Evelyn stayed in the doorway long after the sound of the engine had faded, not because she was frozen, but because she couldn’t make herself move. Her body felt heavy, as if the villa itself was holding her in place. She should have been angry. She should have hated him. She should have turned and walked away, screamed, or even let herself collapse in the sand.
But she couldn’t.
Her mind kept drifting back to him...but not as the man who had revealed his plan, not as the man who had married her as a pawn in his game of revenge. But the Maximilian she had seen in those small moments, the one she had trusted and loved, the one who had held her like she was fragile and irreplaceable.
She remembered the way he had looked at her the morning of their wedding, the slight curve of his lips when
