Rebirth of the Villainous Female Boss
Chapter 1493 - 1465: A Familiar Sense of Guilt

Chapter 1493: Chapter 1465: A Familiar Sense of Guilt

"What’s wrong?" asked Norris, as he and Kiara sat side by side on the beach building sandcastles. He’d brought her here to cheer her up, seeing her so downcast. They had been having fun until, after building a large sandcastle, Kiara began to cry as she looked at it.

Her tears weren’t like others’, they fell without a hint of frailty, rather, they seemed powerful, as if they could hurt someone when they landed.

"I was thinking about the story of Sophie White, how sad it is."

"A castle makes you think of a princess?" Norris chuckled; he found Kiara’s thought process particularly endearing dressed in a princess gown.

Today, her hair was parted down the middle and curled into spirals by a maid with a curling iron, giving her an even more of a medieval, vintage vibe.

"I pictured Sophie White just after losing her mother, standing in a castle like this, waiting for her mother’s return. It’s heart-wrenching just thinking about it."

A mother’s deepest concern is always her child. With closed eyes, one can almost hear their daughter crying out for her mother. When thinking of her child swallowing tears and shouldering the pressures alone, the only solace is in the effort of their actions.

"In the initial edition of Grimms’ Fairy Tales, there was no mention of the mother’s death. It was from the second edition that they toned down that aspect. Personally, I think the first edition is more compelling and, from a professional standpoint, more in line with human nature. Later editions were altered to cater to children, making them sound nicer but less true to life."

Perhaps it was an occupational habit of doctors to discuss professional analysis, Norris thought, realizing halfway that maybe it wasn’t something to discuss with a young lady.

"Indeed, it doesn’t coincide with human nature, like how the prince, without any interaction with the princess, just lifts the glass coffin and leaves— that’s typical of a necrophilia patient. Have you encountered necrophilia before?"

"I’ve come across many, mostly male, often morgue employees, and some serial killers start out that way as well. Academically, it’s called X-valley deficiency disorder."

"Tell me about it—I’m quite interested in these patients, although I’ve never had such a case myself. It probably has to do with the cultural context in the Domestic Region."

The two of them got lost in professional chatter, going on and on, and through the sea breeze, they appeared to onlookers as a perfect match.

Charles Norris looked on from a distance, contentedly putting down his telescope.

His oblivious son was finally showing some signs of courtship, but he was oblivious to the fact that the pair, so pleased with their conversation, were not discussing romance, they were like two kindred spirits transcending gender.

"Tell me about the traits of necrophilia patients, will you?" Kiara asked.

The Fox Cat didn’t realize she had laid a trap for him and answered off the cuff.

"They turn all emotions and thoughts into objects, believing the person they like should be a possession rather than a living being."

"Then there are those who impose their feelings on others, like imprisoning an innocent young girl who has a child and a home, grossly magnifying one’s feelings while ignoring the person’s longing for home—ouch, young man, you’re in danger, you’ve fallen to the brink of necrophilia."

Norris realized what she had done. He looked at Kiara, "Did you do that on purpose?"

All the talk of consulting on cases she hadn’t experienced, wasn’t it all just a setup to dig a hole for him?

He’d naively stepped right into a trap and directly onto the edge of being labeled a necrophiliac, which was far from accurate!

One really can’t let their guard down when speaking with her; who knows when a trap might appear.

Kiara shrugged, "You have to be more forgiving with someone who’s lost their memory; I don’t remember anything."

"..." Not remembering and still able to set traps!

Norris felt he should be angry, but on second thought, he found it amusing. Kiara, massaging her temples as if possessed by a drama queen said,

"People, once they lose their memory, tend to forget things. If you’re going to blame anyone, blame Charles Norris for setting me up," stirring the pot.

"So, this ’memory loss’ comes with an option to dig holes, huh?" Norris saw right through it. Kiara seemed to decide when to "lose memory" just when it suited her—to dig a hole and then promptly forget everything, chucking all responsibility onto her supposed amnesia.

"For friends like you, I usually only make good-natured jokes, but I’m not so nice to those who really bully me," Kiara looked towards the villa, pretty sure that old Matt Bailey was being sleazy and peeping again.

"Honestly, Fox Cat, how did you end up with a father like that? Were you picked up by mistake as a baby?"

"I don’t know, but he does have one thing in common with you."

Kiara made an "oh" sound and began digging in the sand with a small shovel. If Camden had been with her, the sight of her doing this would have made him bolt as if he’d been shocked, running as far away as he could.

But Fox Cat was much more docile than the Military Dog, mainly because, to him, Kiara was like a cat toy, dangling just out of reach. Even though he knew he couldn’t catch it, he’d foolishly leap for it every time she swung it around.

So, Fox Cat got a face full of dirt flung by Kiara’s shovel, sand getting in his squinting eyes, yet he remained clueless.

Had he done something to upset her?

Kiara diligently shoveled the dirt, planning to fill a small bucket with sand and dump it all over him.

"If you don’t tell me today how I’m similar to that perverted old Bailey, I guarantee you’ll spend the next few days getting scratched by amnesia-induced intermittent mental illness," she threatened.

"Every time he does something utterly lunatic, he claims he’s sick, says it’s because of the shock from my mother’s death... I think your ’amnesia’ and his ’shock’ are two sides of the same coin," Fox Cat said truthfully.

If this had been Mario Yuno, Camden, with his oily smooth talk and scheming mind, would never have given such a straight answer. This wasn’t an easy question; it was a deadly one!

But this was Fox Cat, a man who appeared shrewd yet always remained innocent at heart.

Kiara was starting to feel guilty. She always had this sense of guilt when picking on the innocent.

She missed Camden, who was tough to both hit and kick, shameless, heartless, and tough as old boots. She could mold him however she wanted; he was resilient.

However, Fox Cat was different from him. Kiara always felt a little constrained around him, always worried that something she said might be taken too seriously, and bullying him made her feel guilty.

She had no doubt that if she told Fox Cat to wait in the same spot for 20 years, she’d come back to find a dried-up Fox Cat mummy.

"Did your father shape your personality?" she asked.

"Maybe he did; I don’t remember much. You can’t choose who your parents are."

His words resonated with Kiara.

"You’re better off than I am; at least you know how you came to be. As for me..." she trailed off, looking down.

"You want to ask about what happened back then, right?"

"Yes."

"I don’t know much."

Kiara felt inexplicably guilty due to his honesty.

She was stuck there but had no plans to idle away her time. Before Camden came to rescue her, first, she had to figure out a way to deal with Bailey, and more importantly, she wanted to take the opportunity to uncover her own origins, those past secrets her Dad stubbornly refused to talk about. Maybe here she could find the answers.

Bailey had tampered with her memories, but he didn’t know that Mrs. Kiara had a ’rebirth’ cheat. Her past life memories were sealed, but nothing from this life was touched.

As she listened to James Norris ’Norris Flowery Fox’ recount the experiments from those years with no attempt to hide anything, Kiara felt a notion beginning to take shape in her mind.

In the memories she had forgotten, there must have been something very important about Fox Cat, but now it eluded her because whenever she used him to ask about her past, she felt a peculiar guilt, as if it was all too familiar.