9 Comments
User's avatar
Nick Hills's avatar

"Reverses the reverse psychology, that’s how you keep cool and trace people’s motives"

Great advice here!

You are doing a great work, mate! Have a beautiful day!

Hai Dang's avatar

Thank you, Nick!!! I was sick yesterday. Will catch up soon.

Nick Hills's avatar

Take care of yourself man, good rest!

AËLA's avatar

The old woman

was the only one

not performing.

Everyone else in that stairwell

was managing a story.

She just asked

for what was owed.

— AËLA

Hai Dang's avatar

Thank you AELA for seeing the old woman clearly. <3

Colleen Bent's avatar

The plot thickens.... how quick Elise thinks on her feet and now I am not sure who is who or what role they are in... the old woman... I wonder is it dementia or?

Hai Dang's avatar

Thank you for reading, Colleen. The old woman has real dementia (half face sagging); and Elise… involvement is actively charming Harry I think. If it’s click, then I think I’ve done something right. <33

Antonio Castellaneta's avatar

What stayed with me most here is how uncertainty becomes almost physical inside the scene. Not just the blackmail, but the constant inability to know whether affection, fear, performance, or manipulation are ever fully separable from one another.

The old woman in the hallway shifts the entire atmosphere of the chapter. For a moment the danger no longer feels criminal, but existential, as if memory itself has become unstable.

And the final kiss works precisely because it does not resolve anything. It deepens the ambiguity instead.

Hai Dang's avatar

Hi Antonio, Thank you for reading so carefully. I try my best to let happenstance affect Harry’s paranoia.

Much appreciate your kind comment. <33