Shane put his hand on her shoulder.
“What are you doing here, Adaline?”
“Looking at people.”
Adaline wasn't surprised.
I couldn't tell if I felt relief...or disappointment.
[In the book at this moment a magician approached Genevieve.]
[Well, yes, I’m not Genevieve.] - she thought with a slight mockery.
[It seems that there will be no meeting with the sorcerer after all.]
[Perhaps the one who wanted to kill Genevieve was not the real antagonist of the novel at all?]
She looked at her watch: [about three hours had passed since she and Lloyd left the Bertrand mansion. It took so long to notice her disappearance and find her.]
Looking up at Shane standing behind her, Adaline calmly said:
"I thought you were busy."
“You have to eat anyway. Lunch time." - he answered, without removing his hand from her shoulder.
He ran the back of his fingers along her neck, along her chin, then pushed back the chair and sat down next to her. “The temperature has subsided.”
“It was small.” - she said calmly.
[The medicine that Lucian prepared worked perfectly. Adaline kept the rest to herself.]
In the morning she told Emma that she had a fever, took some medicine and went to bed.
[So he knows what I'm doing and where I'm going...]
[Although, apparently, he did not know about her meeting with Lucian and about the medicine itself.]
Shane frowned, looked into her eyes, and then suddenly gently pulled her neck and kissed her.
Adaline pulled back and said sternly:
“You shouldn’t make obscenities in public.”
"It was a gesture of affection."
"The child is watching."
Shane glanced at Lloyd.
"How old is he?"
"Seventeen."
“Almost an adult. Maybe it’s time to give him freedom?”
“You yourself said that I shouldn’t walk alone.”
“If you wanted company, you could go with Jeff. He wouldn't let you go alone."
"He's at one with you." - Adaline grinned.
[Whatever, the whole family was at the same time.]
[They wouldn't let her do anything dangerous. They would watch every step, trying to protect.]
Adaline didn't want to disturb them, but she was helpless around them.
That's why she needed Lucian and Lloyd.
“Are you angry?” - Shane asked.
"Not really."
"But you look angry."
Adaline rubbed her forehead.
“It’s just my face.”
[The face of a true villain. Although objectively, Adaline was very beautiful.]
[Just not in the “cute dog” style, more like a predatory cat.]
[Sharp features, penetrating gaze. When she is silent, she seems unhappy.]
“I thought you would be better off with your family than in isolation...but it seems I was wrong.”
“Don’t you think that the very idea of keeping me locked up is already a problem?”
"Don't be so angry."
Adaline really wasn't angry.
[Even if he really locked her up, she wouldn't be able to get angry with him.]
[Before, she always thought that Shane was the other girl's hero. How can she see him as her own now?]
[The worst thing was not that he didn’t love her, but that she still forgave him.]
[If only I could find and kill the sorcerer...then I would tell you that I have always loved.]
[I have come to terms with the fact that you will not love me.]
[I can’t let you go, but I can’t hope for love anymore.]
[Pathetic, painful confession.]
Adaline was annoyed that Shane thought she hated him.
[But she did not yet have the right to dispel this illusion.]
[She could only talk about her feelings if she was sure that she would live.]
[Oh, so scary. It's scary to die after confessing.]
[If she didn't escape the plot and ended in death, she intended to make Shane hate her.][Do something so cruel that he would curse the love he once felt for her.]
[Perhaps this was exactly the role of “Adaline” in this story.]
[Ah, with such a reputation...even if I confess, he still won’t believe it.]
[And only she was to blame for this.]
[If Shane really loved her since childhood, then everything she did was terrible.]
[She herself told him not to take the engagement seriously, to be friends with others, even set him up with other girls.]
And then it dawned on her.
[Wait...am I not the real monster?]
[Yes, without a doubt. She was a real monster.]