Every Mafia's Favorite Girl novel Chapter 174

Chapter 174: "Remember This Feeling"

Aren’s gaze dropped to his outstretched palm before cautiously returning to his face.

Uncertainty was written plainly across her expression, but Isidore’s gaze remained calm as he waited.

Without his glasses, there was something subtly different about the way he looked at her.

Less intimidating, perhaps.

His expression remained characteristically distant, but the sharp barrier usually created by those silver frames was gone.

Tentatively, she reached toward him.

Her fingers hovered over his palm for a moment before slowly settling into it.

Almost instantly, his long fingers curled around hers. His thumb brushed once across the back of her hand before coming to rest there, deepening the quiet connection between them.

"Feel how steady I am?" he asked, lowering his gaze to their joined hands.

Aren looked down as well.

She leaned slightly into his hold, paying attention to the sensation he wanted her to notice.

His hand was completely still.

There was no tremor in his fingers, no tension shifting through his grip. It was almost unnaturally steady, especially compared with the faint trembling she could still feel in her own hand.

"...Yes," she murmured. "Your hand is very still. Very... steady."

"Good." His fingers closed a little more firmly around hers. "Now feel that steadiness and let it seep into yours. Take a deep breath."

Aren lifted her gaze to him again, uncertain but willing to try.

At first, she could only think about how absurdly difficult the instruction sounded.

’How exactly am I supposed to make someone else’s calmness seep into my body?’

Yet the longer she remained there, her hand enclosed in his, the more she found herself concentrating on the simple comfort of his unmoving palm.

So she breathed in.

Deeply.

Slowly.

Her shoulders began to loosen.

"Now exhale," Isidore instructed. "Slowly."

Aren obeyed, the breath leaving her lungs in a long, controlled stream. Somehow, the tension that had been sitting so heavily inside her seemed to leave with it.

Her fingers stopped trembling.

Her breathing steadied.

When she looked down again, her hand was nearly as still as his.

Isidore noticed the change easily. His voice came again, calm and even.

"Whenever you have to stand in front of too many people, encounter a question you don’t know how to answer, or simply feel nervous for no particular reason..."

His fingers tightened around hers.

"...remember this feeling."

Something inside Aren eased.

There was no visible sympathy in his expression. He wasn’t speaking to her gently in the way Jordan would, nor was he telling her everything would be fine.

And yet, his calm was strangely reassuring.

Unmoving.

As though he had placed something solid beneath her feet and expected her to stand on it.

"All right," she said quietly. "I’ll try to remember it."

She gave his hand the slightest squeeze.

"I feel much calmer now."

Isidore gave an almost imperceptible nod, apparently satisfied.

"Good."

For a moment, neither of them moved before he continued in the same even tone.

"Now, whenever someone asks you a rude question you don’t wish to answer, repeat after me."

He finally raised his gaze to meet hers.

"I have no obligation to answer brainless questions like that."

Every trace of Aren’s newfound calm vanished.

Her eyes widened.

"That sounds..."

She blinked several times.

"...a bit rude."

Isidore remained entirely composed.

"That’s precisely what Ariana Lombardi often said to the press when she didn’t want to answer a question during her previous interviews. Try it."

The explanation was convincing enough to make Aren give it a try.

"I... I have no obligation to..." Her voice faltered as she reached the offensive part. "Um... answer brainless questions like that."

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