Chapter 677

As the night deepened, Luna Clark quietly pushed the door open and slipped inside.

She pressed a neatly folded map into Vivian Bennett's hand, her voice hushed to a whisper. "Brandon White is cunning. This map marks several hidden passages and secluded corners in the courtyard... If you get a chance, run."

She paused, a thin layer of guilt surfacing in her eyes. "I'm sorry. In the end, I still betrayed you."

Vivian held the slightly cool paper, her fingertips gently tracing its surface.

She understood Luna's situation—coerced, manipulated, every step taken against her will.

Anger was there, but hatred couldn't quite coalesce.

Perhaps because they were both bound by the ropes of fate, struggling in similar whirlpools.

"If I leave, what will happen to you?" Vivian looked up.

A faint, almost imperceptible smile touched Luna's lips, but her gaze was startlingly bright. "I don't know. But no matter what, this is my only chance to break free—I won't let him control me anymore."

Vivian studied her.

The determination and hope in those eyes were like a sudden spark in the dark night.

But would a man like Brandon White let go so easily?

She had glimpsed more than once how Brandon interacted with Luna in this courtyard—his behavior always carried a strange obsession. He seemed to care, yet masked it with cruelty.

Like a chess player unwilling to admit he'd grown attached to a piece.

"Your only chance?" A soft, amused voice seeped in from outside the door, carrying the chill of the night breeze. "Luna Clark, what makes you think... you can escape my grasp?"

The door was kicked open.

Brandon stood in the doorway. The moonlight stretched his slender shadow diagonally across the floor, like a crack.

His usual faint smile was still on his face, but his eyes were frozen ice.

Vivian's heart tightened.

She had never seen Brandon display his anger so openly—especially not towards Luna.

Luna lowered her head, avoiding his gaze.

This silent resistance only darkened Brandon's eyes further.

He strode forward, his fingers gripping her chin, forcing her to look up.

"Tell me," his voice was low and slow, each word like a poisoned needle, "what makes you think you can get rid of me?"

Luna was forced to meet his eyes.

She bit her lower lip. There was no panic on her face, only a calm, resolute determination. "If you use me to achieve your goals, then I lose my value. By then, you'll naturally have no interest in controlling me anymore. I'm just stating a fact."

"Wrong." Brandon narrowed his eyes, his fingertips tightening slightly. "Don't lie to me. That's not what you meant just now."

His intuition was always sharp as a beast's.

He could sense another layer of intent hidden in her words—she was trying to deceive him.

This feeling of losing control unsettled him.

Luna was silent for a moment.

"If you don't believe me, there's nothing I can do," she finally spoke, her voice very soft. "But no matter what, you won't change your plans, will you? I have no value to you anymore. Why care about someone insignificant?"

She suddenly looked up, staring directly into his eyes. "Unless... you can't bear to let me go?"

Brandon's face stiffened instantly.

He released her chin as if burned, turning away abruptly.

"Ridiculous," he spat out the two words and swept out of the room, his sleeve brushing the air.

The door closed again.

Luna let out a soft sigh, her shoulders relaxing slightly.

Vivian watched quietly from the side, then asked softly, "He... does he like you? Getting that angry just now... it really didn't seem like him."

Luna turned to her as if hearing something absurd, her expression stunned. "Like me? Would a man who likes me personally tear open my wound when my leg injury hadn't even healed?"

She shook her head, her gaze cold and clear as frost. "He's just intrigued by someone he can't completely control. Intrigue, not affection."

Vivian gave a bitter smile.

"It's best if you think that way." She looked out at the heavy night, her voice drifting like a sigh. "I once thought I could never love someone who would hurt me... but in this world, what's truly impossible?"

Luna stood straight and tall.

"Between him and me, there is only control and resistance," she said, word by word. "I will feel nothing for someone who hurts me."

"But when someone like that shows tenderness..." Vivian murmured, as if speaking to Luna, or to herself, "...it's the deadliest temptation."

Like Liam Sullivan.

Like the heart she once believed would never waver.

Yet in the end, she had fallen.

How pathetic.

Luna didn't respond.

She just pushed the map further into Vivian's hand, then turned and vanished silently into the darkness beyond the door.

Moonlight filtered through the window lattice, falling on the map in Vivian's palm.

The courtyard outlined in ink, the winding paths, a few small dots faintly marked in vermilion.

Like hope.

Like a trap.