Chapter 261 CASSANDRA

Helene didn’t utter a word on our way to the ladies‘ room but conducted herself very politely. Her pretty face remained smiling, and the expression was so fixed it was as if she had been born smiling. It was unnerving after a while, and | kept waiting for it to falter, but her face never changed.

Once the door to the bathroom was shut tightly behind us, | tried to talk with her and attempted to coax her out of her daze. “Are you feeling better?” | asked. “I heard that you were ill with some sort of sickness.”

“It was just a cold,” Helene replied nonchalantly. “It was nothing to worry about. I’ve fully recovered now.”

| nodded my head and after a moment of pause, | tried again. “I heard about your maid as well-”

“It was all just a rumor,” she cut me off before | could finish my sentence. “The maid resigned because her mother passed away. | suppose that someone wanted to use such gossip to demean my fiance, but it couldn’t be farther from the truth.”

She turned to face the mirror and smoothed her caramel—colored hair down. My eyebrows creased together as | tried to make sense of it all. Her movements, her expression, her tone, even her words… it all seemed so rehearsed. It was so eerie and strange like she was a puppet or something.