Left to Die on His Island of Traitors

Elowen Vale's POV

By dusk, the rain was coming down in sheets.

Caspian Hale stepped off the ferry beneath a long-handled umbrella.

I hadn't seen him in a year. He'd lost a considerable amount of weight. There was an unhealthy pallor to his face, but he still carried himself with the same cool, almost aristocratic reserve.

"Elowen, your eyes?"

His brows drew together as he lifted a hand and waved it in front of my face.

The exiles had once poisoned me, leaving me blind.

But there must have been some medicinal plant growing wild on the island. I'd survived by eating whatever greenery I could find, and somehow, against all odds, my sight had returned.

After striking a verbal deal with Lucian Hale that day, he'd told me to go back to the island, keep pretending I was blind, and wait for word from him.

I had no idea how he'd managed it.

But sure enough, Caspian had come all the way to the island to take me back.

I kept my gaze fixed blankly ahead and followed him onto the boat with a smile. "It's alright. You came for me in the end. That's all that matters."

Caspian faltered mid-step. His lips parted as though he wanted to say something, but in the end, no words came.

I knew better than to call him out. I simply played along, following him quietly back to the Hale family's country estate.

The moment we entered the courtyard, my younger sister, Mara Vale, came hurrying toward us with a six-month-old baby in her arms.

"Caspian, what took you so long?" she complained. "The baby's been crying for you this whole time. What am I supposed to do with him?"

Without letting anything show on my face, I slowly curled my hands into fists.

So they even had a child together.

Caspian, apparently worried Mara might tire herself out, immediately took the baby from her. He changed the diaper, mixed a bottle, and fed the baby with the ease of someone who'd done it countless times before.

There was nothing left of the aloof, untouchable Caspian Hale the rest of the world knew.

He and Mara fussed over the baby for a while before she finally turned to me. Her expression crumpled on cue, and she even managed to squeeze out a couple of tears.

"Elowen, I heard you lost your sight?" She sighed, all false remorse. "It's my fault. If I hadn't been careless enough to get caught, Caspian wouldn't have had to expose you as the mole just to save me and throw his father off my trail."

Then, as if she'd only just realized what she'd let slip, she clapped a hand over her mouth. "Oh… Caspian hasn't told you yet, has he?"