Then, just as carefully, he removed his glasses and placed them atop the paper.
Every movement was intentional.
Finally, his gaze lifted to mine.
And something inside me went still.
Because whatever warmth I had once remembered from the boy I’d met in that cave eighteen years ago—the boy I’d spent fourteen hours with—was gone.
Completely.
“Vin...” My voice trembled, sharp and raw as I took a hesitant step forward, bare feet whispering against the polished wood. “Did you... try to kill me?”
A flicker—barely there—crossed his expression.
He leaned back slightly, studying me in silence.
My fists clenched at my sides.
“I—I don’t understand!” I forced the words out, trembling but rising in intensity.
“You knew how deadly allergic I am to peach, and you kissed me anyway, your lips carrying it! Why... why would you want me dead? I’ve done nothing to you—I never asked for this marriage, and yet here I am, at your mercy!”
Silence.
That same suffocating, infuriating silence.
My pulse pounded louder.
“Answer me, Vincenzo,” my voice broke.
“Why? What have I ever done to you? Why... why would you abandon your own bride just to marry me?”
I took another step forward, anger overtaking the fear.
“Do you even know what I’ve carried all these years? I never stopped thinking about you. Eighteen years, Vin. Eighteen years wondering where you were, if you were safe, if the world had been kind to you. I searched for you. I prayed for you. I never once forgot you.”
My voice broke. “And now... now that we finally meet again, you do this? You kiss me with peach on your lips—knowing whatit could do to me? Tell me, Vin... why? Was it power? Revenge? Or... is this who you’ve become?”
My chest tightened painfully.
Still nothing.
Not a word.
Not even a shift in his expression.
My hands trembled.
“Sit.” His voice finally cut through the silence.
He leaned forward, forearms resting on his thighs, fingers steepled, eyes locking onto mine with that dark intensity.
I didn’t move.
My legs refused.
I needed answers—why he had married me out of nowhere, why he had kissed me with peach on his lips, why he had almost killed me.
