London's midnight silence was a strange, heavy thing a silence that didn't soothe, but waited. It wrapped the city in cold stillness, as though holding its breath for what would break next.
Inside the penthouse, the air felt equally still.
Isabella stood frozen in front of Elanor, her breath trembling, her heart thundering dangerously close to breaking. His last words still vibrated in the narrow space between them.
"I never stopped loving you."
It felt impossible. Unbelievable. A blade she didn't know how to hold without cutting herself.
"Elanor…" she whispered, stepping back instinctively not out of rejection, but out of fear. Pure fear. "Don't say things like that."
He followed her step with one of his own not aggressive, not demanding, but steady, as if he refused to let her retreat into the shadows she had built around her heart.
"I didn't say it to provoke you," he murmured. "I said it because it's true."
She shook her head, eyes clouding, voice barely holding. "You don't get to say that now. Not after everything. Not after the years you disappeared. Not after the way you shut me out."
His jaw tightened. A flicker of pain crossed his eyes but he didn't deny it.
"I know," he said. "I know what I did."
Her voice cracked. "Then how can you stand there and say you still love me?"
"Because I do."
She closed her eyes, unable to hold his gaze. He stepped closer close enough that the warmth of his body brushed against her trembling breath. His hand lifted, hesitated, then lowered again when she flinched not because she rejected him, but because she didn't trust the moment.
He noticed.
"Look at me, Isabella."
"I can't," she whispered. "Not right now."
"Then let me come closer."
"No don't"
He stopped instantly.
Her shoulders shook, the weight of years pressing down on her in one brutal wave.
"Elanor," she breathed, "you can't just walk back into my life and expect me to forget everything. You can't expect… expect that love can be picked up like it never broke."
He swallowed hard.
"I don't expect that."
"Then what do you expect from me?" she whispered, voice splintering.
He stepped forward slowly, deliberately giving her every chance to stop him.
"Just honesty," he said.
Her eyes lifted, shimmering with pain. "Honesty will destroy us."
"It already destroyed us when we avoided it."
She stared at him, chest rising and falling with uneven breaths.
"Elanor…" she whispered, "stop trying to fix something you helped break."
He closed the remaining distance between them not touching, just standing close enough that she could feel the heat radiating from his body.
"I'm not trying to fix the past," he said.
"I'm trying to build something now."
Her lips trembled.
She looked away.
But Elanor saw the truth.
She wanted to believe him.
She wanted to step closer.
She wanted to fall, but she didn't trust herself to survive it again.
"Isabella," he whispered, "tell me what scares you most."
Her throat tightened.
"Losing myself again," she whispered shakily. "Loving you made me forget who I was. And when you left… I had to build myself from nothing."
His breath shattered in his chest quiet, pained, real.
"I never left because I stopped loving you," he said. "I left because I thought I wasn't enough for you."
She snapped her head toward him, shock flooding her face.
"What?" she breathed.
He swallowed. "I thought you deserved someone who could give you a future without my family's shadows. Someone better. Someone cleaner."
Her voice was sharp with disbelief. "You think I wanted 'clean'? Elanor, I wanted you."
He froze.
She stepped closer without meaning to, without thinking and he felt the shift instantly. The pull between them snapped tight, magnetic, unstoppable.
"You ruined me," she whispered, tears burning her eyes. "But I loved you anyway. And you walked away."
He felt like he'd been struck.
Hard.
"I thought I was protecting you."
"You weren't." She shook her head. "You hurt me more by leaving than anything else you could have done."
He took a sharp breath.
"I'm sorry."
"No," she said, voice trembling. "No, you're not."
"I am."
"You're sorry now because you want me back," she whispered. "But where was this sorrow when I needed you? Where was this honesty when my heart shattered?"
He stepped closer slow, steady, controlled but desperate.
"Let me show you now."
She took one step backward, breath shaking. "Elanor, I can't… I can't just fall into this again."
"You're not falling."
She blinked up at him.
"Then what am I doing?" she whispered.
"Remembering."
Her heart stuttered violently.
"Elanor…"
He lifted a hand again slow, gentle and this time she didn't flinch. His fingers touched her cheek. Soft. Careful. Trembling slightly. She inhaled sharply, eyes closing involuntarily.
He felt it.
She still felt him.
He exhaled shakily, thumb brushing the corner of her lip.
"We can't pretend this isn't happening," he whispered. "Not after today. Not after everything we've said."
Her voice cracked. "But I don't trust you."
He nodded, eyes softening.
"Then let me earn it."
"How?" she whispered.
"One day at a time."
Her breath trembled.
"I'm scared," she confessed.
"So am I," he whispered.
Her eyes opened and the vulnerability there nearly crushed him.
"Elanor…" her voice broke, "please don't destroy me again."
He leaned forward, forehead touching hers, breath mingling with hers.
"I won't," he whispered.
"I swear I won't."
For a moment, the world disappeared.
Just breath.
Just warmth.
Just two people standing far too close to the truth they'd tried to escape.
But Isabella.
She stepped back.
Not rejecting.
Not ending.
Just trying to breathe.
"We should rest," she whispered.
He nodded slowly. "I'll walk you to your room."
She shook her head gently. "You don't need to."
"I know," he said softly. "I want to."
Her heart hammered.
She turned and walked down the hallway, the soft glow of the lights painting her silhouette in gold.
Elanor followed at a respectful distance close enough to protect, far enough not to overwhelm. When she reached her door, she paused, hand on the handle.
She didn't look back.
"Elanor," she whispered.
"Yes?"
"You… make it very hard to stay angry."
He let out a breathless, almost pained laugh. "Good."
She finally looked back at him a small, broken smile ghosting her lips.
"Good night," she whispered.
He held her gaze.
"Good night, Isabella."
She slipped into her room, closing the door softly behind her.
Elanor remained standing there long after she was gone.
Because the walls between them
had begun to fall.
And nothing in the world felt more dangerous.
Or more inevitable.