infinite Rebate System: 10x Rewards for Conquering And Taming Heroines

Moonlight filtered through the leaves outside like a thin, shifting veil. It spilled across the hallway floor in broken patches of silver and shadow, turning the quiet apartment into something almost unreal. The door to Victoria’s bedroom stood only slightly ajar. A narrow strip of warm yellow light leaked out into the darkness, cutting a soft line across the floorboards.

Emma stood in front of that door, bare feet silent on the wood. She had no intention of spying. The thought never even crossed her mind. She was simply worried.

It was late~later than Victoria usually stayed up. The light was still on. The door wasn’t closed properly. Those two small details were enough to pull her downstairs in the first place and enough to keep her standing here now, hesitating.

Did something happen?

Is her ankle hurting again?

Did she fall?

A small frown pulled at Emma’s brow. She stepped closer, the oversized shirt she had thrown on shifting against her bare thighs. She raised one slender hand and knocked, the sound soft but distinct in the deep quiet of the apartment.

Thump-thump.

The two knocks landed like stones dropped into still water. The silence that followed felt heavier than before.

Inside the room, the atmosphere shattered.

The warm, thick tension that had been building between Jason and Victoria~the charged air, the careful touches, the unspoken things neither of them had fully named~vanished as if someone had thrown a window open in the middle of winter. Both of them froze in place.

Victoria’s heart slammed against her ribs so hard it hurt. The sudden spike of adrenaline left her lightheaded. Her eyes flew wide open. Color drained from her face so quickly she felt cold.

Emma?

Is that Emma?

Did she see something?

The door~oh god, the door wasn’t closed all the way~

Her hands clenched the sheets so tightly her knuckles turned white. A thin draft slipped through the gap in the door and slid up her spine like a cold finger. She shivered hard, the chill racing all the way to the base of her skull.

"Mom?" Emma’s clear voice came through the wood, gentle and concerned. "Are you still awake?"

The single word "Mom" hit Victoria like a physical blow. For a split second she couldn’t breathe. She turned her head and locked eyes with Jason. Panic radiated off her in visible waves. Her lips parted, but no sound came out.

Jason recovered first.

Years of navigating far worse situations in his previous life snapped into place with almost mechanical speed. Panic created mistakes. Panic made people talk too much, move too suddenly, look guilty. He forced his breathing to slow. He forced his expression to smooth out. In the space of two heartbeats he had himself under control again.

This was not the moment for honesty. Nothing between him and Victoria, or him and Emma, was defined yet. One wrong word, one wrong look, and the fragile balance they were all living inside would collapse. He could not let that happen~not tonight, not like this.

He leaned in close, close enough that only she could hear him. His voice was low, steady, and urgent.

"I’ll hide under the covers. Just until she leaves. You have to keep your face normal. Can you do that?"

He rested a firm, grounding hand on Victoria’s shoulder. She was trembling so hard he could feel it through her skin.

Victoria stared at him, eyes glossy with fear, the pulse in her throat fluttering wildly. When she finally spoke, her voice was a broken whisper.

"Wouldn’t the bathroom be safer?"

The idea of him under the same blanket felt somehow more damning~more intimate, more impossible to explain if they were caught. The bathroom had a door. A lock. Distance.

Jason shook his head once, firm and immediate.

"Too much noise. The door’s already open. If I try to cross the room she’ll hear the floorboards. Under the covers is quieter. Trust me on this."

He gave her shoulder a light, deliberate squeeze, trying to pass some of his calm into her.

"Aunt Victoria. Listen to me. Hide me, then act normal. Nothing happened. You’re just resting. Maybe your ankle was bothering you. That’s all. Can you do that for me?"

Victoria swallowed hard. The sound was audible in the quiet room. She gave a shaky, almost reluctant nod. Her hands still shook as she lifted the heavy quilt and draped it over him carefully, making sure every part of him disappeared beneath the fabric. The quilt felt enormous and completely insufficient at the same time. Once he was fully covered she sat back against the headboard, trying desperately to arrange her face into something that resembled calm.

The result was a stiff, unnatural smile that sat wrong on her mouth and never reached her eyes. She could feel how fake it looked. She could do nothing to fix it.

Outside, Emma’s voice came again, closer now, right on the other side of the door.

"Can I come in?"

Victoria’s pulse jumped so violently she felt it in her throat and the tips of her fingers. She forced air into her lungs, forced her shoulders to drop, and answered.

"Yes... come in."

The slight waver in her voice made her wince the moment the words left her mouth. She sounded guilty. She sounded like someone who had been interrupted in the middle of something she shouldn’t have been doing.

The door opened with a soft push.

Emma stepped inside. She was wearing only her light nightgown with one of Jason’s button-down shirts thrown over it, the sleeves rolled once at the cuffs. Her hair was loose and slightly messy from sleep, falling around her shoulders in soft waves. In the warm yellow light she looked younger, softer, and completely unaware of the tension she had just walked into.

She paused just inside the threshold. Her bare feet were silent on the floor. Her nose wrinkled faintly, as if she had caught an odd shift in the air~something warm, something intimate, something that didn’t belong to an ordinary late-night conversation. Her gaze moved slowly around the room: the desk, the chair, the half-drunk glass of water on the nightstand, the way the quilt on the bed was pulled unusually high and bunched in places.

Then her eyes settled on Victoria.

Victoria sat propped against the headboard, the quilt drawn almost to her chest, that strained smile still fixed on her face like a mask that refused to sit correctly. Her posture was too rigid. Her shoulders were too high. The flush that had been on her skin earlier had drained away, leaving her looking pale and oddly tense.

Emma tilted her head, confusion flickering across her features.

Why does she look like that?

Why does the room feel... heavy?

Why is the air different?

She couldn’t put a finger on the source of the wrongness, but every instinct she had was quietly sounding an alarm. Something about the scene felt off in a way she didn’t yet have language for.

She took another small step closer, voice gentle but threaded with growing concern.

"Mom? Is everything okay?"

Victoria’s fingers tightened on the edge of the quilt until the fabric trembled. Beneath it, Jason remained perfectly still, listening to every word, every shift of weight, every breath. The next few seconds would decide whether the night stayed quiet~or exploded.

Emma’s eyes searched her mother’s face, waiting for an answer.

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