Chapter 178 - 177: Confessing the Past

Yvonne Lowell had just stepped out of the shower when she heard a knock on the door.

She went to open it and found that flashy pretty boy of a man leaning against the frame in a bathrobe.

His hair was half-dry, and his bathrobe was wide open, offering a tantalizing glimpse of his abs.

Yvonne Lowell raised an eyebrow. "What’s this? Washed yourself clean so you could come crawl into my bed?"

"How could you think of me like that? I’m here to have you put medicine on my bruise. It’s a really big one." Leo Grant looked at her innocently. "But if you really want me to crawl into your bed, it’d be rude of me to refuse."

"If I don’t see a bruise, I’ll beat one into you right here and now." Yvonne Lowell shot him an annoyed glare and turned to walk inside. "Get in here."

Leo Grant’s eyes lit up for a second. He closed the door behind him and trotted after her eagerly.

He glanced around Yvonne Lowell’s room. Besides the standard bedroom furnishings, there were several bookshelves and a small sitting area.

’So the room wasn’t small at all; it had everything one could need.’

’It was just that the minimalist black-and-white color scheme felt a bit somber, like something an old geezer would pick.’

’Heh, and your break room at The Grants isn’t?’

Seeing Yvonne Lowell rummaging through a shelf, her hair still dripping wet, Leo Grant asked, "Bonnie, where’s the hair dryer?"

"The bathroom," Yvonne Lowell replied without turning her head.

When Leo Grant came out of the bathroom with the hair dryer, Yvonne Lowell was already sitting on the sofa, a small white porcelain bottle in her hand.

"Don’t worry about that yet. Let me dry your hair first, or you’ll catch a cold."

As he spoke, Leo Grant plugged in the hair dryer and turned it on to test the temperature.

Yvonne Lowell looked at him dubiously. "Are you sure you know what you’re doing?"

’He’s not going to pull all my hair out, is he?’

Leo Grant leaned down and touched his forehead to hers, his tone a little wounded.

"Comrade Yvonne Lowell, I feel it’s my duty to remind you: you can’t tell a man he’s incapable. I might not have dried hair this long before, but I just watched a tutorial."

Yvonne Lowell couldn’t stop the corner of her mouth from twitching. "Fine... You do your best, then."

Seeing his insistence, Yvonne Lowell decided not to crush his confidence any further.

’Worst case, I’ll just have to shave his head to make him apologize. Besides, with a face like that, he’d probably still look drop-dead gorgeous even if he were bald.’

Leo Grant moved behind her and started to dry her hair.

His fingers gently combed through the thick, dark strands as the warm air swirled between them.

Yvonne Lowell closed her eyes slightly in comfort. ’He’s actually got some skills.’

With a CLICK, the hair dryer was turned off, and the room fell silent.

After combing her hair until it was smooth, Leo Grant plopped down next to her. He wrapped an arm around her waist and rested his chin on her shoulder.

"My esteemed guest, were you satisfied with my technique?"

"Not bad. I’ll book you again next time." Yvonne Lowell patted the big puppy head on her shoulder. "Let go first. Time to put medicine on your bruise."

"Uh... actually, my stomach is fine. I don’t need any medicine."

The moment the words left his mouth, Leo Grant swiftly pinned her hands, trapping her completely in his embrace and giving her no chance to elbow him in retaliation.

"You little punk, you tricked me? What did I just say I’d do?" Yvonne Lowell’s eyes narrowed, her gaze on his "paws" turning hostile.

Leo Grant didn’t answer. He just buried his head in the crook of her neck, his voice somewhat muffled.

"Bonnie, all these years... you must have had it really tough, haven’t you?"

’Moonshadow was founded a year before The Shadow Pavilion. How hard must she have fought back then just to survive in the dog-eat-dog world of Continent N?’

Yvonne Lowell’s body stiffened for a moment, her eyelashes fluttering. "It was fine. It’s all in the past."

Leo Grant naturally sensed her reaction. His voice grew a little hoarse. "Time may pass, but the scars it leaves are permanent."

They remained in that position for what felt like an eternity, until Yvonne Lowell let out a silent sigh, relaxed her body, and leaned back against him. "Do you want to hear about it?"

Leo Grant was silent for a moment. "If you’re willing to tell me."

Yvonne Lowell’s gaze drifted vaguely out the window. "After my sister, Zion, and I were abducted, we were sold to an organization. That’s where we met Old Man Jennings. The four of us formed a small group, sticking together for warmth.

The leader of that organization was raising us like he was cultivating Gu—endless arena fights every day, forcing us to kill each other. Life and death didn’t matter.

As for kids like Zion and me who weren’t old enough, we just had to train day and night. If we couldn’t meet the training quotas, we didn’t get to eat, and we’d get beaten.

Then one day, that man probably decided our group of four was too close for comfort and became a threat, so he wanted to break us up.

So he demanded that one of the four of us had to go out and fight the current number one.

Before we could even discuss it, my sister jumped right up. But for that fight, he had said only one person would be left alive.

The result was obvious. My sister died, and they casually tossed her body into a mass grave they had dug themselves.

I didn’t cry that day. I just pulled the other two back to the dormitory.

Later, as I got stronger and stronger, I earned his favor.

But one year later, to the day, I killed him in his office. Then I found a way to escape with the other two.

We fled through the mountains. I don’t know how long we walked, but we ran into my current master and he took us in.

Our master never married. He raised us like his own children. So, we survived, and we learned a lot.

Those were actually the most peaceful and carefree days, but all I wanted was to get stronger, so I took on a lot of extra training for myself.

Two years later, I got into Loster. I used my free time during school to take on some missions from the dark web for practice. I saved a few people along the way, and Moonshadow gradually began to take shape.

Once I had established myself, I led a team back and wiped out the rest of them in one fell swoop. The old second-in-command, all those who had aided the tyrant... As for those whose hearts weren’t yet corrupted, I let them go.

In the early days of Moonshadow, some people did come looking for trouble, but we beat them all back.

After that, our notorious reputation spread, and nothing particularly major happened. After all, most people in the world have a brain.

So my toughest days were only those seven short years."

Leo Grant didn’t interrupt her, listening in silence the whole time. His heart felt as if it were being squeezed by a giant hand, the pain so intense he could hardly breathe.

Leo Grant could tell she was recounting her past from the perspective of an outsider, glossing over the details with a light touch.

Esther Rivera’s death was probably the deepest thorn in her heart, which was why half of her story was dedicated to that event.

As for how she killed that leader, how three half-grown kids managed to escape, what she went through in the days that followed, all the hardships she’d faced and suffering she’d endured—she skipped over all of it.

It was as if, to her, none of that was important.

’Moonshadow... So that was it? Esther Rivera’s shadow, left behind in this world?’

After Yvonne Lowell finished speaking, he remained silent for a long, long time, and the atmosphere grew heavy.

Yvonne Lowell patted his hand. "Why aren’t you saying anything? Did I scare you? Surely not, right?"