Evangeline’s heart plummeted. Instinctively, she glanced around in a panic.
People bustled through the airport, too preoccupied to notice anything amiss. A few who did glance their way simply mistook them for a bickering couple and looked away without a second thought.
Evangeline’s face flushed deep red. “Glenn, what are you doing? Put me down.”
Glenn’s gaze dropped to the faint bloodstains soaking through her shoe. “If I put you down now, do you really think you can walk?”
He knew her well. Evangeline hated showing weakness; even when something hurt like hell, she’d downplay it until it was nearly unbearable.
If she admitted her foot was hurt, it must already be so painful she couldn’t walk.
Evangeline almost insisted she was fine, but Glenn’s dark eyes were sharp, seeing right through her. She fell silent, the fight draining from her limbs.
Still, she squirmed, uncomfortable. “You really don’t have to go this far.”
Glenn’s voice was calm. “It’s not like I haven’t carried you before.”
Back when UME first started, they’d had to chase down investors and negotiate deals with other companies themselves. The business hires never lasted long–most couldn’t handle the pressure–and with money tight in those early days, it always came down to one of them facing the crowd.
Glenn was terrible with small talk, so Evangeline would step up.
Business dinners meant drinks, and since she was the only woman at the table, the men would “jokingly push her to drink more than anyone else.
One time, after Glenn finished up in the lab early and came to pick her up at the hotel, he found her slumped against a wall, too drunk to stand, surrounded by a few men with less–than–noble intentions:
He chased them off and tried to put her on his back, but she kept slipping, deadweight and unsteady, until finally he had no choice but to scoop her up in his
arms.
Evangeline had been completely wasted and didn’t remember any of it.
But they’d known each other since they were kids, back when gender didn’t matter and he’d carried her around more times than he could count.
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She pressed her lips together. “It’s different now. I’m worried someone might take at picture.”
Glenn’s brow twitched. “Are you worried Soren might see? Or is it the Fawkes family you’re afraid of?”
Evangeline’s lips tightened even further.
If it were anyone else, she’d have thought they were mocking her. But Glenn’s tone was sincere, and his eyes held nothing but concern.
He really didn’t know what her marriage had become.
Soren didn’t care about her. Why would he care about who she spent time with? And the Fawkes family–sure, they’d made snide remarks at first, but when they realized it was their own son fueling the gossip, they simply turned a blind eye.
Now, with her divorce from Soren looming, neither he nor the Fawkes family would care at all.
After a moment, Evangeline shook her head, her voice honest. “It’s just… my reputation in Serenity City isn’t great. You’ve been living abroad, so maybe you haven’t heard what people say about me here.”
“I know,” Glenn said, without hesitation. “I’ve heard all of it.”
Evangeline blinked, surprised. “And you don’t care?”
They’d known each other almost their whole lives, but five years was a long time. She couldn’t help but wonder if he’d changed.
After all, the difference between them was so vast. If Glenn decided he was ashamed of her–if he laughed, or just dumped her right here and caught the next flight back overseas–she wouldn’t blame him.
Glenn stopped walking and looked down at her.
He wanted to scold her for overthinking, like he used to, but something about the fragile fear in her eyes made him pause. Her amber gaze shimmered, lashes trembling, like a startled butterfly.
He swallowed the words and instead said softly, firmly, “If I cared, I wouldn’t be standing here with you now.”
“Evangeline, I’ve known you longer than any of them. I chose you then, and no matter what anyone else says, I’ll keep choosing you.”
Maybe it had just been too long since she’d heard something like that. For al
Chapter 50
moment, Evangeline felt like she was dreaming, her mind blank and her nose stinging with the threat of tears.
She hadn’t cried when her mother died, or when her father remarried and threw her
out of the house.
She hadn’t cried when Soren, disgusted by their arranged marriage, publicly flaunted
his affairs to shame her.
She hadn’t cried when Helena and Flora deliberately froze her out, when the Fawkes family treated her like hired help.
But now, tears overflowed and streamed silently down her cheeks.
For the first time in years, someone had chosen her–without hesitation or condition.
Glenn looked startled. “Are you… crying?”
Embarrassed, Evangeline blinked hard, tilting her head up and forcing a shaky laugh. “No, it’s just–the wind’s too strong. Got something in my eye.”
Chapter 51
