Return of The Betrayed Luna

Chapter 6 : Down the Stairs

Naomi went inside lazily. Thinking required a lot of effort on her part, so she wanted to take a short nap and wake up directly for piano lessons.

"Who was that?" Marvin's voice came from behind and startled her. Naomi's entire body shuddered in shock. She wasn't the most fond of being snuck up on. Especially when it was someone like Marvin. The person she did not like.

"Don't do that again," Naomi said seriously, and turned to leave. She wasn't in the best mood. It was evident that every time she was around Marvin, she was inexplicably moody and sometimes mad to the point it showed on her face. It was hard to hide the changes sometimes.

Marvin was left standing in the middle of the hallway. He looked back at his beta. Eric shrugged. He was as clueless as the Alpha.

"Something is definitely wrong," Marvin said out loud. The only problem was that he did not know what was wrong. If he knew it, he would try to fix it. But she wouldn't talk. He even brought a cake for her. But now she was angry.

He gave the cake to the cook and said to serve it with afternoon tea. He went straight to his studies with the intention of finishing some work. Little did he know, the entire time he was disturbed by the thoughts of Juliette.

Naomi wasn't the least bit concerned about Marvin's troubles as she had her own set of problems to face. One of them was the piano teacher, Mrs Anderson. She arrived right on time and watched Naomi play each note. Naomi did not like being watched like a hawk all the time! Even if she knew how to play the instrument, she'd end up making a mistake because of those eyes.

"Mrs Anderson, would you like to take a break?" Vienna asked politely, "We have freshly brewed tea and cake."

In times like these, when Naomi was about to throw something, Vienna came to the rescue. Her timing was always right! Naomi internally cheered for Vienna and engraved her name in her heart. True friends always looked out for each other! Naomi stamped the girl with the true friend logo.

Mrs Anderson couldn't say no when she was in the spotlight of Vienna's insistent gaze. She reluctantly agreed and told Naomi to stop for a while. Vienna told someone to serve tea and cake and then she hurried over to Naomi to massage her fingers. Naomi nearly cried. Why did she have to torture herself like this for someone else??

Marvin knew that the piano teacher was there again as he heard the sound of broken piano music flowing when he passed by the piano room in the evening. It was strange that he passed by the piano room twice in two days and at the time when she was practicing too.

And today he had nothing specific to do. His mind was wandering and his legs walked him in that direction unknowingly. He peeked at her through the window and saw her eating the cake he had brought.

Vienna was massaging one hand while she used the other to eat. Since Marvin did not make his presence known, Naomi wasn't restrained in her actions. She glared at Mrs Anderson when the woman wasn't looking. This little act was caught by Marvin.

"She can glare too," Marvin said, and before he knew it, he was already smiling. When he caught Eric looking at him, he hurriedly pulled his lips down into a resting line and pretended as if he wasn't amused by the little things.

"She doesn't seem to enjoy playing the piano," Eric pointed out.

"I know. Why is she doing it then? Isn't it a waste of time and effort?" Marvin said and passed by. What was called a 'passing by moment' happened to last for a solid five minutes.

"Who made this cake?" Naomi asked softly.

"It was brought from a famous bakery. You don't like it?" Vienna honestly wasn't sure if the Miss would like this cake. She had only ever seen her eat dry cake and often it was made of dried fruit. A cream cake like this one never crossed her sight.

Naomi put a spoonful in her mouth and rolled the spongy cake around with her tongue. It melted instantly. But the aftertaste was a bit too sweet for her liking. And this flavour wasn't the one she liked. Who even likes vanilla cakes anyway? From her memory, it is clear that at least Juliette shared the same taste as her in desserts. Whoever brought it did not consider her like and dislike at all!

That was her biased opinion on the innocent bakery cake. In the study room, Marvin sneezed three times in a row and suspected he had a bad cold.

When it was dinner time, Naomi was torn between eating in her room or the dining hall. She wanted to sit on her bed and savour each bite with the right facial expressions. That's what the tasty food deserved. However, as much as she disliked it, she couldn't keep avoiding Marvin.

What if he started to suspect her because of the difference in behaviour? She had done a lot already, but refusing to eat together was taking a bit too far... At least for now.

"Tell me when dinner is ready."

Vienna nodded and left Naomi alone in the room. Naomi skipped to the closet and pulled out a sports bra and yoga pants. She was going to workout.

This thin body did not need to loose anything more, but strength was important to survive. Naomi was going to build some muscles for this one. She put up a video on her iPad (Juliette's iPad) and held a filled water bottle as a weight.

She overestimated the strength in this girl's body. Even a thirty minute workout wasn't finished and she was already gasping for air on the floor.

"I need to go to the gym!" Naomi swore under her breath. This won't do. While she was lying on the warm carpet with closed eyes and deep breath, Naomi suddenly realised that she seemed to be missing something. Her eyes snapped open.

Is this what it feels like to be free?" Naomi asked herself. Freedom from the rules, her duties were already given to Naomi the moment she entered Juliette's body. The freedom she was talking about was from her captivating thoughts.

An entire day had passed and Naomi hadn't thought about those people until now. She was so busy enjoying this new lifestyle that there wasn't enough time to dwell on her past. It felt good to not think about how they ruined her life and how she could return it to them in full with the internet.

Naomi chuckled breathlessly and swore, "That's good. But I will still come for you. Give me time. I need to change things a bit. And then I'll show up to ruin you all."

Although she was talking about vengeance, there was barely any anger in her eyes. It did not mean she was unaffected by her past, but she was surely getting there. If possible, she wanted to live better.

Naomi wanted revenge. But she realised at this moment that it wasn't the ultimate goal. In the end, all she wanted was the life she was living right now. Comfortable, unbothered and luxurious.

After two days in this place and living like Juliette, Naomi finally saw the light. Yes, this life also came with a big hunk of a casualty named Marvin, but that was definitely tolerable. Nothing Naomi couldn't deal with.

In a happy mood, Naomi took a warm shower and went to bed. The soft bed took away most of her nightmares. It wasn't until past three in the morning that they came to haunt her again. There wasn't much Naomi could do about them. Her entire body felt paralysed. It was so stiff that even though she wanted to move and wake up, she couldn't.

Her restless sweating soaked the silk pillows, her night dress was wet and sticking to her body. It was a scary nightmare for sure. The contents were forgotten at dawn when Naomi woke up from a helping slumber. Her limbs were sore and hurt when she moved.

In order to relieve herself from the discomfort, Naomi asked Vienna to book a massage appointment for her.

"Massage?" Vienna asked in surprise, "Would you like the service at home or go there?"

"Let's go out," Naomi said excitedly. She hadn't been out of the house yet, so her curiosity peaked at the mention of going out.

"I will make an appointment then!"

Naomi hummed a tune and went downstairs after stretching out the stuff muscles. For some reason, the stairs were uncomfortable to walk on. Her legs were pulled hard with every step and her head was light as a feather. She managed to walk half the stairs but ended up stumbling at the end.

Her heart seemed to have stopped at the moment when her foot slipped on the stairs. The only thing that she could think of was - am I gonna die again? Rolling down the stairs was a painful way to die.

Her body lurched ahead in a clumsy way. The fall was out of her control, her eyes wide and her mouth opened in a silent scream. Just when she thought her life was gonna end for the second time this week, her hand was caught from behind.

The tug was so hard that Naomi thought her shoulder was definitely dislocated, but in the end she did not fall from the remaining stairs. Someone had pulled her back! She was still hanging on the stairs. The only thing holding her in place was the person behind her. At that moment, she desperately wanted to turn around and hug that person!

And so she did. She twisted her body to turn around and pulled at that hand that was keeping her from falling. Her intention was to pull herself up into a standing position using the arm strength of that person. However, who could have guessed her thoughts?

With his guard down, Marvin thought she was going to stand on her own but she ended up pulling his arm back. Marvin was caught by surprise and fell on her. His body instinctively wrapped around Naomi's and his hand carefully held her head to keep it safe.

And together, they rolled down the stairs.

It was a painful sight. And also rare. No one had ever caught the Master of the house slipping down the stairs, especially like this. Two entangled bodies rolled down the stairs and on the cold hard ground. Marvin hit his head and his body ached from bumping on the stairs. Meanwhile, Naomi was just fine. Marvin acted like a shield so his body did not retain any injury.

"Oh my god!" Naomi exclaimed, "Are you okay?!"

She got up from Marvin's embrace and knelt next to him. She shook his body and called him.

"Marvin! Are you alright?"

Her voice was so loud that everyone gathered around thinking something major had happened to him. Even Eric, who was on the first floor, came rushing down the stairs. He saw Marvin lying on the ground and immediately went to kneel next to Naomi.

"What happened to him?" Eric asked. Naomi was nervous because Marvin got hurt while saving her and bit her lip too tightly. It started bleeding. He saw the blood and panicked.

Naomi wiped her lips and pointed towards Marvin, "We fell down the stairs and he got hurt."

Eric frowned upon hearing that. Falling down the stairs wasn't enough to pass out. Maybe for normal people it was a big deal, but not for Marvin. He used to tumble down the stairs all the time as a kid. Just as he was about to expose himself, he felt a light tickle on his leg.

Marvin quickly wrote something on his leg. His eyes were closed tightly as if he was unconscious but he was just acting! Eric did not understand what was going on but he did as Marvin told him to.

"Call the doctor!" Eric said loudly, "Alpha is injured! Call the doctor!"

Someone immediately called the doctor. Eric picked up Marvin and took him upstairs. Naomi was taken aback for a second. A thought flashed into her mind but Eric called her name and it disappeared.

She hurriedly followed after Eric and hesitated before entering his room. It felt wrong to go inside without Marvin's permission. But the man in question was currently passed out. Thinking it was her fault, he got hurt and she should act responsible towards him. Naomi went inside.