Villain’s Favorite 62

 

Chapter 62 Sleepover 

“Do you have pajamas at your place? If not, I can have my driver drop some off.” 

“We’ve got plenty!” Maya said. “My mom bought me a ton.” 

Dresses, pajamas, all of it. She had more than she’d ever need. 

Finnked 

Sometimes, she suspected the reason her family always seemed a little tight on cash was that her mom funneled the majority of the household budget directly into her own wardrobe. 

Her two brothers had been cheerfully left out of the equation. 

“She’s done with you,” Toby said to Alfred. 

“She was never done with me,” Alfred said. 

“You’re the one she’s done with.” 

Toby had served his purpose as a useful instrument, and Maya had dropped him the moment she was finished. 

The realization struck him somewhere tender. Toby pressed his lips together, his displeasure radiating off him in palpable waves. 

He quickened his stride and caught up to the two little girls walking ahead, hand in hand. His voice dropped, low and deliberate. “Maya, why did you only think to call for Alfred back in that office? Am I not your brother?” 

She almost never called him that. 

She didn’t even acknowledge being his sister, most of the time. 

Toby had never met a child this exhausting in his entire life. 

“Well…” Maya went quiet for a moment. “Because Alfred’s good.” 

She’d thought about it at length and produced exactly one sentence. 

“So I’m bad?” Toby’s irritation sharpened. “Then have him clean up your mess next time!” 

Alfred this, Alfred that, every single day. 

Not one thought had ever been spared for him, the brother who’d actually shown up and handled everything. 

Maya looked genuinely puzzled. “Are you seriously this volatile? Why do you always completely fall apart around me?” 

Around Annie, he was polished and perfectly composed. 

Around her, he transformed into something volatile and easily rattled, ready to bristle at the slightest provocation. 

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12:51 Sat, May 2 

Chapter 62 Sleepover 

There was something deeply wrong with that. 

Toby was, once again, left completely speechless. 

Back home, Maya changed her shoes and found Jenny a fresh pair of her own slippers, then called out toward the hall. “Mom, I brought a friend home!” 

Maya’s hair was a little chaotic, and the small girl beside her held her hand tightly. Maya’s amber eyes lit up with barely restrained excitement. 

Wendy felt her heart lift. It was the first time her daughter had ever brought a friend through the door. Her expression softened into something warm. “Welcome, sweetheart! Let me get you two some snacks.” 

She bustled off toward the pantry at full speed. 

Maya seized the opportunity and pulled out her report card. 

She needed her dad to sign it. 

Raymond was so easygoing he didn’t even look like the sort of parent who cared what his kids scored. 

Alfred also dug through his bag and handed his over to his father, tapping a specific spot on the page. “Sign here.” 

If there weren’t a signature required, he wouldn’t have shown Raymond anything at all. 

Raymond let his gaze drift briefly to Jenny. 

Jenny instinctively sat up straighter under the attention, her voice careful and polite. “Hello, sir.” “Hello,” Raymond said. 

He turned his attention to the papers and picked up Alfred’s report card first, looking it over at length. “Not bad at all,” he said, his voice stretching leisurely into the silence. “Perfect scores across the board.” A pause. “Don’t let it go to your head.” 

The pivot came out of nowhere and nearly floored everyone in the room. 

Alfred stared at his father. Who’s letting anything go to their head? 

He regarded Raymond with pure, wordless disbelief. 

Raymond paid his son’s reaction absolutely no mind and reached for Maya’s report card next. He studied it for a long moment, and then he went very, very quiet. 

Maya nudged him. “Why aren’t you saying anything?” 

Going silent in front of her friend made Maya deeply uncomfortable. 

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12:51 Sat, May 2 

Chapter 62 Sleepover 

Fristed 

Raymond surfaced from his thoughts and looked at her with complete sincerity. “It’s fine. Being a little slow is its own kind of charm.” 

She’d never really been the academic sort, after all. 

Tenth place was tenth place. 

Maya grabbed a fistful of his hair. “I am not slow!” 

She hadn’t exactly tried her hardest, if she was being honest. Her memories from her past life made elementary and middle school material almost trivially easy to ace. 

But then what? 

Was she supposed to play the role of a falling star? Let everyone watch her brilliance burn out? 

Better to start somewhere unremarkable and never have to keep up appearances. 

Maya genuinely felt like academics just weren’t her gift. 

“We agreed that you’d stop doing that.” Raymond said. “You’ve let me down. Apologize to me right now.” 

Maya looked at his noticeably thinning hair and let go, conscience quietly stinging. 

Raymond rubbed the sore spot, then turned his disbelieving gaze back to her test paper and stared at it again. He murmured to himself like a man questioning everything he knew. 

“Maya might actually be a little dim.” 

He could’ve scored higher than tenth in his sleep. 

Maya, freshly and unexpectedly diagnosed. “Excuse me?” 

She tipped her head back and hollered at the top of her lungs. “Mom! Dad just called me dim!” 

“Raymond.” Wendy’s voice preceded her into the room, sharp with fury. “Say one more word about my daughter and I’ll knock you senseless myself.” 

She smacked the back of his head hard enough to send it bobbing, then snatched the report card out of his hands and examined it herself. “Tenth place? 

“That’s wonderful!” 

She looked genuinely thrilled. “I failed half my classes growing up and spent most of middle school at the bottom of the rankings! And here you are, placing tenth on her very first exam!” 

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