Chapter 263

His voice, deep and intoxicating, whispered against her ear before settling heavily in her chest.

Evelyn hadn't anticipated Alexander asking such a question.

Shock flickered across her face, but she remained composed. "Alexander, do you even realize what you're saying?"

"Of course I do." His tone dropped lower, wrapping around her like silk.

"I'm marrying Sebastian soon. Why would I have feelings for you?" Her voice was ice as she pushed him away.

But Alexander caught her wrist before she could retreat.

"Then why were you searching for me in the hospital last night? Why tell me you were worried?" His dark eyes burned into hers, his pulse betraying him. "You don’t love my uncle. I can see it."

Even knowing she wasn’t her, he couldn’t ignore the face identical to the one he’d lost. The face of the woman who still haunted him.

Evelyn was Evelyn. No one could replace her. And yet, here she stood—alive, breathing, and hating him.

After a weighted silence, Evelyn inhaled sharply. She lifted her gaze, meeting his head-on.

"Mr. Blackwood, you’re an extraordinary man. But I could never love someone who treated his wife the way you did."

The fire in her eyes wasn’t just anger—it was vengeance.

"I may look like her, but I won’t make her mistakes."

She wouldn’t.

She wouldn’t let herself fall for his lies again.

She had clawed her way back from death for one purpose: to ruin him. Not to ruin herself a second time.

Alexander chuckled darkly. "Do you even know what choices she made?" He released her, turning away, his voice hollow. "No one else could endure what she did."

No one else could love me like she did. No one else could haunt me every night the way she does.

Evelyn didn’t understand. She didn’t ask. She only saw the devastation in his posture.

Her lips curled coldly.

Good.

Her act was working. He thought she cared.

Perfect.

Just as she parted her lips to speak—

"Eve!"

Olivia’s voice cut through the tension.

Evelyn turned to see Olivia and Nathaniel rushing toward her.

Why were they here?

"Unbelievable," Evelyn muttered under her breath, feigning irritation.

Olivia reached her, breathless. "Eve, I don’t know what’s wrong with you—if you’ve lost your memory or what—but you cannot stay with this monster!" She jabbed a finger at Alexander, her voice trembling with fury.

"If you’ve forgotten, let me remind you exactly what kind of man he is!"

Her words were daggers, each one carving deeper into Evelyn’s heart.

"He humiliated you, destroyed your reputation, all to please Victoria! He hurt you until you were broken! He denied his own child, called the baby a bastard, and killed it with his own hands!"

Olivia’s eyes glistened with tears.

"Eve, please. Don’t make the same mistake again. Come with me. Now."

The pain was unbearable.

But Evelyn didn’t flinch.

She wouldn’t.