2023-03-02 20:01:20
Previous Chapter
Related Chapters
Revenge of The Furtive Billionaire Heir 124. Do it right.
I lie on my bed, but sleep does not come so easily.Just moments ago, I bid night to Coraline, my best friend who just confessed that she was in love with me.Me.Coraline, who was the former head cheerleader of the high school I attended, dated the captain of the football team and was the most popular girl in school. Coraline, who had been in an abusive relationship when I met her again after many years, became my best friend after it ended.I did love Coraline, but I never let myself wonder in which way. Until today, I did not let my thoughts stray to a territory that was not platonic. I felt like I was doing something wrong whenever I got those thoughts, as it made me feel like I would be taking advantage of Coraline. I mean, she was my employee. There were already enough rumors about us, claiming that she was exchanging sexual favors with me for her job. The rumors were disgusting, and whenever I heard them, I made sure to glare at whoever even dared to relay the untruths. If the
Revenge of The Furtive Billionaire Heir 125. Happy Coincidence
The next day, I spend about two minutes cowering in the bathroom before manning up to go downstairs and come face-to-face with the new, albeit temporary occupants of my (father’s) residence.And if I hyperventilate in the shower or not, that’s no one’s business but my own.Here’s the thing, when I went to sleep last night, I did not expect to get PTSD over asking a girl out the next morning, especially when the said girl already confessed her love for me and is probably the best person in my life, as well as one of my long-time friends.Perhaps the only long-time friend.But hey, I've been only burned once before. I shouldn’t be this melodramatic.And so, I make my way downstairs, trying not to show how much of a pink prune I’d become thanks to my long shower session.“Jace!” Lemon’s enthusiastic voice calls out as soon as I cross the doorway to the kitchen, and I glance at the kitchen clock. It’s still seven in the morning, and I briefly wonder how anyone could have that kind of ener
Revenge of The Furtive Billionaire Heir 126. A Date.
“Hey, Jace.” She says, attempting a smile. She suddenly looks shy.“Hey, Coraline,” I reply, “so…what do you say we stop beating around the bush about last night?”A startled laugh escapes and she shakes her head as if she is in disbelief.“Yeah, Jace, that seems like the best cause of action,” she sighs, “this shouldn’t feel so awkward, should this? I mean, it’s not like we’re strangers. We’re friends, for god’s sake.”“I think that’s the exact reason we feel out of place. The paradigm of our relationship has shifted, and it’s going to take some time for us to get used to it,” I point out, totally not spouting out facts I’d googled last night before finally succumbing to sleep about dating one's best friend correctly. I did not intend to commit mistakes in this particular venture.“I suppose,” Coraline replies coyly, and gives me a look under her lashes, “so, what do you think about this particular shift of paradigms?”“Well, I have reasons to believe that it just might be the best t
Revenge of The Furtive Billionaire Heir 127. Helium
The restaurant is called Helium, and judging by the prices on the menu, it’s a very apt name.During the past few months, it’s become the best restaurant in town, because no matter how expensive their food is, it's good, and the service, the ambiance, and the sheer experience of dining in the Helium is grand. When I went there with Kayla, it was still in its budding stage. And now, it had blossomed to perfection.So, yeah, if not for my bad memories associated with the place, it’ll be the prime spot for a first date. But I’ve heard time and time again that if one needs to get over one’s fears, one has to face them head-on.A little exposure therapy would be good for me, won’t it?So, I call the establishment and get a reservation under the name of Greyson. The woman who takes my call is nice enough and assures me that they will have a nice little alcove with relative privacy available for us, one that is specially targeted towards couples. Of course, I have to pay extra for it, but fo
Revenge of The Furtive Billionaire Heir 128. Identity.
I do not tell Coraline about my phone.Instead, I immediately rush to the nearest electronics store, stalkers and murderers be damned, and buy a new phone. Unfortunately, this particular store only sells old brands and models, so I get a really cranky phone for my money.Because even after three hours, the backup isn’t finished yet!I think it’s Karma coming after my ass for breaking a perfectly good device in a moment of rage. I mean, there are people starving all around the world and I'm throwing iPhones around just to throw a temper tantrum. That makes me feel like a real adult, alright.So, thanks to my earlier loss of control, I am struck with some off-brand device that's taking forever to get set up. I need that email to enter the restaurant and claim the reservation.We only got one more hour to go before we need to get on the road. It’s going to take a little while to travel to Empire city, and we wanted to get there fairly early just so we wouldn’t be late because of reasons
Revenge of The Furtive Billionaire Heir 129. Misunderstanding
“Hello, welcome to Helium! Do you have a reservation?” chirps the hostess.She looks pleasant enough. Coraline hooked her arm with mine and was pressed to my side, her length warm against me. She managed to lend me strength through that moment only.I smile at the hostess sunnily and decide that I was going to use every bit of charm I could muster to land us this reservation with or without a fight.Without would be welcome, though.“Yes, of course. A table for two under the name Greyson.”“Greyson, Greyson…” the hostel scrolled through the touch screen monitor in front of her. Then, she began to move her finger downwards.Her brows began to furrow, and something clenches in my heart.“Is there a problem?” I ask.“Um, yes, sir, it appears so. There isn’t a reservation logged under that name. Did you give the correct name sir?”“Um, yeah. I’m pretty sure I did,” I reply, my mind racing. I got the receipt of the reservation emailed to me, along with the reservation notice. Both of those
Revenge of The Furtive Billionaire Heir 130. Best.
“I’m sorry,” I tell her, a pout firmly on my face. I can’t seem to make it go away no matter how much I tried.We’re sitting in front of one of Empire City's most popular tourist attractions, the Regal Lake. Everything in this damn city was named to have some sort of relation to royalty for some reason. Mostly, this was a factor for much joking within the campus as well as everywhere else. This particular pace is familiar to me from the time I was living in Empire city.Coraline sits next to me, my jacket wrapped around her shoulders to give her warmth. Laurent must be parked somewhere around, surely indulging in a cigarette. It’s been about half an hour since our altercation at Helium restaurant came into place. After getting the refund completed, and some more arguing with the staff, we finally managed to make it out of there. But by then, it was too late. The mood for a perfect date had been tarnished, and Coraline looked exhausted.We mumbled something at Laurent after returning t
Revenge of The Furtive Billionaire Heir 131. Fireplace.
So, our date does not end as either of us planned.We get some fried chicken from a fast-food joint near the late and invite Laurent the driver to join us, but he graciously refuses. Instead, he takes us back to the little park near the lake and watches over us from afar, giving us our space and keeping an eye on us because there’s still an unsavory character capable of murder prowling about, and we have no idea if he will strike us or not.Coraline and I have something of a good time, I think, eating out from a bucket while being sprawled over either end of a bench, listening to each other’s voices mingled with the soft lapping of waves on the shore, talking about anything and everything. Her feet are on my lap, and I gently massage the soles of her feet with the hand that’s not holding my food.It feels so nice to be able to be open with someone like this. I’ve not been a fan of reading much, but from the few stories that I have read, I’ve learned that the best kind of person to fal
Latest Chapter
261. Supernatural?
“Oh, fuck!” I let out as I spring away from where I’d been lying with my head on Estelle’s lap. “Holy shit, I’m normal! I’m normal!”I pat at my body, and sure enough, it’s two-legged, hairless, and my hands are actually my hands! With fingers and pink skin, with only some fine hair on my forearms, and no black fur in sight!I immediately look behind me, and nearly cry in relief when I see that I have a normal, human posterior, not one with a tail.And to my surprise, my clothes are still intact though I had ripped them when I had turned into a dog, but they were still here. Thank God, because I did not fancy getting naked for the second time today.“I did not think that would happen,” Estelle comments, and I turn to her. She doesn’t look too shocked at my reappearance as a human. She stands up from where she had been sitting, brushing off her pants as if on habit before turning to me with a smile, “Well, it’s a good thing I didn’t call that hospital.”I stare at her for a moment, won
260. Scream
I cower near the toilet, scared out of my fricking mind as the door opens, hoping to everything holy that she would not freak out, which is stupid considering who would not freak out when they see an animal in a room where they initially left a human in?But to my utter surprise, when Estelle opens the door, she does not scream or throw anything at me.Instead, she blinks.Once.Twice.And then she opens her mouth to say, “Oh.”I blink at her. What did she mean oh? There’s a fricking dog creature in her bathroom and no sign of a human, the human that came to her house naked in the middle of the rain! Why does she look so calm and curious? Why is she looking at me like this was every other Tuesday in her life? I feel so confused that a whine falls from my throat, and that seems to snap her out of her contemplative stare.“I didn’t realize that you were one of them,” she tells me in a confused tone, brows furrowed, “I mean, it’s not like I’m new to this, I should’ve been able to smell y
259. Coming in
I felt different.It was like everything that made me myself, my personality, my conscience, my thinking, and my control over my body, had been plucked out of the said body and then put into a small box somewhere in my mind. I didn’t have any control of my body, although I could feel my body, but then I could not actually feel like I did every day. No, it felt like it wasn’t my body, but then it felt like my body, but not my body again…I didn’t know what to make out of this. My head hurt, and I felt like my breathing capacity had increased and my legs had shortened, and I couldn’t stand up regardless of my somewhat dubious control I tried to open my mouth to talk but couldn’t do that either.And my visions feel weird, everything feels lower than it did before whatever happened to me happened, and the pictures flitting through my eyes seem far more intense than normal. I can hear so many noises as well, the fill of water in the tank somewhere, the sloshing of liquid in the septic tank
258. Get out.
“Okay, so this is going to sound utterly unbelievable at first,” I say, “but bear with me, okay? This really happening and I am not lying, not one bit.”Estelle raises a brow at me. “Okay, normally, if someone tries to defend themselves that much, I might get a little suspicious, but then again what happened to your girlfriend made it to the news and I would never have thought anything like that taking place outside movies or books so I’m going to let you tell your story and pass judgment afterward.”“Fair. To be honest, I don’t even know if I should tell you all this considering there’s still an active investigation happening,” not that the active investigation was doing anything to help. You would think that after being one of the centerpieces of a murder and kidnapping investigation you would be questioned by authorities daily and at least be sent to jail once, but so far, we were only hearing crickets from the police side. It felt like they were truly living under the impression t
257. Ex
Estele sighs, running her fingers through her hair.“I honestly don’t know at this point,” she says, “I’ve never really given any serious thought about this. I knew from the start that I was going to be very careful when having sex with people and was always prepared up until yesterday. And like I told you, I’m not the one for hookups and one-night stands. I love relationships, and I’d gotten out of one just mere months ago and still am not over it, not really.”“Oh, I’m so sorry,” I wince, wondering how two similar people like us could’ve done the same mistake, “was it a bad breakup? I didn’t bring back any memories or something, did I?”Estelle gives out a snort of laughter at that.“No, dude, I can’t even remember the hookup so nothing like that happened,” she reminds me, “and it wasn’t a messy breakup per se. I just…we fell out of love, you see. I never thought that would happen in a relationship. We had been dating for like two years now, and I honestly thought that the next step
256. Good news
After spending quite some time rifling through her wardrobe, Estelle comes downstairs to where I’m sitting on one of her mauve-colored couches with a fluffy blanket wrapped around my frame, holding some clothes.“Good news,” she grins at me, “there are some clothes one of my friends left here after staying the night, and she is about your size. So, if you don’t have an issue with pink,” she hands me the large pink t-shirt she’s got bundled in her hand with a wry quirk to her lips, “and basketball shorts,” she hands me bright red basketball shorts, “then these are yours.”I squint at the combination and comment, “You know, I don’t mean any offense, but who on earth wears this combo even to bed?” The t-shirt is fuchsia with cute, squiggly sheep jumping over a bright green patch of grass. It is truly an assault on the senses, and the less said about the shorts the better.Estelle snorts, “She’s a bit into the eclectic side of fashion. You want me to try and find something else?”“Oh, no,
255. Brain Injury
“Follow me,” I’m being instructed as soon as I enter the quaint little house through the doors. I take a brief look around, my newly deepened senses getting acquainted with the new surroundings I’ve found myself in, and there's nothing to complain about. The lavender and cream scent that emanated from Estelle permeated every available surface of the house and then some, along with the intermingling scents of the cut flowers artistically arranged in various cute vases on almost every available flat surface, one vase each, and the smell of firewood burning in the fireplace. The wallpapers are mauve themes, the skirtings are white, and the floor is made of polished hardwood, and the house lighting is ambient. There is a window seat near the large window I failed to see from the outside, and the wall next to the window is covered with a bookrack. I squint at the old-looking books, trying to see if there are any names on the spines. Some have names, but a lot of them are nameless.Interest
254. Cover
I try to see if there are any materials lying around in what seems to be the backyard of the house, but there are only flowering plants and herbs, neatly grown in flowerbeds and growing heartily, all over the yard. It’s not fenced or gated, and while to me that looks like a bad move security-wise, I guess the residents of this quaint little house do not think so.It’s actually a cottage, by the looks of it, and extremely old-fashioned at that. Blue in color, freshly painted, with white windows and doors, as well as a black tiled roof that had an opening for a chimney.Smoke is coming out of the chimney, and the glow of evening lights emanates from behind the white curtains that had been put behind the windows. It looks homely, and surely someone living in a home like this would not turn away someone needing help, would they?I desperately wish I had something to cover myself, but sadly there is not, so I try to use my hand. Never have I felt this humiliated by a circumstance, and I h
253. Woods
There's something wet on my face. That is the first thing that registers in my mind when I start to gain consciousness from the sea of darkness that my being had been submerged in. The wetness is cold, cold enough to shock me into the real world from wherever it was I had been before, where darkness was a constant. The second thing I register is pain. It's the kind of pain that you would expect to overtake your body after extensive surgery done by some amateur medical professional after a rather terrifying car accident. I feel like I'm cut up and being sewn off raw, with needles pricking onto my skin from everywhere all at once. The wetness starts to increase, and soon enough through the pain, I realize that this had got to be water. What kind of water, I'm not sure. But judging by the force of the icy drops colliding with my skin, I feel like it's rain. Why am I being drenched by rain? Why do I feel so hurt? What's going on? I do not know, but I have been through enough harrowin
