Chapter 85: The Comment from L

Freya stared at the comment beneath her latest chapter until her embarrassment turned into suspicion. 'The romance is progressing too slowly.' Only one person could write that immediately after kissing her beside the river and still pretend it was literary criticism.

She marched out of her room with her phone in hand. Louis was sitting on the sofa, calmly reading a report as though he had done nothing wrong.

'Delete it.'

He looked up. 'Delete what?'

'Your comment.'

'Why?'

'Because now I know exactly what you're talking about.'

Louis glanced at her screen. 'I was commenting on the novel.'

'Of course. And the timing is completely accidental.'

'Probably.'

Freya threw a cushion at him. Louis caught it with one hand, and the faint smile on his face made her even more annoyed.

The awkwardness she had expected after their first kiss never arrived. Instead, something between them had become easier. Louis still went to work, Freya still wrote and handled design projects, and they still argued over trivial things. The difference was in the small moments: his hand briefly touching her back when he passed behind her, the way she automatically poured his coffee with hers, and the fact that neither of them pretended the kiss had been a mistake.

At breakfast, Louis asked, 'Are you free Wednesday evening?'

Freya immediately became cautious. 'Why?'

'Dinner.'

'Another date?'

'Yes.'

His directness left her nowhere to hide. 'Fine.'

Louis nodded as though arranging a business appointment. Freya kicked him lightly under the table.

Before she could complain, Derek called. Victor's abandoned vehicle had been found near a railway station outside the city. Security footage showed Victor entering the station, but there was no record of him boarding a train.

'So he switched vehicles,' Freya said after Louis explained.

'Most likely.'

'Or met someone.'

Louis nodded.

The station footage contained another detail. A dark sedan had entered a restricted service lane twenty minutes after Victor arrived. Its license plate was obscured, but the vehicle model matched one used by a company connected to Ashford Holdings.

The Stone family connection had surfaced again.

Freya's playful mood disappeared. 'Do you think someone helped him escape?'

'Yes.'

'Someone with access to your family companies.'

'Possibly.'

Freya sat beside him. The mystery was becoming increasingly personal for Louis, just as the vanished inheritance had made it personal for her.

She reached for his hand without thinking.

Louis looked down at their joined hands, then at her.

Freya realized what she had done but didn't move away. 'Don't make it weird.'

'I didn't say anything.'

'Your face did.'

His fingers closed around hers.

Whatever waited behind Ashford Holdings, they would face it together. Freya was beginning to understand that this, more than the kiss itself, was what frightened her most: she had stopped imagining Louis's future as something separate from her own.

Later that morning, Freya checked her sales dashboard and discovered another two luxury bags had sold. The sight amused her. Months earlier, selling those bags had been part of her plan to raise capital for a bankrupt husband. Now Louis had resources she still didn't fully understand, while she kept selling them because she liked having money that was unquestionably hers. Louis never asked her to stop.

Before leaving for work, Louis paused beside her desk. 'Wednesday at seven.' Freya looked up. 'I remember.' 'Good.' He leaned down, kissed her forehead with infuriating calm, and left before she could respond. Freya sat frozen for several seconds, then opened her manuscript and deliberately made the male lead suffer for three paragraphs.