He paused at the doorway, his body stiffened as he slowly turned back to face me. His eyes found mine within a second, and almost immediately, I regretted blurting out the words carelessly.

I should have just let him go. I should have kept my mouth shut instead of over-explaining things. But I didn’t, so now I was stuck in this awkward situation, and the knot in my stomach twisted even further.

I swallowed, the words sitting on the tip of my tongue. "About earlier..." I trailed off, hesitating as I contemplated my next words.

I could see exactly the moment it clicked in his head from the way his jaw tightened almost imperceptibly. "You don’t have to explain," he quickly said, almost as if he wanted to avoid this conversation entirely. There was a brief pause before he finally continued. "I understand."

I watched as he spun around to leave once again, seeing his retreating figure, the words spilled out of my lips before I could even stop myself. "I panicked! I panicked, okay?"

For a long moment, he said nothing as he kept his gaze on me.

"It’s not you, it’s just—"

He arched a brow. "Just what?"

My breath caught. The room felt so much smaller as I watched him step back into the room, closing the distance between us with slow, deliberate steps. For a moment, I thought he was going to bump into me, but he stopped directly in front of me, close enough that I had to tilt my head back to meet his gaze.

"Just..."

"Evelyn," he said quietly, "do you know what the hardest part was?"

I shook my head, but his dark eyes continued to hold mine.

"Stopping."

The single word sent heat flooding through me. His gaze dipped briefly to my lips before returning to my eyes.

"If you hadn’t turned away..." His voice dropped lower, rougher. "I would have kissed you."

My heart slammed against my ribs, and all the air fled my lungs.

"And if I kissed you—" He took another step closer. "I wouldn’t have been able to pretend it meant nothing."

I wanted nothing more than to look away, but for some reason, I couldn’t. My eyes remained glued to his as I watched the emotions run wild in his dark eyes.

I had always thought that he had never forgiven me for what I did all those years ago. I thought he would have despised me, given me a hard time. But none of that happened.

Instead, he took care of me, he was the one who stood up for me, and now...he was standing in front of me, telling me that he couldn’t pretend this meant nothing.

It was everything I wanted to hear, but why wasn’t I happy?

I stepped back instinctively, shaking my head, finally looking away. "No, no, no..." I muttered under my breath. "You are supposed to hate me!" I cried out.

"But I don’t."

"This isn’t supposed to happen. I don’t deserve you," I mumbled, my voice cracking towards the end of the sentence.

Before I could react, he caught my wrist in a tight grip, forcing me to look at him. "How many times must I tell you that I don’t hate you?" I could hear the desperation in his voice, loud and clear. "Not a single bit. I can’t bring myself to hate you even if I tried."

I was still shaking my head when he continued. "Can’t you tell? After all these years, my feelings for you never changed."

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Is this real? Am I dreaming?

My eyes glistened with unshed tears as I looked at him and watched the way his features softened right before my eyes.

"Yes, I hated what happened between us, but I don’t hate you. Why did you think I hired you for the role? Why did you think I helped you all this time? I only avoided you in the beginning because I didn’t expect to see you again after all these years."

"But...I..."

He seemed to know exactly what was running through my mind. For a split second, I was afraid he would pull away like he did the last time, but this time, he only reached up and wiped the stray tear rolling down my cheek.

"Just tell me the truth, Evelyn. Do you remember what happened that night?"

The memories leading up to that night flooded my mind in an instant, but everything else after was a blur. It had always been, and no matter how hard I tried to recall, nothing came to mind. It was almost as if someone had entered my brain and erased it entirely.

I lowered my gaze, another tear slipping down my face as I shook my head. "No...I—I don’t remember anything after the bar." I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to piece together the fragments of that night, but my mind remained blank. "I only remembered drinking with Jessica, and the next thing I knew, I woke up in bed with Lucas and was accused of being a homewrecker. Everything else in between was a blur."

He didn’t seem surprised by my words, almost as if he had seen this coming. "You know, I have been thinking about this for some time now."

His fingers lightly brushed my chin as he lifted my head to meet his eyes. "Has it ever crossed your mind that maybe what happened wasn’t as simple as you thought?"

My eyes widened as I processed his words, my mind still reeling as my throat tightened painfully. "What? What are you..."

"I’ve gone over everything countless times," he finally said. "More times than I’d like to admit." A humorless smile touched his lips. "Especially after you came back. I knew I didn’t want to let you go again for the second time."

There was a pang in my chest, but I chased it away.

"I kept asking myself the same question." His voice was calm, but I could hear the frustration hidden beneath it. "Why?"

My brows furrowed.

"Why what?"

"Why would you do it?"

The question hung between us. A question that had haunted both of us for years.

His eyes searched mine. "Nothing about it ever made sense."

He was right, nothing made sense. Not the betrayal, not the cheating, definitely not with Lucas Smith.

I had loved him. God, I had loved him so much back then. Maybe even now. The memory alone was enough to make my chest ache as regret began to consume me once again.

"The more I thought about it, the more things stopped adding up."

My fingers curled into fists, bleaching my knuckles as my nails dug into my palms, forming little crescent moons. "Then why didn’t you say anything before?"

The question escaped before I could stop it. A shadow crossed his features. For the first time since we entered this room, he looked away, as though he was unable to look me in the eye.

"Because I was angry." The honesty in his answer stunned me, but I couldn’t blame him for it. He had every right to be angry at me after everything I did, or at least, I thought I did.

His jaw tightened. "I was furious. I hated the way you left me. Back then, all I could see was betrayal. I couldn’t think straight. I didn’t want explanations. I convinced myself I hated you." His voice dropped lower. "But no matter how many times I told myself that, I couldn’t make it true. I just...couldn’t."

His fingers found mine, and I didn’t pull away, only letting the warmth of his skin seep into mine, finding comfort in his touch. "And now that you are back by my side, it got me thinking again." There was a brief pause, but never once did we look away. "I know you won’t betray me."

"How could you be so sure?" I asked, my voice quiet. "What if you’re wrong?"

His expression hardened instantly. "I’m not wrong."

"How could you be so sure?" I forced the words out of my throat and let out a shaky breath. "What if I betrayed you and just don’t remember?"

The room became deathly silent. My chest constricted, and a million thoughts swirled in my head as the silence seemed to stretch on and on like the vast ocean with no end in sight. Until finally, his voice broke the silence.

"Because I know you. I know you, Evelyn Hart."

I quickly looked away. I couldn’t bear the intensity of his gaze. Couldn’t bear the sincerity. Because this was everything I had secretly wanted, everything I had dreamed about during countless sleepless nights.

I swallowed the lump in my throat. "But..."

"I trust you," he interrupted. "I trust that you wouldn’t betray me."

"What...what are you trying to say?"

His expression turned serious now, as he uttered the words I never thought I would hear.

"I think someone might have framed you."