Chapter 80 – Evelyne POV
How dare she.
How dare she push me away after everything—after I've scraped, begged, and reshaped parts of myself I thought long dead just to earn a fraction of her gaze.
She pulls away. Hides. Avoids me in corridors. In the gardens. In the quiet hours of morning where I once caught her looking at me like I was her sun.
She's trying to build walls again.
No.
Not this time.
"Stay here," I say to Frida, my voice clipped. My maid bows, but I don't wait.
My legs carry me forward, fast. Impatient. I'm still in her clothes—Frida's—a plain brown cloak that doesn't belong anywhere near the Duchess of Callum, but I don't care.
The trees rustle above me, caught in a soft breeze. The clearing is just ahead. I know she's there—she always is around this time. Fighting the wind, the dirt, the ghosts of whatever past life still clings to her bones.
I step past the last tree, into the open space where the stream glimmers pale and silver in the fading daylight.
