her.

Maya pointed at the light strand and gave her honest assessment. That looks like a caterpillar that didn’t make it.”

Then she pointed at the cluster of balloons in Alfred’s hands and had to physically restrain herself from channeling her mother’s volume. “Those four balloons are arranged in a perfect grid. It looks like a military formation.”

Right at that moment, the doorbell rang.

Maya had no interest in continuing the aesthetic debate with two people who had no business making decorating decisions. She ran to answer the door.

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