Chapter 109 Chapter 109. Seeds of Malice
Faye bit down hard on her lower lip. A sharp sting pulled her back from the chaos in her mind. After a moment, she agreed.
After hanging up, Faye still felt dazed. Her hands and feet were icy numb. Was it really settled now? Would Michael truly help her kill Zoria?
As the thought crossed her mind, her stiff fingers dialed another number…
…
“Good morning, Zoria.” Lysander lifted his head slightly, the corners of his lips curling into a bright smile, dazzling like sunlight.
Zoria looked at him, her expression instantly turning cold. Why was he here again?
“Have you eaten breakfast?” Seeing that Zoria did not respond, Lysander asked casually.
Zoria replied flatly, “I have.”
“Since you’ve eaten breakfast, let me treat you to lunch.”
Without waiting to see whether Zoria agreed or not, he stepped forward and grabbed her hand. His movement was too rough, leaving her almost no chance to refuse. The moment they reached downstairs, Lysander forced her into his car.
Zoria clutched the dog Hamburger tightly, her gaze fixed on Lysander with open wariness.
"Mr. Valerius, I'm not hungry."
Lysander bared his teeth in a grin. "But I am."
What he meant was clear: she had no choice but to eat with him.
Zoria could not make sense of it. Why was Lysander so relentlessly attached to her? If it was because of Zephyr, that made no sense—she and Zephyr had already dissolved their bond.
No matter how much she thought it over, Zoria still could not figure out what this male was plotting.
When they arrived at the restaurant, Lysander got out of the car and opened the door for her. "Get out."
Zoria did not move. But Hamburger, the little dog resting on her lap, jumped down first. The moment Lysander saw the dog, he instinctively stepped back. A flash of disgust crossed his face—and Zoria caught it.
Lysander hated dogs. More precisely, he hated all pets. To him, animals were crawling with bacteria, filthy and troublesome. He could never understand why Zoria liked such mindless creatures. Watching the dog pant with saliva dripping from its mouth only made him feel sick.
It was not yet lunchtime, yet Lysander led Zoria into a pastry shop next to the restaurant.
"Mr. Valerius…" she called softly, her eyes complicated as they lingered on his smile and those rare, striking golden eyes.
"Call me by my name." Lysander looked at Zoria sitting across from him, his gaze darkening as his voice turned commanding. The title "Mr. Valerius" felt distant, grating to his ears. In truth, he had wanted her to call his name for a long time.
Zoria did not respond. She only continued, "I think I made myself clear yesterday."
Lysander poured himself a glass of water. He seemed to think for a moment, then nodded. She believed he was the same kind as Zephyr, and that was why she rejected him. That thought had tormented him all night, leaving him barely any sleep. But it was also that sleepless night that brought him clarity. The more she refused him, the more he had to have her, the more determined he became to form a bond with her. Once the idea took root, it grew fiercely. Now his resolve was absolute, impossible to shake.
Because of that violent sexual experience in the past, Zoria was undoubtedly still afraid of him. Expecting her to forget all that discomfort immediately was unrealistic. But that was fine. He had time. Making Zoria fall for him was only a matter of time.
"You rejected me, but I still like you. Zoria, I like you. I think about bonding with you every single day."
The words "bonding" struck Zoria like a knife driven straight into her chest. Lysander had said it more than once, and every time he did, it sounded like a joke. He did not understand the meaning of a bond at all. To him, it was nothing more than a game of conquest.
"Mr. Valerius, have you ever truly loved anyone?"
Lysander froze. The smile on his face stiffened inch by inch. He narrowed his eyes slightly, a flash of cold passing through them before it quickly softened into a careless grin.
"I love you. Otherwise, why would I cling to you like this? I'm a clean person, you know. And yet, for you, I moved here. I look at trash every day, all just to make you accept me."
Zoria's eyes widened. So the owner of the apartment next to hers was Lysander. She pressed her lips together, a deep discomfort settling in her chest.
The corner of Lysander's mouth curled into a wicked smile. "I'm not begging you to follow me. But I've already moved in next door to you. And there's nothing you can do about it, right?"
Zoria found Lysander more and more impossible to read. He had always been someone who despised filth. And yet now, for a female tainted by Zephyr—someone whose bond had even been broken—he was willing to live in a filthy apartment beside a garbage dump.
Just last night, Zoria had wondered whether Lysander would become enraged and use force on her like Zephyr if she continued to refuse him. But he did not. He was far more proper than she had expected.
Zoria frowned, her blue eyes locked onto Lysander.
"Lysander, I'm filthy. Filthy, filthy. I'm a woman who was trampled by Zephyr. Don't you find that disgusting?"
Lysander frowned deeply. To be honest, he had never seriously thought about it before. He looked at Zoria, his gaze probing, assessing.
Zoria was very beautiful. Her features were delicate, her eyebrows pale gold, her blue pupils shimmering, her skin fair. She was petite, yet her limbs were long and slender. Whenever she wore a form-fitting dress, her body radiated a lethal kind of allure.
When she was bullied to the point of tears, she instead gave him the feeling of something fragile, like a pristine sheet of white paper. Zoria was exactly like a rabbit. But a ferocious one.
Lysander slowly stood up. Seeing his expression change again and again, Zoria thought he had come to his senses. Unexpectedly, Lysander walked straight up to her, lifted her chin with a strong hand, and forced her to look at him. His gaze burned, as if it could scorch her alive.