No One’s POV

Lucian stood in the hallway, his chest going up and down. He turned away from the locked guestroom door and stomped back downstairs.

He needed someone to vent to, and Lily, still standing by the car like a silent judge was the perfect target.

He marched straight toward her, his finger already pointing. "You! You’re her accomplice! You let her take this car! Yo-"

Lily’s face didn’t change. As Lucian neared, she didn’t back away or bow. Instead, she started walking directly toward him. Just as they met, she stepped slightly to the side, her shoulder firmly brushing against his as she walked past him without breaking her stride.

"Ah, I am sorry..." she murmured, her voice cool and devoid of any real apology. She paused for a split second, looking down at her own sleeve.

"...my dear dress, for getting you dirty."

Lucian’s mouth fell open. He spun around, ready to roar at the sheer audacity of a maid treating him like a common street dust but Lily was already halfway across the hallway.

A group of Lucian’s housemaids, who had been standing near the kitchen watching the chaos, began to whisper furiously.

"Which house maid is this?" one hissed, clutching her apron. "How dare she be rude to our master! She didn’t even bow!"

"Shhh!" the older maid next to her whispered, pulling her back. "That’s Lady Viella’s personal maid. Don’t you know the rumors? No one is allowed to say anything to her, not even Lord Lucian himself"

The younger maid huffed, watching Lily’s retreating figure with a mix of envy and shock.

"What a lucky girl... to be able to snub a Lord and keep her head."

Lucian, meanwhile, was left standing in the middle of his own hallway, staring at the spot where Lily had just insulted his entire existence.

He looked at the scratched Ferrari outside, then at his shattered phone on the driveway, and finally at the locked door upstairs where his sister was hiding.

"I am going to have a stroke," Lucian whispered to the empty air.

_______

Lily reached the guestroom door and gave a sharp knock. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"Lucian, I ain’t opening-!" Viella’s voice came muffled from the other side.

"Lady, it’s me, Lily," Lily replied flatly.

The lock clicked immediately. Viella cracked the door open just enough to see Lily’s face, then grabbed her arm and yanked her inside, slamming and locking the door again in one fluid motion.

"Where’s the book?" Viella asked, her breath hitching.

"Here..." Lily pulled the heavy book and the loose papers from under her arm.

Viella took them, her fingers trembling slightly as she laid them out on the bed. She leaned in close, then wrinkled her face and scratched her nose.

"It has an odd smell... like decomposed animal and something sweet. It’s disgusting."

Lily stood by the door, watching her lady.

"So... how long are we planning to be here, my lady?"

"Uh... till I find my answers," Viella murmured, already flipping through the pages.

"You’re not gonna return to Lord Dante’s estate?" Lily asked, her brow furrowing.

Viella looked up at her, her eyes wide with a ’are you serious’ expression. "Unless you want me dead, yah. Between the stolen scratched car and what we just saw at Elias’s... I’m staying put."

Lily’s frown deepened. "So I have to endure him for long," she muttered under her breath, her thoughts drifting to Lucian’s arrogant, towering presence.

"Did you say something?" Viella asked, not looking up.

Lily shook her head quickly. "No. I was just thinking that no matter what, the outside is indeed dangerous. On one side you have Lord Dante and Alina,who knows what she’s telling him right now and on the other side, it’s Elias, who is probably going crazy over the missing book."

"Exactly. That’s why I am here," Viella said, tapping her chin as she stared at the odd sticky ink.

"I don’t know if Lucian is getting toyed with by the plot too, but even if he is, he ain’t that problematic. He never really hated his sister, he’s just been rude. He’s the only one I can semi-trust to be a jerk to my face instead of stabbing me in the back."

Lily nodded slowly, a small, knowing glint in her eyes. "Yah... that’s why we would always fight. He’s too honest about being annoying."

Viella suddenly froze, her fingers hovering just inches above the words written inside. Her skin went pale, the color draining from her face as she looked closer at the edges of the pages.

"Lily... look."

Lily leaned in, her sharp eyes narrowing. As she looked at the binding of the book, a look of genuine surprise flickered in her gaze.

Those sticky black ink wasn’t ink at all. Infact,

"This is... my lady... it’s—"

"Blood," Viella finished the line, her voice barely a whisper. She reached out to touch a corner, but the liquid already dried up. Yet still sticky.

"Rotten blood," Lily added, her nose wrinkling in disgust.

Viella’s fingers flew through the pages, her face twisting in disgust as she noticed every single of the words were written with blood. While trying to ignore the creepy fact she started to read the "official" version of her own life mentioned in the book.

"The pitiful female caught the attention of the world’s most feared mafia lord, Dante Valerio Moretti..." she mocked, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Bla bla bla, I’ve lived through this garbage already."

She flipped ahead to the Chapters marking the exact moment she had transmigrated. The old, predictable plot had been scrubbed away, replaced by new plot.

"Viella, the vicious villainess, hypnotized Dante and made him obsessed with her... but the love was real between Dante and Alina, so in the end, he kept falling for Alina."

"What??? Meeee???" Viella shrieked, slamming her hand onto the bed. "You bitch, Elias! It was Alina who did the ’hypnotizing’ with her white-lotus act and some stupid potion you gave her, not me! He’s literally lying in his own book!"

She huffed, her eyes darting across the fresh blood stained lines.

"No longer fooled, everyone started seeing Viella’s real self. The real face of Viella was revealing slowly." Viella rolled her eyes so hard it hurt.

"The ’real face’? He makes me sound like a monster."

She kept flipping until she hit the latest Chapters. These weren’t dim colored, they were bright.

"Seeing Dante’s change, Viella realized her trick was no longer working. Furious, she drove to meet the one behind everything..." Viella’s heart started pounding. Her eyes widened.

"Don’t tell me..."

"She meets the book’s villain... Elias. The one rewriting everyone’s fate..."

"Not only did he mentioned his name as a villain but also.....the date... it’s today," Viella whispered.

Lily leaned over her shoulder, her face grim. She reached out her finger and touched the edge of the ink. It came away wet, a bright red smear on her fingertip. She rubbed it between her fingers, her expression unreadable.

Lily said quietly. "Based on the oxidation and the way it’s settled... it seems like this was written at least 48 hours ago."

Viella felt a cold shiver crawl up her spine. She looked at the book, then at Lily, then back at the book.

"I don’t know which one I should be more afraid of," Viella breathed. "The fact that Elias wrote down today’s meeting two days before it happened... or that you know exactly how old a bloodstain is just by touching it."

Lily didn’t answer. She just wiped her finger on a handkerchief and stared at the next page, which was still mostly blank.

___________

The atmosphere in Elias’s study was suffocating. The moment he stepped through the heavy oak doors, he didn’t need to look at the desk to know. The book that held the world together- was gone.

He walked toward his chair. His eyes swept over the empty space where the original book should have been. The loose papers, the book all vanished.

"Who entered this room?" he called out, his voice low

.

The head maid scurried in, her face pale. "Uh, Master... it was some maid. She said you wanted the study to be cleaned and—"

"What’s her name?" Elias cut her off, his voice like a razor.

"I—uh—I..." She stammered, her knees knocking together. "She wore a mask, Master... she said she was new..."

Elias turned around, walking toward her. The maid started shivering, the sheer pressure of his gaze making it hard for her to breathe. He stopped just inches from her, a cold, empty smile spreading across his face.

"You did a great job," he whispered. "You deserve an award for your diligence."

The maid let out a small, nervous smile, her chest heaving with relief. "Thank you, Master. I only—"

"Guards!" Elias barked, his smile never reaching his eyes. Two men in black suits appeared instantly at the door.

"Since my maid did such a good job, as a reward, I want her to never be able to speak a lie again. Cut off her tongue."

The woman’s eyes nearly burst from her head. Her scream was cut short as the guards grabbed her arms and dragged her out, her begging fading into a horrific, muffled wail down the hallway.

Elias sat back in his leather chair, the silence of the room returning. Then, a low chuckle started in his throat. It built up until he was laughing like a madman, the sound echoing off the walls.

"I never knew you would be fearless enough to steal things behind my back," he whispered to the empty room.

He leaned back, staring at the ceiling. The smirk on his face not fading.

"Interesting... very interesting... should I let you live a little longer, Viella?" He tapped his fingers on the mahogany desk. "After all, a character that doesn’t follow the script makes for a much more entertaining tragedy."

Elias slowly began to fold back his sleeve. As the fabric retracted, a white bandage came into view, wrapped tightly around his forearm. The dressing was already beginning to show a small fresh red.

He reached into his pocket and took out his

"I wonder where you’re hiding now, Viella," he mused, his voice a soft purr.

He didn’t need the book to know her heart rate was racing. He could feel it. Every character he wrote was linked to him by the very fluid currently staining his sleeve. He closed his eyes, tilting his head back.

He looked down at the bandage on his arm and pressed his thumb directly against the wound. A sharp hiss escaped his teeth, but his eyes had a manic light.

"If you wanted to read my diary so badly, my dear, you should have just asked"

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TO BE CONTINUED