Though paralyzed, still radiantly charming!

Chapter 247: The person you’re talking about… is that really me?

The atmosphere was always strange—serious, but not quite serious enough, and yet too tense to fully relax.

This was a perfect reflection of Miss Alice’s inner turmoil. She was conflicted. She knew Ryan wouldn’t hurt her, but his behavior was so confusing.

Before she could urge Ryan again, her delicate eyebrows suddenly furrowed, and her nostrils flared as she glared at him with clear disdain.

“What’s wrong?”

Ryan was caught off guard by Alice’s sudden change in expression. It was almost like… she thought he smelled bad?

Confused, Ryan lifted his sleeve and gave it a sniff. There wasn’t any bad smell, though. In fact, thanks to Mia hugging him earlier, his clothes still carried a faint, pleasant scent of oranges.

“Come here.”

Alice didn’t answer his question directly. Instead, she reached into the drawer of the coffee table.

Ryan’s eye twitched. He was half-expecting her to pull out something dangerous again, but his worry was unnecessary this time. Alice took out a pack of wet wipes.

Wet wipes?

She gestured for Ryan to extend his arm. He hesitated but complied. It’s not like wet wipes could kill him, right?

She pulled up his sleeve, and the cold, damp wipe touched his right arm. Alice’s eyes flickered with some unreadable emotion as she wiped his skin.

“Miss Alice, it’s not even dirty… I can just—”

Ryan had no idea what Alice was trying to do. Personally, he thought the orange scent was pretty nice. He couldn’t understand why Alice didn’t like it.

“It’s dirty!”

Her voice was sharp with irritation, and her movements became rougher. It was just a wet wipe, not a spiked club, but Alice was scrubbing him like she was trying to erase something offensive.

After a few moments, his arm was red from the vigorous wiping. Ryan could feel the sting, but he knew better than to complain and risk making Miss Alice angrier.

She tossed the used wipe into the trash without a second thought, then leaned in slightly to sniff him. Once she was sure the orange scent was gone, she finally stopped.

“Let’s continue.”

With that, Alice’s expression shifted back to the serious one she had earlier. Honestly, with her ability to switch moods so quickly, she could’ve made a great actress.

“You hit Marco’s guy. Was it really just because you were pissed off?”

Alice rubbed her chin, studying Ryan’s face. He had been pretty obedient while she was wiping him down, which made her feel a little better.

Ryan’s explanation had some credibility. He’d stood out too much during the previous meeting to have any real connection with the gang. Plus, if Alice and Marco really went head-to-head, Ryan wouldn’t gain anything from it.

And Ryan did seem a bit naive. Acting on impulse wasn’t out of the question.

It made sense, but Alice’s eyes still gleamed with suspicion. She kept staring at Ryan, silently urging him to keep talking.

That might’ve been part of the reason, but it clearly wasn’t the whole story.

“I really was just pissed off…”

Ryan’s expression was firm as he repeated his earlier answer. No matter how much she pressed, he wasn’t going to change his story.

But Alice had already formed her own conclusions before she even asked.

“Things at the orphanage didn’t go too smoothly, did they?”

She raised her eyes, looking directly into Ryan’s. The conversation had come full circle, landing back on the orphanage.

Ryan hadn’t expected that. He frowned, unsure of what Alice was getting at.

Did she know about Bella? He nervously touched the note in his pocket.

But then again, he had only found out about that today. Alice probably wasn’t talking about Bella.

“When you hit those guys, didn’t it occur to you that a normal person wouldn’t be able to do that?”

“Marco’s men, even the lowest-level thugs, shouldn’t be someone a student could take down.”

“If you hadn’t been in a lot of fights before, you would’ve been the one getting beaten up, right?”

Alice’s smile was faint, but her words were sharp. Sure, she had arrived late to the scene, but her people had been there. There was no way Ryan could hide what he’d done from her.

Miss Alice’s words left Ryan in silence. She was right—muscle memory doesn’t lie. You don’t pick up those kinds of skills without going through some dangerous situations.

So, this is where I slipped up, huh?

“Miss Alice, I’m not…”

Ryan rubbed his temples. At the time, he hadn’t had much of a choice. He hadn’t expected such a small detail to become the starting point for her suspicions.

“Don’t worry about it, you’ve been through enough.”

Before Ryan could finish explaining, a slender finger pressed gently against his lips.

Her skin was smooth and cool, like water drawn from a deep well. It was Alice’s touch.

There was a hint of sadness in her eyes, as if she could feel his pain—a silent understanding between two people who hadn’t had it easy.

Wasn’t she bringing this up to blame him?

“I’ve told you before, you know what I really care about. But it seems like you still don’t fully understand.”

Alice shook her head, a little disappointed. She had thought Ryan understood her, but now it seemed their relationship hadn’t progressed as far as she’d hoped.

What was Ryan thinking right now? Did he think she was just being unreasonable?

“Ryan, what I want has always been simple.”

It was as if she had resigned herself to this moment, giving him one last hint. Whether Ryan understood or not, she wasn’t going to repeat herself.

Ryan froze for a second, feeling like he should explain himself. At the very least, he didn’t want to let Alice’s kindness go unappreciated.

“Miss Alice, I really don’t mean any harm to you…”

“I just have some secrets of my own.”

Ryan swallowed hard. To him, as long as he could help Alice, his secrets didn’t matter. They weren’t relevant to her.

But he had completely missed the point. It was exactly this kind of thinking that snapped the last thread of Alice’s patience.

Secrets. Always secrets. Why did he have to keep things from her?

Her posture slumped, and then her body began to tremble in a strange, unsettling way.

“Miss Alice?”

Ryan was startled by her sudden change. He reached out toward her, but before he could touch her, his vision blurred.

Like a predator, Alice moved with lightning speed. By the time Ryan realized what was happening, his wrist was already locked in her grip.

Alice’s body swayed slightly, her mental state clearly unstable. Her eyes flickered, unreadable, as if her thoughts were spiraling out of control.

“I know you don’t mean any harm, but you’re so strange, Ryan.”

“Strange?”

Ryan blinked, confused. What did Alice find strange about him? Hadn’t he done enough? He had been trying to help her all along. His days of betrayal were long behind him.

“Why do you insist on helping me in such a self-destructive way? Is it really worth it?”

“Why are you doing this to me?”

“What is it that you really want from me?”

A barrage of questions left Ryan completely bewildered. He could understand the first one, but the rest? They were beyond anything he could comprehend.

The finger on his lips was gone, but before he could react, a sudden force hit him. The next thing he knew, he was pushed down onto the couch, just like he had done to Alice earlier.

Now, she was straddling him, her teeth biting down on her lower lip. Her eyes shimmered with a mix of emotions—sorrow, confusion, and something else he couldn’t quite place.

“Please, don’t be so good to me. If you are, I might start expecting things.”

No, no, no. Something was wrong.

The person you’re talking about… is that really me?