?Chapter 1564:
At the same time, he released a quiet breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. Had he read too much into her words earlier?
But before that sense of ease could fully settle, Maia’s cool voice sounded again. “In psychological and behavioral studies, what you just showed is considered a ssic avoidance response.”
“When people shy away from certain truths, their bodies often betray them through the smallest, most unconscious tells. It is an instinct etched into human behavior by millions of years of gic inheritance.”
Maia continued, her cadence unhurried yet precise. “Some reach for the bridge of their nose when they lie, others let their eyes drift to the left, and some experience a sudden dryness in the throat.”
As her exnation unfolded, Chris’s fingers rose toward the tip of his nose without thought, while his other hand lifted the wine ss toward his mouth. The motion halted the instant her wordsnded, leaving the ss hovering uselessly between table and lips.
For a brief heartbeat, time itself seemed to pause. The disturbing sensation of being thoroughly exposed crept in—slow, quiet, and impossible to deny. It was as though Maia’s words hadid a silentmand over the room, drawing Chris intopliance like an unknowing actor following a script written for him.
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Everything had unfolded exactly as she had anticipated. She observed his rigid posture and arrested movements, a trace of dry amusement curving her mouth.
“Hence, Mr. Cooper, you are not being honest. Or more urately, that is not the true reason you remain here. If Laurence were the only concern, you could have taken him back to Elysium Apartments without hesitation. The ce may be modest in size, but it would have sufficed for the two of you, and the surroundings are far more appropriate for recuperation. Yet you chose not to do so.”
The crystalline sharpness in Maia’s gaze dulled by a fraction. She gave a nearly imperceptible shake of her head, a quiet note of disappointment settling in her chest. To her, any rtionship—particrly one between lovers—should rest on an unshakable foundation of trust. She found herself unable to reconcile that belief with Chris’s behavior, unable to understand why he would still cling to concealment.
Chris lowered his ss to the table with deliberate care, then lifted his eyes to meet hers.
The alluring, teasing woman from moments earlier seemed to fold away, reced by theposed, sharp-minded, and quietly formidable Maia now seated across from him. Yet this version felt closer to the one etched into his memory.
“You are undeniably perceptive,” Chris conceded, the curve of his mouth tinged with resignation. “But deceiving you was never my intention. Everything I said was true—just iplete.”
It was a subtler tactic, far removed from crude falsehoods that copsed under the lightest scrutiny. By revealing fragments of the truth, one could effectively obscure therger reality. Most of the time, such omissions slipped past unnoticed. But Maia had pierced through the gap without hesitation.
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