Chapter 65: All the Reasons Why

The hush lingered in the garden, cradling them in something tentative but real. Neither of them moved, not yet. Their hands remained joined, fingers laced in quiet defiance of all that had changed. Truth had been spoken. But the heart always carries more than one truth. Amelia shifted slightly, her eyes still on their intertwined hands, then slowly lifted her gaze to the garden ahead. “I’m not sure how someone like me fits into your world,” she said softly. “But there’s one thing I know for certain—a fact I can’t ignore.” Gray turned to her, quietly listening. “I got a phone call from a stranger,” she continued. “She asked to meet. I didn’t know who she was, didn’t even know what I was walking into. But I went. I met your Isabel, and she told me her brother had been looking for me be