When I returned to the estate, drenched from head to toe, every light in the house was on.

"Drink some warm water."

He sat down beside me, concern written all over his face.

It might have meant something if Selene had not been sitting there too.

I took the cup and almost laughed.

Selene had Damon's coat over her shoulders, her face pale.

She said softly,

"Damon, can I stay here tonight?"

"I'm a little scared."

Damon looked at me.

Almost without thinking, he stepped in front of her, already waiting for me to make a scene.

The old Evelyn would have.

She would have demanded an explanation.

This time, I only paused for a second.

"Sure."

"Stay as long as you want."

Damon's frown deepened.

I did not look at either of them again. I changed my shoes and went straight to the master bathroom.

Hot water ran over me, but I still felt cold to the bone.

It was not the first time something like this had happened.

The day Selene returned to New York, Damon brought her back to the estate.

She was drunk, leaning against him, her fingers still hooked around his tie.

I stood at the top of the stairs and watched him carry her into the master bedroom.

"That's our room."

I had been so angry I laughed.

"You're letting her sleep there? Does that seem appropriate to you?"

Damon did not even stop walking.

He placed Selene on the bed, then went to the bathroom for a warm towel.

"Evelyn, watch your tone."

"Selene damaged her health because of me. She just came back to New York. I'm the only person she has."

"Don't make an issue out of this."

I stood in the doorway and watched him lower his head to wipe her face.

Once, I came back from a job covered in blood.

Damon had pulled me into his arms without hesitation, kissed my stained cheek, then carried me to the bathroom and washed every trace of blood from my skin himself.

For years, I had believed that tenderness belonged only to me.

Now he was giving that same tenderness to someone else.

A knock on the bathroom door pulled me back.

"Evelyn."

Damon's voice came through the wood.

"Come out. We need to talk."

I did not answer.

When I finished showering, he was still waiting outside, a hair dryer in his hand.

"Sit."

"I'll dry your hair."

I was too tired to push him away.

Warm air moved through my hair.

His fingers threaded through it, gentler than usual.

"Let today pass," he said.

"After the wedding, I'll make it up to you."

I looked at him in the mirror.

I first met Damon in an underground bar.

At sixteen, I had walked away when the elders of the Hale family began discussing my marriage.

I wanted to know who I was without the Hale name, and whether anyone could love Evelyn without wanting something from her family.

So I refused the family's money, buried my surname, and went to New York alone.

I had only meant to stay away for a while.

By the time I met Damon, I was working in one of the roughest parts of the city.

Four drunk men blocked my way and tried to force me into a private room.

I drove my elbow into one man's ribs and kicked another in the knee, but a third caught me from behind before I could reach the exit.

The fourth twisted a fist into my hair and dragged me toward the door.

Just before the door closed, Damon appeared.

He kicked those men to the ground, then turned to me.

"Are you all right? Do you need me to take you to a hospital?"

Too stubborn to admit how much it hurt, I shook my head.

A faint smile touched his lips.

"Most girls your age would've frozen. You fought back. That was brave."

From that moment on, I was gone.

Later, I stayed by his side and told him only that my parents lived far away, that I was alone, that I had nowhere else to go.

Damon believed me.

When my father finally offered to bring me home, I chose Damon instead.

He always thought I could not leave him.

He never knew the Hale family had been waiting for me to come home all these years.

The dryer stopped.

Damon looked at me through the mirror.

"Why aren't you saying anything?"

I met his eyes in the mirror.

"Damon, what would you do if I left?"

His hand went still.

For the first time that night, panic broke through his composure.

"Evelyn, I--"

The door opened before he could finish.

Selene stood there with red eyes.

"Damon, I can't sleep."

"Can you stay with me?"

Damon looked torn, but his gaze kept drifting back to her.

I stood and pulled the door open wider.

"Go."

The room fell silent.

He opened his mouth as if he still wanted to answer me.

In the end, he said nothing and walked out with Selene.

He never answered my question.

He did not need to.

He did not come back that night.

Sometime after midnight, thirst drove me downstairs for water.

As I passed the curved staircase, Selene called my name from behind.

"Evelyn."

She stood with one hand on the railing, her eyes already red.

"I only want us to get along."

"Please don't hate me just because Damon stayed with me."

I did not want to hear it. I turned toward the stairs.

Selene hurried after me and caught my wrist.

"Just let me explain."

I pulled free.

"Don't touch me."

The next second, she threw herself backward.

But before she fell, her fingers locked around my wrist and dragged me with her.

My abdomen struck the corner of the landing.

Pain exploded through me.

Selene's scream woke the entire estate.

Damon reached us first.

The moment he saw me crumpled at the bottom of the stairs, his expression changed. He started toward me without thinking.

"Evelyn!"

Before he reached me, Selene clutched her leg and sobbed.

"Damon, my leg hurts..."

"Evelyn probably didn't mean to push me. Please don't blame her."

"My chest hurts too..."

She pressed a hand to the left side of her chest.

It was the exact spot where the bullet she had taken for Damon had left its scar.

Damon stopped.

His gaze moved between my bloodless face and Selene's shaking body.

In the end, he turned and lifted her into his arms.

"Call a doctor," he ordered the housekeeper.

But he did not look at me again.

I curled on the cold floor, in so much pain that every breath made me shake.

Then blood began spreading beneath my dress.

The servants rushed me to the hospital.

Before I lost consciousness, all I could see was Damon carrying Selene away.

He had taken one step toward me.

In the end, he still chose her.

When I woke again, all I saw was white.

The smell of disinfectant filled my nose.

The moment the nurse saw I was awake, she called the doctor.

My throat was dry.

"What happened to me?"

The doctor spoke carefully, his voice gentle.

"Miss Evelyn, you were pregnant."

I froze.

For a moment, I could not even understand the words.

He paused.

"But the baby didn't survive."

Everything went quiet.

I stared at him, rigid.

"What baby?"

Pity flickered in the doctor's eyes.

"An early miscarriage."

"The main trigger was a hard impact to the abdomen, followed by fever from being caught in the rain and severe emotional distress."

"By the time you were brought in, it was already too late."

I looked down at my stomach.

It was flat.

Empty.

But the doctor was telling me there had once been a child there.

I had not even known.

And it was already gone.

The moment on the staircase came back with terrible clarity.

Selene's fingers clamping around my wrist before she fell.

The pain when my abdomen struck the landing.

Damon lifting Selene into his arms without turning back.

And his words.

Evelyn, are you done making a scene?

My fingers slowly tightened around the bedsheet.

It felt as if a dull knife had opened my chest.

But I could not cry.

The tears would not come.

They only lodged somewhere deep inside me and hurt.

The doctor asked quietly,

"Would you like us to notify your family?"

"If this involved an assault, you can also report it."

I was silent for such a long time that the nurse seemed to think I had not heard.

Then I asked hoarsely,

"Does Damon know?"

The doctor shook his head.

"The servants who brought you in only said you fell down the stairs."

"We haven't notified him yet."

I closed my eyes.

My thoughts were a mess. I was still reeling from the loss of the baby.

I had no idea how to face Damon, much less tell him we had ever had a child.

"Don't tell him."

My voice came out soft and cold.

"For the official record, just say I fainted from a fever after falling in the rain."

The doctor hesitated.

I looked at him.

"Please."

In the end, he sighed and nodded before leaving.

When the room became quiet again, I laid my hand over my lower abdomen.

Nothing answered.

I suddenly remembered a night long ago when Damon was drunk and held me in his arms.

He said that once he secured his seat as Don, we would have our own child.

He would teach the child to ride.

He would teach the child to shoot.

For seven years, I had imagined what it would be like to carry his child.

I imagined Damon resting a hand over my stomach, waiting awkwardly for the first kick.

I imagined him overseeing the nursery himself, checking even the cradle twice.

I imagined our child cherished in our arms, the most precious thing in the entire Voss family.

But now the baby was gone before I had even been given the chance to love it.

I buried my face in the pillow and finally broke down.

The pillow muffled my sobs until I could barely breathe.

I pressed both hands over my empty abdomen, but there was nothing left for me to hold on to.

My phone lit up beside my pillow.

It was a message from my father.

[The plane is arranged for noon the day after tomorrow.]

[Evelyn, come home.]

[The man I've chosen for the alliance is already waiting for you.]

[He is steady and responsible. I think you'll like him.]

[Once you come home, don't keep hurting yourself over an outsider.]

I stared at the words for a long time.

Then I typed slowly.

[All right.]

[I'll be there on time.]

It was evening by the time Damon arrived at the hospital.

"Evelyn."

He came quickly to the bedside. For once, he looked panicked.

"My assistant said you were brought to the hospital."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

I looked at him and said nothing.

He reached out to touch my forehead.

I turned my head away.

Damon's fingers stiffened.

Selene followed him in soon after.

Her wrist was bandaged, her face pale.

"Evelyn, are you all right?"

"I really didn't know you'd fall that badly."

She paused, and her eyes reddened again.

"If I'd known you would shove me away, I never would have followed you onto the stairs."

Damon's brow tightened slightly.

"Selene sprained her wrist. The doctor said she shouldn't be upset again."

I looked down at the IV needle in my hand and almost laughed.

Even now.

Even here.

He was still explaining for her.

Damon softened his voice.

"When you're discharged, we'll have the real wedding."

"The day after tomorrow, all right?"

I did not answer.

As if he was afraid to hear me refuse, he tucked the blanket around me and left with Selene.

The moment the door closed, I slowly tightened my grip on the blanket.

Damon did not know that we had just lost our child.

It did not matter.

Once I was gone, he would know everything.

The next day, Damon seemed to be truly trying to make it up to me.

He had the wedding schedule sent over again and removed every last trace of the old prank setup.

"This time, it's real."

He stood at the study door, his voice low.

"Evelyn, don't be angry anymore."

I looked up at him.

If not for the miscarriage report I had hidden away,

if not for the child no one had ever known about,

I might have believed him.

Damon's phone rang soon after.

He went out to the balcony to answer it.

When the glass door closed, only Selene and I remained in the room.

She set down her teacup, and the softness on her face vanished.

"You're still not leaving?"

I looked at her.

She laughed.

"Honestly, I've never seen anyone put up with as much as you."

"Seven times."

"All I had to do was say one word, and Damon turned a wedding into a divorce ceremony."

"How are you still here?"

My fingers tightened slightly around the cup.

"And what are you?"

"No matter how much Damon protects you, I'm still the one standing beside him."

"Who do you think you are, coming here to flaunt yourself in front of me?"

Selene raised her brows, as if I had said something very funny.

She glanced at Damon, whose back was turned to us on the balcony, then leaned closer.

"What am I?"

"Evelyn, you don't really think you win just because he gives you a wedding, do you?"

My expression went still.

"What do you mean?"

Selene's voice was light.

"After the wedding, Damon is giving me the North Port line."

"And part of the Voss family's voting rights."

"He said he owes me."

I froze.

North Port was one of Damon's most important routes.

It was a line I had spent three years helping him wrestle away from several old families.

It was also the foundation he had once said would belong to us after we married.

Now he was going to hand it to Selene as compensation.

I thought of the child I had never even known.

I thought of the doctor saying, in that grave voice, a hard impact to the abdomen.

I thought of Damon lifting Selene into his arms without even looking at me.

So it was not only my dignity.

Even seven years of my work had become something he could spend to repay her.

Selene was still smiling.

"That night, I fell on purpose."

"But would you dare say it?"

"Would Damon believe you?"

"To him, you were just jealous of me and pushed me on purpose."

I looked at her.

The hatred inside me slowly cooled into something harder.

If this had been before, I would have lunged forward and torn that smile off her face.

Now, I only asked calmly,

"Are you done?"

Selene's expression froze.

I set down the cup.

"If you are, get away from me."

Her expression shifted, and she was about to speak when the balcony door opened.

Damon came in, immediately noticing the tension between us.

"What happened?"

Selene's eyes reddened in an instant.

"Nothing."

"I only wanted to talk to Evelyn properly, but... but it seems she just doesn't like me."

Damon looked at me.

That same warning was still in his eyes.

All at once, even explaining felt pointless.

"I'm tired."

I stood and went back to my room.

Behind me, Damon seemed to want to follow.

Then Selene called softly,

"Damon, I feel a little dizzy."

His footsteps stopped, exactly as I knew they would.

I did not turn back.

The following morning, the wedding dress was wheeled into the master bedroom.

Damon stood at the door, his voice unusually gentle.

"I brought the dress for you to see first."

"It's heavy, so you'll change at the venue."

"I'll go ahead and wait for you there."

I turned my face aside, avoiding his hand.

"I don't feel well."

"You go first."

He hesitated, but eventually nodded.

"All right."

"It starts at noon. I'll wait for you."

I watched him leave, almost smiling.

I tore up every photograph of us in the house and scattered the pieces everywhere.

Thinking of the gift I had prepared for him at the wedding venue, I almost smiled.

After I was done, I pulled the SIM card from my phone and threw my ring onto the floor.

Then I placed the farewell letter I had written on top of the miscarriage report.

I took one last look at the estate and left without turning back.

Meanwhile, in the wedding hall, unease settled deep in Damon’s chest.

He checked the time.

Eleven fifty.

He turned to his assistant.

"Go see if Evelyn has arrived."

The assistant left at once.

Less than two minutes later, he rushed back in, his face white.

He had run so fast that even his voice was shaking.

"Don... something happened."

Damon's heart dropped. For a second, everything around him went quiet.

"Say it clearly."

The assistant trembled under his gaze.

"Don... you may want to see the bridal lounge for yourself."

Damon looked afraid for the first time.

The calm he had worn for years finally cracked.

He rushed out, no longer caring about composure, and shoved the door open with a shaking hand.

The lounge was empty.

No Evelyn.

Only the ruined wedding dress remained.

Pieces of torn photographs lay scattered across the floor.

A farewell letter sat on the table.

Beneath the letter was a hospital report.

Damon's gaze fell on it.

The next second, his breathing stopped.