Chapter 300
Evelyn Carter had always possessed an enviable figure—her slender waist and graceful posture were the results of years spent accompanying her best friend Claire Dawson to ballet classes during their school days.
Though she never pursued dance professionally, those lessons gifted her with remarkable flexibility and poise that made her stand out effortlessly in any crowd.
Ethan Caldwell first noticed Evelyn during her late teens.
Back then, during study sessions at the library, hushed conversations among the boys often drifted toward the girls in their year.
Discussions about who was the most beautiful, who had the sweetest smile, or who carried themselves with the most elegance always circled back to one name—Evelyn Carter.
The boys couldn’t help but marvel at her long, toned legs, the kind that seemed sculpted rather than born.
Her proportions were the kind most guys secretly admired—slim yet undeniably feminine, with curves in all the right places.
At the time, Ethan didn’t know her name.
He hadn’t yet become the man who would one day save her.
But he remembered her—the girl with legs that seemed to go on forever, and eyes so clear they could strip away every lie with a single glance.
That fateful night in the restroom, when Ethan Caldwell rescued Evelyn Carter, was the moment her name finally clicked with her face in his mind.
It was a connection that seared itself into his memory, impossible to forget.
From then on, Evelyn invaded Ethan’s dreams relentlessly for an entire month.
The fantasies were vivid, intoxicating—and left him burning with shame every morning when he woke to find the sheets damp with proof of his desires.
Ethan had to admit it—he had wanted Evelyn for a long time.
Yet, during the seven years she pursued him, he never acted on those feelings.
Partly because her gaze was so innocent, so pure, that touching her felt like defiling something sacred.
And partly because he simply couldn’t bring himself to do it.
He was unwilling.
It was that simple.
But with Vanessa Hart, he never hesitated.
Their first time happened just a month after Evelyn was imprisoned.
That night, Vanessa called him, her voice trembling with tears as she whispered into the phone...
The memories haunted her.
Every time Evelyn closed her eyes, she saw those men—their rough hands, their cruel laughter—and the question that had shattered her: Would he still want you now?
Ethan Caldwell stayed with her that night, offering comfort in the only way he knew how.
They drank.
Ethan could usually hold his liquor, but that evening, barely half a glass in, the world blurred.
When he woke, the first thing he noticed was the unfamiliar ceiling of a hotel room.
The second was Vanessa Hart beside him.
Her first words cut through the fog of his confusion.
"Ethan, I knew you felt the same way about me. Last night… we…"
His gaze dropped to the sheets.
A dark stain stood out against the white fabric.
"It was my first time," Vanessa whispered.
It had been his too—though he remembered none of it.
The entire night was a blank, as if someone had taken an eraser to his mind.
But the proof was undeniable.
He couldn’t pretend it hadn’t happened just because his memory failed him.
Before that night, Ethan had never thought of Vanessa as anything more than his stepsister.
Everything changed after.
Now, hearing Evelyn say she was satisfied with Alexander in bed—
It carved something out of him.
Left him hollow.
The silence between them was suffocating.
Ethan Caldwell clenched his fists, his pride wounded. He wanted to snap back, to prove he wasn’t inadequate—but the words died in his throat.
Because he realized the bitter truth.
He didn’t even have the right to argue with Evelyn Carter anymore.
Not after everything.
The weight of that realization settled heavily in his chest, leaving him hollow.
Evelyn’s gaze was distant, as if she had already moved beyond him.
And maybe she had.
The thought twisted inside him, sharp and unrelenting.
He had lost her.
Not just her love.
But the right to stand before her as anything at all.