This Time, I'll Be the Villain's Favorite Daughter novel Chapter 315

Chapter 314 Her Little Friends

Lucy had no idea how many brothers Maya actually had. All she knew was that every conversation with Maya eventually circled back to complaining about one of them.

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“He just can’t keep up with what’s current Maya said, running her fingers through her freshly colored green curls. “It’s not just him, either. My whole family’s the same way.”

“Do you have some kind of dynasty to inherit or something?” Lucy shot her a sideways glance. “You make it sound like you’re from one of those old-money bloodline families.”

“No dynasty.” Maya said, shaking her head. “They’re just strict. Edric and Toby were raised by my grandfather. Those two are especially set in their ways.”

Edric hadn’t shown it when they were younger.

It had crept up on him gradually, revealing itself with age, the quiet control streak running deep in the marrow of him.

But right now he was far away, and she was here, so he realistically couldn’t do anything about it.

That thought settled Maya’s nerves considerably. She sank back into the chair and let herself go completely loose.

Lucy’s workspace was scattered with instruments she’d picked up over the years to fill the empty hours. She tossed Maya a violin without much ceremony, not wanting her friend to sit there bored.

“That thing’s genuinely difficult,” Lucy said, eyes still fixed on her screen. “I never had the patience to get past the basics.

“If you actually want to hear something good, get Ernest to play for you,” she added. “That man has nothing but time on his hands.”

“Ernest is cultured?” Maya blinked, mildly surprised. “He plays violin? That’s exactly like Toby.”

Cultured?

Lucy let out a short, quiet laugh. “Your brother plays violin too?”

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“He plays a lot of things,” Maya said, picking up the violin and giving it an idle spin. “Not just violin. Cello and piano too. He tried to teach me all of them at some point.” She paused. “Then he stopped.”

“Did you graduate?”

“No. He said I was a lost cause and that teaching the family dog would’ve been more productive.”

In Maya’s private and entirely objective opinion, the problem had always been Toby’s complete absence of patience.

Lucy smiled to herself. Maya’s family sounded like it never had a dull moment.

She tapped Enter, leaned back, and caught Maya in the middle of raising the violin to her chin. She

12:31 pm Ppp

Chapter

The Little Trends

Finished

Trough both hands together in one sharp, decisive clap. “Actually, hold that thought. Put that down. Let’s go give Ernest a hard time instead. He’s got nothing going on.”

Maya was the kind of person who ran on a permanently full charge, like a cat kept indoors too long, still overflowing with energy no matter how much time passed.

Lucy, on the other hand, was running completely dry.

The work had wrung her out, and she had nothing left for actual socializing.

What she needed was someone to redirect Maya toward, and in this entire organization, Ernest was the only person with a genuine surplus of free time.

Maya hadn’t been sitting still during her stay.

She’d mapped out everything she could reach inside the Imperial Order’s base, moving through its corridors with quiet, methodical patience. And no matter how busy or empty her day was, she never skipped her visit to Ernest, wearing at him with relentless curiosity, determined to uncover every last secret the man was carrying.

Ernest had resisted at first.

Then he ran out of ways to push back.

Then somewhere along the way, he simply learned to live with it.

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