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I didn’t know what I was doing here when my steps slowed as I rounded the corner, my body half behind a bookshelf when my eyes found her.

And it felt like I could breathe again.

Wearing a silky soft-gray dress that flowed like a dream around her body, she was leaping on her tiptoes to arrange a book, her skin flushed and her hair falling prettily over her frame, long and shiny to her hips.

Almost as if sensing my presence, she stilled, and her eyes flew to mine. There it was, the shine that gleamed only when she looked at me, but now it was also clouded with pain and hurt.

“What are you doing here?” she asked in a flat tone.

I don’t know, but I wanted to see you. I needed to see you. But instead of voicing my thoughts, I approached her. “I wanted to give this back. It must be important if you held onto it for this long,” I muttered, pulling out her emerald ring from my pocket. I had already taken out the chip and restored it for her, but it didn’t feel right for me to keep it.

Her frown softened as I dropped it into her palm. Her fingers caressed the ring before she slid it back onto her thumb. “Thank you,” she whispered with a small smile before she returned to arrange her books.

I sighed, my fingers threading through the back of my hair. I didn’t know what I was doing here. For the first time in my life, I felt completely out of my element. All I knew was that I wanted to see her.

“Bella,” I called out without thinking, and she turned to me, raising a brow.

“What, Arkane?” she asked, but still kept busy with the books.

“I know you’re angry with me.” I walked to her side and leaned my back against the shelf, my gaze fixed on hers. This close, I could tell from the redness around her eyes that she cried a lot. I didn’t like how my chest was reacting to that view. What the fuck was this woman doing to me? Maybe I should stay far away from her.

She shook her head, smiling. “I want to be, but I understand why you did what you did. I could’ve had the wrong intentions. If I were you, I wouldn’t have trusted me either.”

I swallowed. “I do trust you, though.” I did trust her. Somewhere along the way, I set aside the reason I brought her into my life and just wanted her to be with me.

“You made a fool out of me, Arkane.” Her voice broke, and it dug something deep in me. “You don’t do that to someone you trust.”

“I’m sorry,” I admitted, surprising myself. I’d never apologized to anyone in my life, only for it to come out so easily for her.

For a long moment, she didn’t say anything, her glazed eyes just looked right at me before she nodded. “Thank you.” And with that, she walked over to her desk. The farther she walked, the farther I felt the distance between us. And I didn’t like it.

She put on her reading glasses and opened a book, like I wasn’t even there.

Sighing, I dropped down in the seat opposite her. “Are you going to keep being like this?”

“Like what?” she muttered, sitting back in her chair, getting comfortable.

“Be this…” I searched for the right word. “Indifferent?”

“What else should I do?” she mumbled.

“I thought you said you loved me.” My gaze roved over every inch of her face. “You don’t look like a woman who loves me.”

She paused and lifted only her eyes to me. “I will only show my vulnerability and feelings for a man who will love me back. Yes, my heart still loves you, but I live in the present, and right now, you don’t love me, and there’s nothing I can do about it,” she said, returning her gaze to her book. “I simply want to read my book rather than engage in wasteful conversation with you. This is who I am, Arkane, who I’ve always been. Only you failed to see that.”

I hate the way she said my name like that. Detached. She always used to say it with a kind of softness that I adored. But it was true. If she were any other way, I wouldn’t be here right now.

“I don’t know what I’m doing here,” I said truthfully.

“Yes, I don’t know either. Thought you were a busy man,” she replied, not moving her eyes from the book.

A small smile curved my lips. “Can I stay?” My voice took a softer tone than intended.

She shrugged. “Do whatever you want.”

I thought she would be mad and rage at me, but she wasn’t even angry. She was right. She had always been this way, and only I didn’t see that. I knew now that if I had been honest with her, she would’ve still done the same thing and given me the codes, only this time with a smile rather than tears. But here we were, sitting at a crossroads.

My eyes fell to her lips, and I thought of the brief moment those pink lips touched mine. It took everything in me to hold back when all I wanted to do was pull her in and kiss her forever. I didn’t know one could yearn for a kiss, but right now, I did.