He tried to bribe me

Evelyn’s POV

The noise of the banquet faded the moment he said it.

“Yes.”

His tone carried that usual arrogance, natural in a way I was used to, but underneath it I caught something else—desperation. And that, more than his words, unsettled me.

I leaned back in my chair, crossing my arms across my chest as though I could shield myself from the intensity of his stare. I smiled.

“Wyatt,” I said slowly, deliberately, “you’re ruining the fun by saying that.”

For the briefest heartbeat, the expression on his face faltered. I thought I saw a hurt flash in his eyes. The kind you don’t expect from someone like him. But just as quickly, it was gone, replaced with hardness.

Wyatt was always proud, always arrogant, but this—this new version of him—felt different. Before he was full of arrogance, coupled with rough pride. Now there was something different in him, a part no one else knew about him.

Wyatt straightened in his seat, his shoulders tightening, his jaw clenching. I could see irritation build up in his face.

“If you keep acting like this, Evelyn,” his voice was impatient, “how do you expect me to help you? You know I’m well connected. I’ve got people. I’ve got ties to individuals in places higher than you can imagine.”

I arched my brow. Help me? That was his goal? Have me beg for his help?

But he wasn’t finished.

Wyatt gestured to the man seated beside him, his hand finding the man’s shoulder in a gesture that looked both casual and possessive.

“Take Ben, for example. Do you have any idea who he is? He’s not just anyone—he’s my childhood brother. “

He paused then continued “ He is someone people fight to meet, someone people chase for favors. People like him don’t just fall from the sky, Evelyn. You don’t walk into circles like his without someone like me paving the way.”

Ben.

The name rang in my head, unfamiliar yet oddly strange, his presence was something that deeply conflicted me. My gaze flicked toward him briefly, but the weight of Wyatt’s words dragged me back before I could linger.

I tilted my chin, and said sarcastically “Now you are threatening me with your connections and social influence?”

The atmosphere grew tense.

Wyatt’s nostrils flared, his eyes darkening as he leaned closer. He seemed unsure how he’d respond to it.

As such, he lowered his voice so that only I could hear…

“You also don’t want Grandma to be sad, do you?”

The words hit like a blow I hadn’t braced for.

Grandma.

The one person who had stood by me when no one else had. The woman who had whispered comfort into my ear when the world wanted to shut me out. She wasn’t my blood, but she had fought harder for me than many who were.

She was the only one who had treated me like her own.

My throat tightened. I didn’t want to hurt her. Not her. Never her.

A long silence stretched between us while my mind raced.

At last, I exhaled  “I’d like to head home now,” I said, keeping my tone flat. Then, after a pause, I added, “Will you walk me?”

His entire face lit up, like a blind man who had seen light for the first time, though he tried to bury the glow under his stern face. His shoulders eased, tension draining away as if my words had been exactly what he wanted to hear all night.

“Of course,” he said quickly,  “Let’s go.”

He stood, and walked with me. His presence loomed heavy at my side, pressing into me, not suffocating but close enough to smell his scent.

But it wasn’t Wyatt who set my pulse into chaos.

It was the other man.

Ben.

Even as I avoided looking at him directly, I could feel it—his gaze trailing after me, striking me at the back of my neck like a sharp knife. I felt his gaze burning holes onto my back.

The room seemed empty under the intensity of that stare.

At the doorway, I faltered,

Had I offended him somehow?

Why does he look at me like that?

Confused, I stepped forward, with Wyatt at my side, even as the weight of Ben’s gaze lingered behind me, refusing to look fade.