When she came to her senses, she shook her head in terror. "We didn't!"
Kian Keller quite liked her current, submissive appearance. Whether he truly believed her or simply didn't want to bring it up again, he didn't press the matter.
When he spoke again, his tone was calm. "Where did you run off to for the past two months, Mia?"
"I..." Mia Grant glanced at his blackening value.
'Mm, ninety-five. Such a reassuring number.'
This time, she answered with a bit more sincerity. "I thought I was dead, too. But someone rescued me, and I was in a coma for a long time before I woke up."
After she finished speaking, she stared intently at the number above his head. Seeing no fluctuation, she lowered her guard.
"Why didn't you come back?"
'Ugh, faking an injury is definitely out of the question.'
The doctor said she was in great shape now, with no internal or external injuries whatsoever.
"I... I was afraid you'd all blame me for ruining my sister's university entrance banquet." She lowered her eyes, her voice soft and delicate, sounding utterly pitiful.
"I wouldn't." After a pause, he added, "Even if others would, as long as I'm here, no one can hurt you."
Mia Grant was speechless. She couldn't help but complain to her system. 'This old creep. So now he knows how to throw the other male leads under the bus and act like we're the best of friends?!'
'As if he wasn't the one who locked me in that room on the cruise ship?'
[Uhm, Host, please calm down.]
Taking a deep breath, Mia Grant continued her performance. "But Mom and Dad will blame me."
"Ethan, you know what they're like. Whenever I make a mistake, they lock me in the basement. I'm afraid if I come back... they'll lock me in there again!"
"I almost died in there before. I don't ever want to go back!"
She began to choke up.
"I didn't go to the hospital to find my sec—" The word *brother* caught in her throat.
An icy chill entered Kian Keller's eyes, and his blackening value ticked up by one point.
Mia Grant clamped her mouth shut, her sobs ceasing abruptly.
'Is he really this emotionally volatile now?'
'I remember when we were lying in the same bed before, he completely ignored me. His heart was like still water, and he fell asleep in seconds.'
'My god, how did Jynsia's resident ascetic suddenly break his vows?'
'I much preferred him when he was arrogant and looked down on everyone, treating me like I was thin air.'
'Sigh.'
Mia Grant switched tactics. She reached out and gently tugged on his cuff. "Ethan, I missed you so much."
"Really?"
"Really!" Mia Grant immediately sat up, making it easier to deliver her lines. "I thought about you every single moment of these past two months! You have no idea, I..."
The blanket slipped off her. Kian Keller looked down. "What's this?"
Mia Grant looked down as well. Both of them stared, momentarily stunned, at the desk lamp.
"...I thought it looked nice, so I just picked it up to admire it."
"You like it?"
"Uhm, yes, yes! I love it!"
Kian Keller glanced at her, then beckoned a servant over who was holding a bowl of medicinal tonic. "Be a good girl and drink your medicine, and I'll reward you with it."
'...' 'What am I supposed to do with this stupid lamp? Get up in the middle of the night to assassinate him with it?'
Mia Grant braced herself and drank it all.
"So bitter!" She sucked on the piece of candy he fed her, looking down at the stupid lamp in her arms. No matter how she looked at it, it just didn't seem worth it.
"Ethan, can you reward me a different way next time?"
'For example, by showering me with a ridiculous amount of money!'
The young woman's voice was soft and warm, almost like she was flirting. Kian Keller met her gaze silently, his eyes as deep and unreadable as a frigid pond.
Mia Grant blinked, slowly realizing that what she'd said could be interpreted in a way that was not exactly PG.
"I! I didn't mean it like that!" Her gaze flitted over a certain part of his body, and her cheeks turned crimson. "The reward I want isn't *that*, it's... that..." 'Money!'
"I know."
'Hm? Are you sure? Then why is the look in your eyes still so suggestive, so blatant...?'
Mia Grant was so embarrassed she didn't know what to do, her eyes darting everywhere.
Fortunately, a servant entered just in time. "Mr. Keller, the guest you were expecting has arrived."
"Ethan, you should go see your guest! I'm just going to sleep a little longer!"
Kian Keller's brow furrowed slightly, as if he'd thought of something.
Mia Grant thought her attempt to shoo him away was too obvious, so she softened her voice. "I really am so sleepy."
After a moment's thought, Kian Keller stood up and tucked the corners of her blanket in for her.
The moment he was gone, Mia Grant kicked off the blanket and summoned the system. "A guest? Who's here? Do I know them?"
[An acquaintance, of course. The male lead, Silas Grant.]
'Oh, so it's my overbearing CEO big brother from The Portia Circle.'
The Grant Family's roots were in Jynsia, but Silas Grant had been taken to their maternal grandfather's home in Portia as a child and raised as the heir.
Because he was away from his parents from a young age, and because the true heiress had gone missing as a child, the Grant parents felt the house was too empty, so they adopted a substitute for their real daughter—the original female supporting character of this world.
According to the original novel, Silas Grant lived up to all expectations. He was ruthlessly decisive and composed, a rare business prodigy. At the same time, he was a master of disguise—a gentleman on the surface, but with a heart as hard as a rock.
Before being locked in the basement, the original character had only met him twice, and briefly at that. Silas Grant had never paid this "sister" of his any mind, always treating her with disdain.
However, her own impression of Silas Grant wasn't bad.
He was the first male lead she had resolved to capture.
She hadn't been faking it before; she was afraid of pain, and she was truly afraid of the dark.
The Grant Family's basement was like an underwater prison—cold, damp, and suffocating.
Coupled with not getting enough to eat or sleep and having no communication devices to contact the outside world, she had been terrified of following the same tragic path as the original character in the book.
In that environment, even if she hadn't starved to death, she would have been driven insane.
She had tried to bribe the servants, but to no avail.
In her most helpless moment, Silas Grant appeared.
That day, he had flown back from Portia specifically to celebrate the heroine's birthday. After drinking, he was unfamiliar with the layout of the Grant residence and, by a strange twist of fate, ended up at the basement.
She had run over barefoot and pounded on the door with all her might.
She was a complete wreck at the time. Her white dress was covered in stains, and one of its straps had been cut, hanging loosely from her arm.
He, on the other hand, stood outside the door dressed impeccably in a suit, looking polished and pristine. Through the small glass window in the door, his dark eyes, framed by gold-rimmed glasses, stared at her with detached indifference.
It was as if he were appraising an object, calculating her worth.
She had cried so loudly, using every ounce of her strength to beg him.
"Big Brother, it's me, your sister, Mia..."
"Please, Mia knows she was wrong, I was really wrong! I'll apologize to our sister! Big Brother, please, save me..."