Chapter 53

He stared at her, suspicion and surprise etched across his face. “What do you mean you didn’t receive it? I sent it directly to you.”

She shrugged, a weary look crossing her face. “Maybe it never made it to me. Maybe the girl you gave it to tore it up. I don’t know. But I never saw it.”

He looked away, processing her words, his face betraying a rare vulnerability, as if he were realizing what might have been. A faint trace of regret crossed his features, as though he’d lost a chance he’d never get back.

“Then tell me,” he said, his voice breaking the silence. He looked back at her, his eyes almost pleading. “If the letter had reached you—would you have said yes? Would you have married me?”

She exhaled sharply, a scornful smile tugging at the corner of her lips. She ignored his question, refusing to indulge him. But he pressed on, a spark of desperation in his tone.

“Don’t ignore me. Tell me, once and for all. If you’d known, would you have agreed? Would you have been willing to marry