“Then speak.” He descended one step. Then another. The air thickened with cedar and the memory of his hands on her skin. “You owe me that much.”

“You’re not going anywhere,” he said quietly. And when he closed the distance between them, his kiss was not gentle—it was a claiming. A question. A vow rewritten.

Julian stopped three feet away. Rain tapped against the leaded glass windows. “Loving someone means trusting them. You didn’t trust me with your leaving. Why should I believe you with your return?”

Instead, what came out was: “I never stopped loving you.”

She should start with the truth about that night. The threat her family received. The forged documents that made it look like Julian had betrayed her trust fund. The real enemy—her own cousin—who still walked free.