"You are an amazing woman; I want you to know that." He was complimenting me, and there was no way I could break the crooked smile that escaped my lips; he was caressing my face and looking at me so intently as if he were appreciating me. "I am a grateful man that you came into my life and Arthur's."
"I'm the one who's grateful to meet you; I'll always fight for you; I love you both. Your baby and you, Mr. Ward." I confessed, and he smiled before bringing his lips to mine in a deep kiss. I was still hanging in his arms, my feet not even touching the floor. Having him kiss me was such perfection, as if all the planets in my solar system were lining up. The feel of his mouth on mine felt so good that it was impossible not to get emotional at that moment, but I had to pull my mouth away from him and ask the most important question.
We'd talked about why he'd left like that without explaining it to me first, and I'd understood. How could I expect him to explain to me when he was really so busy in London because of Arthur? He had really explained everything to me and I understood that he couldn't avoid those misfortunes, but that didn't say that everything was talking between us. I pulled away slightly from his kiss and he realized it, put my feet on the ground without ceasing to hug me. "What do you have to say about Evy?"
I finally asked what had been eating away at me for weeks, obviously I hadn't forgotten about Evy, the girl who had worked at the Ward's manor for some time until she left in tears one night claiming that she had been disrespected by the lord of the castle , according tohouse maids, Evy was a cheerful and dreamy girl as much as I was, but Garrett Ward showed intentions with her even though his wife was pregnant at the time, Evy ended up leaving looking like she was totally destroyed, she didn't tell anyone what had happened but the maidsfrom the castle they said it was clear that the boss had tried something with her in one of the castle's stone rooms. Now looking at Garrett who slightly screwed up his face in confusion completely not remembering the name, that could only say two things: either he was an insensitive who didn't remember the names of his victims or he really didn't know what I was talking about.
"Who?" He asked.
"Evy was a girl who worked in the castle while your wife was pregnant, I didn't know her, but I heard rumors that she left totally destroyed. Did you try something with her by any chance?" I really wasn't afraid to ask him that, it's okay that I was docile and peaceful most of the time, but when it came to serious matters I treated it how it should be treated.
"What do you mean try something with her?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.
"You know what I'm talking about, Mr. Ward." At that moment he released his arms from around my back and walked away, there was a surprised and shocked expression on his face.
"Are you implying that I happened to abuse her?" He asked being direct too, my lack of response was the answer he needed. "I do not believe that." He gave a dry, humorless laugh and ran a hand through his hair. "Did you come to that conclusion because you thought I took advantage of you too?"
"Don't ask as if I had no basis for what I ended up thinking about you. What did you want me to think after waking up in your bed after the night we had where I gave myself body and soul to you, for the day next wake up and see that you just walked away. It was like you didn't have any respect for me, for God's sake, we hadn't even talked about anything!"
"So that's how it is, Lily? You make love to a man one night and the next day you wake up thinking he was nothing more than a freeloader just because you heard rumors from others? Don't you think you're being too hard on me?"
I looked at the floor with those words, I was unresponsive and not knowing what to think. Was I being childish this whole time thinking the worst of him before I even talked to him? I collapsed on the bed sitting looking at the floor lost, I had really listened to those castle cooks because I thought they knew Garrett Ward better than I did, but could it be that I've been totally wrong this whole time?
"About Evy, she was really abused back then. But it wasn't by me, for God's sake! I'm still in shock and disappointed in myself for giving you reason to think I could be that kind of person. Felicity and I resolved the situation, we fired the bad character guard who abused the girl and handed him over to the competent authorities, until today Evy has received financial and psychological support from the Wards because, like it or not, the thing happened inside my lands and I always I will have a faultin what happened. Try as we might, there are things that are impossible to avoid. How would I know that the guard hired by me through one of the best security agencies in the kingdom, how would I know he was nothing but a big bad character?"
I was silent, listening to everything he explained. According to him, all that was just a misunderstanding. He wasn't to blame for what had happened to Evyy; all that was gossip from the castle maids. I also remembered that Magdalena told me that because Garrett was a very closed man with an arrogant speech, people often thought the worst of him, but that in fact it was none of those things. Seeing it now, maybe the castle's maids and people who only knew him lightly thought that maybe he was the worst person just because they didn't know him well. But now that Garrett was letting me know who he really was—a man like any other who was trying to deal with big problems all the time while the whole world judged him and always expected the worst of him just because he was rich and powerful—I could understand that. Know how much he suffered because of it, how much public opinion would always massacre him just because he was born the way he was. And wasn't I myself thinking the worst of him for what had happened between us?
"I'm so sorry about all of this…"
"You don't need to apologize, I can understand you perfectly. You have no idea how much it hurts me to know that you thought these things about me, I'm the only one to blame for everything, mine is such a mess that I didn't have no time to court you properly. Everything is going so wrong between the two of us, I need to reverse this, I need to start showing you how much I really care about you, I need to start showing how pure my intentions are for you, Lily."