Free Web NovelChapter 23: Holly’s Secret! A Different Life? (3)
[Skill Active. Query the target — she will be unable to lie in response.]
’Sounds simple enough,’ David thought, testing the waters. He turned to her, keeping his voice steady, more serious than he meant it to sound.
"Why do you believe in me?" he asked. "Honestly." freēwebnovel.com
Holly blinked, caught slightly off guard by the question. "I don’t know — I just do. You’ve got this drive I haven’t really seen in anyone else. It actually means a lot to me, watching you push yourself like this."
David caught the small flicker of surprise cross her own face right after she said it — like she hadn’t expected herself to answer quite that openly, quite that fast.
[Temptation Level: 17%.]
’She’s getting more intrigued,’ David thought, filing that away. He kept going, testing the edges of it. "That means a lot, hearing that," he said out loud, and meant it. Still, underneath the warmth of the moment, the earlier feeling hadn’t gone anywhere — that sense that she was holding something back.
’I don’t want to push her,’ he thought, some genuine reluctance mixing in with the calculation now. ’But I know she’s not telling me everything.’ There was something almost sad about it, sitting there having a normal, easy conversation with someone he liked, all while quietly running a truth-compelling skill on her without her knowledge.
"You don’t think I’m being open with you?" Holly asked, tilting her head, picking up on something in his expression.
"No, it’s not that," David said quickly. "Just — a guess, honestly."
He turned it over silently. ’Is she actually being honest, or is this thing not working the way I think it is?’
[Query required for accurate response.]
Right. He needed to actually ask.
"Are you telling me everything?" he said, quieter this time.
The answer left her before she seemed to register she was saying it. "No. I’m hiding a few things."
Holly’s whole face shifted the instant the words were out — genuine shock flashing across it, like she’d heard someone else say it and was only now catching up to the fact that it had been her own voice.
’Why did I just say that,’ she thought, panic spiking sharp and sudden in her chest.
"What aren’t you telling me?" David asked, gentler now, watching her carefully.
Holly’s jaw tightened, her whole body going rigid on the bench, arms curling instinctively around herself as if that might hold the words back. Her cheeks flushed, some internal war playing out plainly across her face as she visibly fought against whatever pressure the skill was putting on her, lips pressing into a thin line.
"Leon," she finally said, voice barely above a whisper, like it had been physically dragged out of her. "Me and Leon—"
"You and Leon..." David said, "are what??"
Holly’s voice came through steady, almost rehearsed. "Leon and I are together."
The words landed like a dropped weight.
"Mmmm." The word slipped out before he could catch it. Then, slower: "Wow."
He leaned back in his chair, staring at nothing in particular. Of all the things he had expected to hear tonight — complaints about his training schedule, another lecture on his recovery pace, maybe even a callback to the sparring session — this had not been among them. Not even close.
"Together," he said again, not a question, just the word sitting in his mouth like something he needed to taste before he could process it. "You and Leon. Like — actually together."
"Don’t make it weird."
"I’m not making it weird, I’m just—" He exhaled. "I genuinely didn’t know you were that kind of person."
"What kind of person?"
"The kind that would be in a relationship with a bully." He said it lightly, but he meant it. ƒreewebηoveℓ.com
On the other end, a pause. Then the faintest sound — barely audible, almost nothing. Not quite a word. Not quite a shriek.
Just the softest, most involuntary exhale of sound, the kind a person makes when they’ve said too much and only just realized it.
She recovered fast.
"It’s not — it’s not like that. Together together." The clarification came quickly, too quickly.
"It’s just...ugh...his sex was really good."
The silence stretched.
’Hmm?’ David thought.
’Did she just say, his sex?’
He filed that away.
Whatever was happening on her end, she was fighting it — he could hear it in the micro-pauses between her words, the slight overprecision of her phrasing, the way she kept correcting herself mid-sentence.
Without a doubt, it was most definitely the skill. Although he only got one use of it, this outcome wasn’t entirely bad and in truth, he enjoyed it.
[Temptation Level: 19% → 20%]
He blinked. Then, very quietly, he smiled.
***
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For every 200 powerstones I’ll release 10+ bonus Chapters...so, if you find it worth while, you can make your decision. Thank you.🫠
