Maximilian stood just beyond the divider, fingers resting lightly against the edge as he leaned to look inside. Catherine had already fallen asleep, her breathing slow and even, Arcturus curled faithfully at her side like a silent guardian.
In sleep, her face was softer, unguarded in a way he rarely saw when she was awake. For a fleeting mont, he allowed himself to watch her, morizing the peace he had taken from her once.
Should I have told her the truth?
His hand lifted, fingers dragging through his hair in quiet frustration. Every ti she said never, it felt like a blade driven deeper into him. What if the truth could change that? What if the mories she had lost could return, if only he gave her the chance? Or would that only wound her further, reopening scars she had sohow managed to survive?
His phone rang.
The sound shattered the fragile stillness, and he nearly flinched. At this hour? The na on the screen made him blink in surprise: Sebastian. He answered imdiately, stepping into the kitchen and lowering his voice so as not to wake her.
"Max... I... I slept with soone," Sebastian said.
Maximilian stared at his phone as if it had personally betrayed him. For a second, he wondered if he had misheard or was talking to a different person. There were very few things in this world he considered impossible, but this felt dangerously close to one of them.
"...Pardon?" he asked carefully.
"I slept with Bernice."
Maximilian’s mind went blank.
"What?" The whisper ca out sharper than intended. Catherine was fiercely protective of Bernice, and had entrusted her to Sebastian, and... this was what he had done with that trust?
"Catherine is going to kill you," Maximilian muttered under his breath, already imagining the aftermath. "H-how did that even happen? Why?"
"It... it just happened," Sebastian said.
Maximilian pinched the bridge of his nose, incredulous. "How does that ’just’ happen?" he demanded. Nothing about sex ever simply "just happened."
If it did, he and Catherine would be...
On the other end, Sebastian chuckled—soft, almost disbelieving. "Max... I’m so happy. I don’t know what to do."
Maximilian stilled.
"You have a fiancée," he reminded him, because surely that detail had not slipped Sebastian’s mind.
"Right..." Sebastian replied, far too casually. "I’ll handle that."
"Do you understand how serious this is?" Maximilian pressed, his voice low and urgent. "It’s an arrangent between families. You don’t just walk away from sothing like that."
Sebastian laughed again, but there was sothing new in it, sothing light, sothing unburdened. "Max... I’m so happy. I can’t explain it. I feel... content. Like I’m complete. She’s the one. I found my one."
The words stopped Maximilian cold.
He had been ready to argue, to warn, to scold, but the quiet conviction in Sebastian’s voice stole the fight from him. He understood that feeling. Finding the one did that to a man. It shifted the ground beneath his feet and rewrote the rules he had lived by.
The one.
A thought stirred, slow and heavy.
In their previous life, Sebastian had been Catherine’s knight. Bernice had been her lady-in-waiting. They had walked beside each other through everything; through loyalty, danger, and quiet, unseen monts. It was not impossible that sothing had grown between them back then, sothing neither of them had nad.
Had Catherine known? Had she left Bernice with Sebastian because, sowhere deep in her heart, or in her mories, she trusted that bond? She must have known sothing.
His gaze drifted back toward the divider, toward the woman sleeping on the other side.
"You should talk to her, Sebastian," Maximilian said at last, his voice gentler now. "No matter what happens, don’t let her go if she makes you happy."
"I’m happy, Max," Sebastian said softly. "Happier than when you told you considered a friend. I’ve never felt like this before."
Maximilian’s chest tightened at that, but he smiled faintly despite himself. "Then let her know," he said. That was the most important part. The hardest part too.
He ended the call, the quiet settling back around him, but his thoughts remained restless, circling Catherine, the past, and the fragile, uncertain future waiting for both of them.
-----
Sebastian ended the call and returned to his bedroom, the quiet of the corridor settling over him like a fragile calm. The sight of a woman sitting on his bed did not feel like a passing mont, it felt like sothing that could belong to his future. He wanted her there tomorrow, and the day after that, and for every morning he would ever wake up.
Bernice sat with the sheets clutched to her chest, her face flushed, her gaze unfocused and uncertain.
She knew exactly what had happened between them. She knew why she had let it happen, too... because for the first ti in a long ti, soone had truly seen her, wanted her, and chosen her without hesitation.
And she had responded, not just out of loneliness or impulse, but because sothing in her heart had recognized him as well. There had been warmth in it, sothing deeper than simple desire.
But reality had a way of intruding.
The gap between their worlds pressed against her thoughts like a wall she could not ignore. He was the kind of man who had a tropical rainforest inside his house. She was... Bernice Watson, with responsibilities and limits.
Her heart pounded when she heard him approach. He had only a towel around his waist, water still clinging to his skin, and the sight of him, even when it was blurry, made her breath hitch despite everything her mind was screaming at her.
So perfect...
A small, hopeful voice inside her wanted to wait, to hear what he thought first—because this shouldn’t be sothing decided by one person alone. But her reason rose up quickly, stern and unyielding. n like him did not tie themselves to won like her after one night. She refused to be pitied, or worse, compensated like so passing indulgence.
No. Whatever this was, it ant sothing. She would not let it be reduced to sothing cheap.
"I’m not on birth control," she said at last, the words coming out more bluntly than she intended. It wasn’t how she wanted to begin, but it was the truth, and right now, truth felt safer than anything else.
"I guessed," Sebastian replied gently as he sat beside her, his gaze lingering on her with a softness that made her chest tighten. No matter how many tis he looked at her, she seed more beautiful than any woman he had ever known.
"Can you get a Plan B?" she asked, forcing the words out even though they tasted wrong on her tongue. She did not want him to think she had planned this, or that she expected anything from him. She had a career to protect, a life to build. She could not afford to carry a child—not now.
Inside, she scolded herself bitterly. Why didn’t I think before I acted?
Sebastian’s hands tightened at his sides, his thoughts turning sharply. He had not considered the possibility of pregnancy, not in the mont, not when everything about her had consud him. It had been his responsibility, and he had failed to think of it. It had been his first ti. But that did not excuse anything now.
If there was even the smallest chance... then he wanted to take responsibility. For her. For their child. For everything that had begun between them.
"Can you give a reason?" he asked quietly.
Bernice blinked at him, startled by the question. He was so close, so steady, watching her as if the answer mattered to him more than anything else. Did he want to take responsibility? Did he think of this as sothing more?
"Should I give a reason?" she asked, uncertain.
"If you wish..." Sebastian leaned closer, his voice soft but unwavering. "I want to marry you," he said. "It’s too late to say it now, but I don’t do this with anyone. This was my first ti, and I chose it because it was you. Will you marry ?"
Her hands trembled, her breath catching sowhere between disbelief and sothing dangerously close to hope.
What... was happening?
For a mont, the world tilted, and she thought she’d faint.
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