Villain’s Favorite 72

Chapter 72 Blood and Bows 

Only blood was real. 

No matter what it took, Thomas would find his daughter. He owed that much to his dead wife. 

He’d finally tracked a lead to an orphanage. 

But the only child there who matched the right age had been adopted long ago, and every photograph had been wiped clean. Not a single trace left behind. 

He refused to give up. He had people comb through every surveillance camera in the surrounding area. Every feed came back black. 

Thomas figured whoever had done it was either a tech genius or had one on their payroll. The scrub was too thorough. Even the Skynet surveillance system couldn’t turn up a thing. 

“Lawrence, about Kaia. Once we find your sister, I’ll send her away.” He stood and tried to move closer to Lawrence, that small body bristling with invisible spines. He kept his voice low, almost gentle. “I want to find my daughter just as much as you do. We’re the same in that way.” 

But Lawrence flinched like a cornered animal, stumbling backward into an antique side table. The porcelain vase on top wobbled. 

His voice pitched high and thin. He refused to let Thomas come any closer. “I’m nothing like you!” 

He said it again. And again. As if trying to convince himself. As if drawing a line between them that could never be crossed. 

Lawrence crouched down and buried his face in his arms, curling into himself. His voice softened into something blurred and broken, dissolving into the kind of crying that cracked something open in anyone who heard it. “I’m nothing like you…” 

I’m nothing like you. 

Everything I am, everything I’ll ever be, alive or dead, is for her. 

The parent-teacher conference was on Monday, so Wendy spent the entire weekend tearing through the mall, coming home with over a dozen outfits and holding them up against herself and Maya in turn. 

Wendy’s approach to children’s fashion was simple. Kids should look like kids. 

She grabbed one outfit after another, pressing them against Maya with visible excitement. 

Mountains of bows. Cartoon prints. Puffy skirts. Colors so saturated they looked like a box of pastels had exploded. She was trying to turn Maya into a layer cake. 

“What do you two think?” 

Maya and Alfred had absolutely no sense of style. They stretched out an enthusiastic “so cute” at every single option, followed by eager little claps, like they were just happy to be part of the show. 

The scene was perfectly harmonious. 

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12:53 Sat, May 2 

Chapter 2 Blood and Bows 

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Until it wasn’t. 

“Tacky.” 

Toby was sprawled across the living room armchair, boneless, his messy curls going every which way. When Wendy eagerly held up another dress for feedback, his mouth moved faster than his brain. 

“Ugly. 

“Fancy tacky. 

“Hard to look at.” 

Every dress Wendy held up got shot down. Ugly or tacky. Those were the only two options. 

Toby didn’t care about dressing himself, but he loved dressing other people. Most of Annie’s accessories had been picked out by him. 

And Wendy’s cutesy, girly-girl aesthetic was, in his professional opinion, genuinely painful to look at. 

“Excuse me?” Wendy smacked him on the head. Hard. 

His curls were completely flattened, all that bounce pressed down flat. He looked like a ruffled black cat that had just been forced back into place, his bangs falling soft and heavy over his forehead. 

Maya sat on the floor and flipped open a fashion magazine. “Actually, I like this kind of stuff!” 

She pointed at a tiny diamond-studded tiara on the page. 

Toby rubbed his head, glanced at it, and muttered, “What is this, the Victorian era?” 

Maya knew nothing good ever came out of his mouth. She clamped a hand over it. “Stop talking.” 

“It’s true though.” Toby sat up slightly, his eyes moving between his mother and his sister. “Mom, I’ve been wanting to say this. When it comes to dressing the kid, you could just let me handle it.” 

He actually enjoyed it. 

Wendy had no words. 

The doorbell rang, saving everyone. 

She flattened Toby’s freshly recovered curls one more time for good measure, then went to answer it. 

Raymond stood in the doorway, rubbing his bloodshot eyes. 

“You’re finally home!” Wendy lit up and moved in for a hug. 

“Don’t.” Raymond held up a hand. “I reek of blood. How am I supposed to hug someone who smells this good?” 

Wendy squinted at him. “Where’d you pick up that sad-boy quote? Some emo page?” 

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12:53 Sat, May 2 

Chapter 22 Blood and Bows 

Raymond blinked. “You don’t think that was brooding and poetic?” 

He caught the flat look in Wendy’s eyes and gave up, shrugging. “Fine, I was kidding. I just don’t want Maya to smell it on me again. Then I’d have to come up with another excuse.” 

Maya’s nose was freakishly sharp. It had gotten to the point where Raymond doused himself in shower gel and cologne every time he came home. He was basically marinating in fragrance. 

Wendy rolled her eyes. She stayed in the entryway and dropped her voice. “So when are your little buddies planning to retire and go straight? 

“They’re not trying to pull you back in, are they?” 

“Not right now. They still keep me in the loop on their schedules, though.” Raymond thought back to the latest chatter he’d been forced to listen to. “I think they’ve been discussing which prep school to hit next.” 

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This Time 1 Be the Villain’s Favorite Daughter

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