Page 58 of Damsel in Disguise

I almost scoff at the sudden shifting back to defiance. She’s being too stubborn for her own good.

“Just keep your guards up in the meantime, Miss Keintson.”

She pauses, takes a deep, steadying breath, and steps out into the evening air without looking back.

Ariella hasn’t accepted the offer or surrendered to me yet.

Nor has she directly asked me about where she had been for the four weeks before she was brought here.

But whether she accepts it or not, she has willingly stepped into the orbit of the devil—me.

In the meantime, I’ll wait for her to either run back to me for answers or chase them down herself.

21. INTRUSION

ariella

Day two of being back to my regular life.

I still haven’t said yes.

These past two days I got back to my family. The past conversations that they had with me—Alistair, I mean—helped me connect the dots and fabricate a believable story.

I tried to find more about this secret organization he seems to work for. And as expected, I came up with nothing. It’s as if he were just bluffing around to intimidate me about something that never existed in the first place.

The worst part is I can’t bring myself to ask for my dad’s help, not even Asher’s. Dad would ask me too many questions and would definitely hold back information ‘for my safety’.

And Asher is mad at me for not only buying a bike but also getting into a serious accident because of it.

So I went to Adrian and asked him to dig into Alistair Hertley. He promised to get back to me as soon as he can.

The offer lingers in my head like a door left slightly open, not wide enough to walk through yet, but not closed enough to ignore.

I don’t know whatever it is that he seems to work for, and that alone feels engineered enough to intimidate.

The fact that I almost died because of it should be reason enough to stay away. Instead, I find myself circling it, testing its edges, wondering what it’d mean to step fully into his world rather than hovering at its perimeter.

When I returned to campus this morning, I expected consequences. Administrative warnings. Academic penalties. Professors raising brows over my unexplained disappearance. I’ve been gone for over a month, and surprisingly, nothing was out of place.

My attendance was marked excused. Documentation has already been submitted. Medical leave approved and archived with professional precision. Even my advisor mentioned, almost casually, that Professor Hertley personally ensured everything was handled properly.

Alistair rearranged reality in my absence and made me fit in it too seamlessly.

The most surprising part is that my father never stormed here at Oxford University demanding answers. CynoTech never launched a quiet investigation. No security detail appeared at my door.

Whatever narrative Alistair constructed, it was convincing enough to pacify one of the most powerful corporate families in the world. And I still don’t know what else he did apart from the messages and texts sent from my devices.

My official break isn’t even over for one last day.

Which means I have time.

Time to decide whether I’m stepping into something dangerous on my own or if I’m being guided there without realizing.

If he wants me inside his domain, then I refuse to enter blind. I want to see the infrastructure of the man who thinks he can control me.

So tonight, I won’t wait for Adrian anymore but return willingly to what I know best.

I’ll return to him.