Chapter 82

Alfred.

I could smell his familiar cologne—the expensive one I used to find so intoxicating. Now it just made me feel trapped.

"I will kill you if you don't release me!" I blurted out with as confident and threatening a tone as I could muster under the circumstances, forcing myself to gaze directly at him despite my fear. I needed him to believe I was capable of violence, even if we both knew it wasn't true.

"You wouldn't hurt a fly," Sebastian replied, a hint of the old fondness creeping into his voice. "It's one of the things I always loved about you—your gentleness."

"People change," I countered. "You're not the only one who's different now."

"Kill me?" Sebastian repeated, a strange smile spreading across his face. "Then do it, Alfred! Go ahead and end my suffering! Because I'm already completely dead inside without you in my life! My existence has been nothing but an empty shell since you left!"

His voice broke slightly as he continued with growing intensity, "Do you have any concept of how I feel right now, seeing you again after all this time? Do you have even the slightest idea how I felt before without you during all that unbearable time apart? Every single day was torture, every night an eternity of suffering with my relentless nightmares completely alone in that big empty house where everything reminded me of you!"

The raw pain in his voice was almost convincing—would have been convincing if I hadn't heard his rejection of me a year ago with my own ears. He suddenly ran his fingers through my hair with surprising gentleness, the tender gesture so at odds with our current situation that it momentarily confused me.

"Don't," I whispered, hating how my body automatically leaned into his touch before I could stop myself. "Don't pretend you care now."

But I forced myself to remain strong and resistant, mentally replaying his cruel words from our last night together to steel my resolve. I absolutely didn't want to forgive him easily after everything he put me through. He needed to understand that actions have consequences—even for Sebastian Evans.

"I've always cared," he said quietly. "More than you know."

"You have a strange way of showing it," I replied bitterly.

"Um, excuse me, but you seem to be forgetting something important here," I hollered angrily, my voice rising with each word. I was huffing with indignation, deliberately staring away from his intense gaze and throwing him a contemptuous smirk for good measure. "You are the one who completely rejected me when I poured my heart out to you! You made your choice very clearly that night, and it wasn't me!"

"Is that what you think happened?" Sebastian asked, looking genuinely surprised. "That I rejected you because I didn't care?"

"What else would you call it?" I demanded. "You chose your career over me. You chose your reputation. You made it absolutely clear what your priorities were."

"It wasn't that simple," he protested, running a hand through his hair in frustration. "There were factors you didn't understand."

"Then explain them to me," I challenged. "I'm right here. I quite literally can't leave."

I waited, watching a war of emotions play across his face.

"I didn't have any reasonable choice in the matter!" Sebastian exploded suddenly, his voice echoing off the walls of the bedroom. "Can't you understand that? I was completely forced to do what I did that night!"

He began pacing frantically around the room like a caged animal, gesturing wildly with his hands as he continued, "How could I possibly be with you openly and publicly while knowingly hurting my little brother in the process? The same brother who had secretly loved you deeply for years in painful silence while watching you fall for me instead! How could I do that to him?"

As he spoke, Sebastian abruptly pulled himself physically away from me as if he couldn't bear to be close anymore. He clutched at his hair with both hands, nearly pulling it out by the roots as he gazed away toward the window, his profile sharp against the moonlight streaming in.

"You broke my heart to spare Liam's feelings?" I asked incredulously. "That was your reason?"

"Family comes first," he said simply. "Always."

He looked so genuinely angry and deeply frustrated, so utterly confused and completely lost about what to do or what to say next. It was clear that his usually controlled, calculating mind was not in charge at this moment—his heart had clearly seized control, leading him to acts of desperation I never would have thought possible from the cool, collected Sebastian I once knew.

"You could have talked to me," I said quietly. "We could have figured something out together."

"There was nothing to figure out," he replied bitterly. "I had to choose, and I chose wrong."

"What do you mean?" I asked, something like hope flickering dangerously in my chest.

He just shook his head, unwilling or unable to elaborate further.

"And now, ironically, your precious brother has completely gotten over me without any trouble and is happily living his wonderful new life with a new love who seems perfect for him!" I exclaimed with deliberate cruelty, throwing Sebastian a mocking, triumphant grin designed specifically to hurt him as deeply as he had hurt me.

I was intentionally teasing him and deliberately trying to make him lose control of his carefully maintained composure and tightly wound nerves. After all, he had made me suffer intensely for an entire long, lonely year while he went on with his perfect political life; at the very least, this small revenge is exactly what he rightfully deserves for his callous treatment of my feelings.

"I saw how happy Liam looks with Daniel," I continued twisting the knife. "They're perfect together. Turns out he didn't need me after all."

"Stop it," Sebastian warned, his jaw tightening visibly.

"And guess what? I've moved on too! I have found a wonderful new love of my own!" I added with malicious satisfaction, watching his face darken with each word. "Jack truly understands me in ways you never bothered to try."

I knew I was playing a dangerous game, but I couldn't seem to stop myself. The year of pain demanded expression, and Sebastian's suffering was the only balm that seemed to soothe my own wounds.

"He's attentive and kind," I continued relentlessly. "And he would never put anything above my happiness—not family, not career, not anything."

Sebastian needs to understand once and for all that he can't simply get whatever or whoever he wants just by demanding it. The world doesn't work that way—even for Sebastian Evans.

"Jack is nothing but a poor substitute," Sebastian said dismissively, but I could see my words had hit their mark. "A placeholder until I came back for you."

"Is that what you told yourself?" I asked with mock sympathy. "That I was just waiting around for you to change your mind?"

He ground his teeth audibly, the sound sharp in the quiet room, and stepped menacingly closer to me again. His entire body was rigid with barely contained fury, his hands clenched into white-knuckled fists at his sides.

"Shut the f*ck up right this instant!" he roared, his composure finally shattering completely. "Don't you dare tell me you are in love with that French nobody ever again, or I swear to God I will hunt him down, kill him with my bare hands, and throw his worthless body deep inside the sea where no one will ever find it! Do you hear me clearly, Alfred?"

His threat was delivered with such cold, calculated precision that I had no doubt he meant every word. This wasn't an idle threat made in anger—this was a promise from a man with the resources and determination to make it happen.

Before I could respond, he suddenly cupped my jaw roughly with one hand, pressing painfully on my cheeks as he brought his face close to mine, hollering anxiously, "Answer me! Do you understand what I'm saying to you?"

His eyes were wild, almost unrecognizable, the sophisticated politician completely gone and replaced by something primal and dangerous. This was the Sebastian that others feared—the one I had always been protected from until now.

"Sebastian, you're hurting me," I gasped, the pressure on my jaw making it difficult to speak.

Something flickered in his eyes—awareness, perhaps—and he loosened his grip slightly but didn't let go entirely.

"Are you completely out of your mind?" I yelled back at him, finally finding my courage in the face of his threats. "Let me go right now, this instant! I don't want to be with you anymore! You broke my heart once, completely shattered it, and I won't give you the opportunity to do it again! I hate you for what you did to me!"

I punctuated my declaration by violently shaking my head right and left, trying desperately to make him release his hold on my face. I couldn't believe this was happening—that the man I had once loved so completely had transformed into this possessive, threatening stranger.

"You don't mean that," he said, his voice suddenly calm, which was somehow more frightening than his shouting. "You could never hate me, Alfred. Not really."

"Watch me," I spat back. "I've had a year to perfect the emotion."