The Lustful Villain: Every Milfs and Gilfs are Mine!-Chapter 175. Four Generations of Family Politics and I’m Standing in the Middle of It

Chapter 175: 175. Four Generations of Family Politics and I’m Standing in the Middle of It

Rex looked at her. He considered the question with the honesty it deserved, because at her maximum desire, Lily was many things; one consistent trait was that she asked questions directly, as she found indirectness exhausting.

"Yeah," he said.

The word landed in the alley between them, and Rex watched Lily’s face do several things in the space of three seconds: something that hurt, something that was not surprise, and something that was working very hard to be the feeling she was going to choose to have about this rather than the feeling that had arrived first.

For a moment, she stared at the wall. After that, she turned to him again.

"She loves you," Lily said, and the way she said it made it clear that she had already known this and was not learning it now but was acknowledging it to him as something they both knew.

"I think so," Rex said.

"And you love her," Lily stated, indicating that it was not a question this time.

Rex held her eyes. "Yes," he said.

Another moment.

Lily’s hands were at her sides, and she was working through something with a visible, honest effort that he had always found more affecting than he usually let himself acknowledge.

She was not performing her processing; she was actually doing it, right in front of him, because that was how she did things.

"I’m not going to pretend that doesn’t mean something that hurts," she said finally. "Because that would be a lie, and you’d know."

Rex said, "I know."

"But I also—" She stopped again.

Her jaw was set the way it was when she was being exact. "I know who you are, Rex."

"I knew who you were before I knew how I felt, and I chose to feel it anyway."

"I’m not going to change my mind about that choice just because it costs something."

Rex looked at her and remained silent because anything he could say would not change the situation.

After a moment, Lily let out a slow breath, as if she had thought about it and decided to put it down instead of carrying it.

"Well, uhm, she is still my older sister." Lily said, "And I love her, and I’m going to be her sister no matter what."

She looked at him with the kind of honesty that people seem to have when they are at their most real. "I just need you to not make me pick."

"What?" Rex said, "Of course I won’t."

"I love both of you the same way, think of it just like how I treated you with Lilith."

"Okay," she said. "Then we’re settled."

She reached out and took his hand briefly, not the way she usually did, not with the warmth that the maximum bond produced, but with the specific grip of someone who was keeping their footing and then let go.

Rex was still thinking about the quality of that grip when the air beside him changed.

There wasn’t a big difference. The temperature dropped just a little bit, and there was a certain quality of stillness that came before certain kinds of sudden motion.

Rex’s Foresight was always running in its quiet background mode, so he had about a quarter of a second to prepare before a blade appeared at his throat.

The blade stopped and didn’t stab through his neck. It was held about three millimeters away from his neck, and the hand that held it was steady enough that the three millimeters stayed the same.

It hadn’t been thrown or swung. It had been put in a very exact spot that made a point without touching anything.

Rex stayed still.

Iris came into his peripheral vision from the wall, which meant she had been there for part of the last conversation. The look on her face was not the anger that the knife suggested.

She was trying to hold back laughter in the corners of her eyes while also giving off a serious vibe, but she wasn’t doing a great job at either.

She dropped the knife a second after he noticed it, and then the laughter won.

She said, "Your reaction was great," in a way that made it clear that the knife was only there to get a reaction.

"Most people would flinch or pass out, but you just stood still, which is much more interesting."

Lily was looking at Iris with an expression that had changed about four times in the last three seconds and was now annoyed.

Lily said, "I-Iris."

"Good evening, my dear Lily," Iris said, as if she didn’t care about the formal rules of how to greet someone. "I hope I don’t interrupt your date."

"N-No! T-This is...!"

She looked at Rex with the same intense interest she had for things that had caught her eye. "I wanted to talk to you, and since I was already here, I thought the direct approach would be the best."

Rex asked, "What’s the knife about...?"

"It was a test," Iris said. "Not a threat."

"I would have made it much clearer if it were a threat, and you’d be dead." She put it away with the ease of someone who had done it many times before. "By the way, you passed."

Rex looked at her and took a moment to figure out what he was really seeing. She was about thirty years old, and her physical ability was clear from the way she moved and stood.

Her specific quality of attention was the kind that came from someone who had spent a long time working in places where reading people accurately was not a social skill but a survival skill.

"You came to tell me about Theo," Rex said.

Iris raised an eyebrow a fraction. "Among other things."

She moved to lean against the alley wall with the comfortable ease of someone who had been in worse alleys for longer. "I’ll start with the obvious so you don’t get confused, and Lily seems too nervous to tell you."

"Well, Diana told him."

Rex asked, "About the confession?"

"Yep," Iris said. "Diana can’t lie to Theo at all from the start."

She said it that way on purpose, as if she wanted Rex to know what kind of relationship that was. "They grew up together."

"She has never lied to him about anything important, and she wasn’t going to start now." She looked at him straight on. "She told him this morning, it seems, before she had fully thought about what telling him would set off."

Rex thought about this. "Helena."

"Theo went to Helena because Theo is, at his core, the kind of person who believes problems should be addressed through proper channels," Iris said, with an affection that was not entirely critical of this quality. "He was hurt, and he dealt with it in his usual manner, which involves addressing issues directly and through the appropriate channels."

"And what is Helena’s point of view on this?" Rex asked.

Iris was quiet for a moment, like people are when they don’t understand the answer. "Helena is a sensible woman in most ways," she said.

"She knows that families don’t always need people’s feelings to be in a certain order."

"But," Rex said.

"But," Iris said. "The Starlight and Nightwing families have had a political relationship for four generations."

"The expectation that Diana and Theo would eventually formalize their connection was not invented recently, and it was not invented by one person."

"It was built by decades of specific decisions made by both families." She looked at Rex. "Morwenna Nightwing, Theo’s grandmother, will hear about this within 48 hours."

"Most likely sooner."

Rex asked, "What does Morwenna do when she hears about things like this?"

"She talks to them," Iris said, with the flat accuracy of someone telling a very specific story. "Morwenna has been the head of the Nightwing household for twenty years."

"She is effective and understands what the Nightwing family should gain from its relationships."

"How about his mother, your sister?" Rex asked.

Iris replied, "Aurelia."

"She is much more aggressive in her approach than her mother, and she is already overly protective of Theo in ways that seem unwarranted." She paused. "Before Aurelia becomes significant to you, it’s important to know who she is."

Rex inquired, "How aware?"

Iris looked at him with a quick, honest assessment. She said, "Aware enough to have a response ready."

"She is a strong fighter, fiercely protective of her family, and she doesn’t require proof of intent before acting on suspicion."