Chapter 81 Are You In Love With Him?
Evelyn’s POV
The moment Lorenzo walked away, loneliness crept in, slow and suffocating.
The music felt louder. The lights brighter. The crowd closer.
I stood there for a few seconds longer than necessary, my fingers still curled like his hand was somehow still holding mine. My heart hadn’t slowed. If anything, it beats harder now, uneven, confused and too full.
I exhaled slowly and turned toward the crowd, forcing my shoulders to relax. People smiled at me as they passed, bowed slightly, whispered my name like it was something sacred. I smiled back because that was what I was supposed to do.
I moved toward the edge of the dance floor, needing space and air.
That was when I felt it.
That familiar weight in the air. The awareness of being watched.
I didn’t need to turn around to know who it was.
“Nolan,” I said quietly.
He stepped into my line of sight, already dressed in anger he hadn’t bothered to hide. His jaw was tight, eyes dark, hands clenched at his sides like he was holding himself back from something reckless.
“You look….. comfortable,” he said flatly.
I swallowed, my eyes darting around. “It’s a party.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
The music shifted again, slower this time, something smooth and heavy with emotion. Couples drifted closer, bodies swaying, laughter spilling into the night.
Nolan held out his hand. “Dance with me.”
I hesitated. “I don’t think….”
“It’s just a dance,” he repeated, sharper now. “Unless you’re only allowed to dance with him.”
That stung more than I expected.
I placed my hand in his.
The moment he pulled me closer, I felt the tension in him, tight, coiled, and dangerous. His hand settled at my waist, firm and possessive, it was nothing like Lorenzo’s grounding touch.
We moved with the music, slow and controlled. Nolan didn’t look away from my face, not even for once.
“I’ve been watching you all night,” he said.
My chest tightened. “You shouldn’t have.”
“But I did.” His grip tightened slightly. “Every step. Every smile. Every time you looked at him like the world had narrowed to just the two of you.”
I looked away. “Nolan, please.”
“What is going on between you and him?” he demanded.
My throat knotted with force, like it was trying so hard to digest the question. “I don’t know what you mean.”
His laugh came out short and humorless. “Don’t insult me, Eve.”
My throat burned. “It’s complicated.”
“That’s not an answer.”
We turned with the music, my back briefly facing the crowd. His voice dropped lower, angrier.
“Are you sleeping with him?”
My eyes widened. “What?! No!”
Nolan’s face didn’t soften. If anything, it hardened more, disbelief written clearly across his features. I didn’t need him to say a word, I could already tell what was running through his mind.
No sensible person would hear my answer and not think I was pathetic.
How was I supposed to explain it? How do you make someone believe that two grown, fully aware adults could share the same room, the same space and still insist that nothing happened?
Nolan broke my silence, his head arched to meet my gaze before he gave me the toughest question that I never expected.
“Are you in love with him?”
I froze.
The music kept playing. The crowd kept dancing. But inside me, everything stopped.
“I didn’t say that,” I whispered.
“But you didn’t say no.”
I pulled back slightly, but his hand tightened, stopping me.
“Look at me,” he said.
And I did immediately.
His eyes were blazing now. Hurt, anger, jealousy, all of it tangled together.
“Talk to me, Eve.” He snapped. “Or I will lose my patience.”
Something in his tone cracked something open in me.
“I didn’t plan this,” I said softly. “None of it. I didn’t wake up one morning and decide to feel anything. It just….. happened.”
His jaw clenched. “So it’s true? Out of every man on earth, you choose him?”
I shook my head, tears stinging my eyes. “I don’t even understand it myself.”
“Do you even know what you are doing?” he asked again, slower this time. “Falling for him?.”
The answer rose in a way that I couldn’t explain.
“I think…..” My voice trembled. “I think I do.”
Nolan stopped moving instantly.
The music carried on, couples swaying around us, but he stood there like stone, staring at me like I had just shattered something sacred in him.
“So that’s it,” he said quietly. “You were never going to consider me.”
“That’s not fair,” I whispered.
He laughed again, but this time it sounded broken. “Not fair? I’ve been here. I’ve been choosing you. Watching you. Waiting. And you…..?” He shook his head. “You fall for him instead.”
I felt tears slip free. “You don’t understand.”
“Then make me understand,” he snapped. “Why him?”
The answer flashed in my head without permission. Because he makes me feel safe even when I should be scared of him.
But something else came out of my mouth. “Because loving you is a taboo.”
His brows furrowed. “What?”
“We’re not supposed to feel this way, Nolan,” I said, my voice breaking. “We’re siblings. That’s all we’re allowed to be. That’s all the world will ever let us be.”
Silence fell between us again.
Nolan stared at me like he was seeing me for the first time.
“Siblings,” he repeated slowly.
“Yes.”
“There is just a thin line holding us as siblings, Eve,” he said bitterly, “all this narrative can stop if only you say yes and choose to stand beside me and stop building something unreal for him.”
“I didn’t choose it,” I cried. “I swear I didn’t. I fought it. I still am.”
He stepped back suddenly, releasing me like my touch burned.
“So what now?” he asked coldly. “You are beginning to feel something for him, while he keeps treating you like you don’t even matter.”
“Eve, does he feel the same thing for you?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “But that shouldn’t be a problem for now. I don’t expect him to like me all of a sudden.”
He ran a hand through his hair, pacing once before stopping in front of me again.
“Have you asked yourself what would happen if things didn’t go as you wanted?”
“How did you get here? You are supposed to be running from him.” He twisted the corner of his lips in disgust. “But here you are talking about falling for him.”
“Eve…..this man made you an orphan.”
My eyes burned with tears, I shut them fighting to push away the ugly memories of the very day I watched Lorenzo burn my family.
Nolan continued. “Have you….you thought of…..”
“Stop it!” I yelled, not minding if I was going to draw attention.
Nolan’s face hardened completely. Whatever softness he had left vanished.
He went silent watching me fight for the tiniest air, tears streaming down my face as I clutched on the hem of my dress like my life depended on it.
“Fine,” he said flatly. “But don’t look for me when that part destroys the rest of you.”
He turned away.
“Nolan….”
He didn’t stop.
He walked through the crowd, shoulders rigid, disappearing into the lights and music like I had never mattered at all.
I stood there alone, my chest aching, the night suddenly too heavy to breathe in.