Chapter 5: Why Are You Hiding From Me?

Evelyn's Point of View

I let out a breath, and the color slowly came back into my face. "Could you get me something to wear?"

Sebastian nodded toward a paper bag that had come in with the breakfast. "Want me to dress you?" He hooked a finger under my chin and tilted my face up, his gaze burning into mine.

"No."

His eyes narrowed, and I rushed to fix it. "Have you eaten yet? Go ahead and eat. I'll change on my own."

"Is my Evie worried about me?" He smiled, then pressed his mouth to mine in a long, deep kiss before releasing me.

I nodded hard. My heart was in my throat, and it was pure fear.

"Husband and wife, and still so shy." He drew his hand back. "Fine, have it your way. Get dressed like a good girl. I'll be waiting downstairs."

My grip tightened on the paper bag.

My eyes fell to the bed. The white sheets still bore the marks of the night, a reminder that I was no longer untouched.

But there was no blood. Wait. No blood?

His accusation echoed in my head: Evelyn, you slept with me. My thoughts scrambled into a knot.

When I came downstairs in the new clothes, surprise flickered across Sebastian's face. It didn't stop him from settling his accounts. "Tell me. Why are you hiding from me?"

He sat on the sofa with one leg crossed over the other, watching me. His eyes were black as obsidian, and a faint, unreadable smile hung on his lips, sharp beneath the amusement.

My mind blanked for a second. "I don't know you," I said, wounded. "I haven't been hiding from anyone."

Is this man insane? A moment ago he had been tender, and now he was interrogating me.

"Good. Very good." His smile gave nothing away, but the chill in his eyes deepened. "I've been too lenient, haven't I? Lenient enough that you had the nerve to fake your death and stay hidden for three years."

Three years?

“My little girl had grown up, grown wings, and grown a harder heart.” He smiled sadly which made me more confused.

"I don't know what you're talking about." I frowned. "You have the wrong person."

His expression went glacial. "Three years ago, you faked your death for Julian. Now you pretend not to know me, to protect him."

Something flickered across his face, a flash of old pain that vanished almost before I saw it. His jaw tightened. For a moment he looked like a man who had been hurt very badly, and that frightened me more than his anger did.

I swore up and down that I'd never met him, never heard of any three years ago. It felt like talking to a wall. Whatever I said, he had already decided what the truth was. This obsessive man isn't listening to a word.

He watched me, and I watched him. We were both completely serious, and we were talking about two entirely different things.

"You went to such lengths for Julian." He smirked coldly, tapping one finger against the table, one brow raised. "Let's see whether Evelyn Hart, with a dead woman's name, can still live happily ever after with him."

My frown deepened, and my instincts screamed that something was wrong. "What do you mean by that?"

He tossed a newspaper onto the table in front of me, and his voice was cold as a blade. "Read it yourself."

I picked it up and glanced at it once. The color drained from my face.

The headline read: "Ashford Group CEO's Fiancée Dies Suddenly of Illness En Route to Wedding."

I'm dead?

"You did this." I stared at him, anger rising in my eyes. "Why?"

"Don't rush to convict me. Keep reading." Sebastian's voice was cold, with something meaningful underneath. "Wouldn't want you hating the wrong person."

I read on. My face went pale, almost transparent. The paper slipped from my fingers, and I stumbled back a step.

"That's impossible. Why would Chesca be engaged to Julian...?" I shook my head, trembling like a leaf in the wind, ready to fall.

"Your best friend and your fiancé got together behind your back, and to get their engagement through, they were willing to team up and kill you." Sebastian lowered his eyes to me and poured fuel on the fire. "Looks like you trusted the wrong people."

"You..." I looked at him and found I couldn't argue.

Whether I accepted it or not, he was right. Officially, I was a dead woman.

"Evelyn, if it weren't for me, you'd be a corpse right now, eyes still open." He lifted his chin, as if granting a favor. "Beg me, and I might consider taking you back."

"No." I didn't even think. I turned and ran for the door.

He didn't stop me. A flicker of pain crossed his dark eyes, gone almost before I saw it.

My fingers closed on the handle. No matter how hard I pulled, it wouldn't budge.

Before I could turn and look for another way out, he caught me around the waist from behind, furious.

"He doesn't even want you, and you still want to run back to him." He laughed coldly, his words cutting, as if mocking me was the only way to hide how deeply he was hurt.

"No. Julian wouldn't." I shook my head. "Something must have happened. Wait... it was you, Sebastian. All of this is your doing."

***

Third Person's Point of View

Ashford Manor.

Julian slammed the newspaper onto the desk in his father's study. "Dad, what is this?"

Chesca hurried in behind him, trying to hold him back. "Julian, don't. Let's talk this through calmly."

Richard Ashford looked at his son, anger rising in his eyes. "Is that how you speak to your father?"

Julian's bloodshot eyes locked on him. "Evelyn was kidnapped. Why announce that she died?"

"So she could come back alive," Richard said.

"And spreading word of an Ashford–Whitmore engagement? Was that for Evelyn too?" Julian didn't give an inch, his eyes blazing.

He had always known his mother favored Chesca as a daughter-in-law. He never imagined she'd move at the very moment Evelyn was taken.

Richard slammed his hand down. "Would you rather announce to the world that the bride was seized and the groom still hasn't found a single hair of the kidnappers?"

"I will find her," Julian said, his voice iron. "The only woman I will ever marry is Evelyn."

"It isn't like that, Julian. You know how the press twists things." Chesca's voice was soft and quick. "Evelyn is my best friend. I would never steal her place."

"I hope that's true." His gaze darkened with a warning.

Chesca's heart skipped.