The sun had climbed higher, spreading warm light across the Verden estate's manicured gardens. Liana stepped out onto the veranda, trying to escape the suffocating atmosphere inside. The sound of birdsong mixed with the soft rustle of leaves in the morning breeze, but even nature couldn't ease the knot in her chest.
She walked slowly along the stone path that led toward the garden fountain, her thoughts spinning. Her parents' words from breakfast echoed relentlessly in her mind. "You must secure your future, Liana. Darius is the only suitable match."
Darius. Just the thought of him made her stomach tighten. Handsome, charming, wealthy… yet utterly controlling. He was everything her parents admired — and everything she could never love.
Liana paused by a rose bush, absently tracing the petals with her fingers. A soft sound of footsteps interrupted her solitude. She looked up and found herself face-to-face with Eren, carrying a watering can in his strong hands.
He froze for a moment, as if unsure whether he should step aside. His dark eyes held that same quiet intensity she had noticed earlier — steady, observant, almost… protective.
"Miss Liana," he said softly, bowing his head just slightly. "I didn't mean to startle you."
"No… it's fine," she replied, her voice quieter than she expected. She felt a strange warmth spread across her chest at the sound of his calm voice. He was so different from Darius — simple, gentle, real.
Eren moved closer to water the roses, but his movements were careful, deliberate, as if he were aware of the fragile tension around them. The air seemed to thicken, charged with a feeling neither wanted to name.
"Your roses…" Liana said, trying to make conversation, though her words sounded awkward in the quiet morning. "They've grown beautifully."
Eren glanced at her briefly, his lips curving into the faintest hint of a smile. "They respond well to care. Much like… people, I suppose."
Liana blinked, surprised. There was a depth in his voice, a quiet wisdom that made her heart ache for reasons she couldn't explain. For a fleeting second, it felt like he understood her in a way no one else ever could.
She tried to focus on the flowers instead, to anchor herself, but her gaze kept slipping back to him. The lines of his face, the way the sunlight caught his hair, the gentle way he moved… it stirred something forbidden inside her, something she had no right to feel.
And yet, she wanted to feel it.
Suddenly, the distant sound of a car horn broke the moment. Liana's parents' voice called from the veranda behind her — a reminder that her reality was waiting, that her choices were not her own.
Eren noticed her shift, her sudden tension, and he stepped back, returning to his duties. But before he left, he said quietly, almost to himself, "Be careful, Miss Liana. Not everything in this world is as it seems."
Liana felt a shiver run through her, though she wasn't sure why. His words carried a warning, yes, but also… a promise. A promise that perhaps, somewhere beneath the surface of her carefully constructed life, there was a chance for something real.
She watched him disappear behind the hedge, leaving her alone with the scent of roses and a heart that beat far too fast. She knew she shouldn't think of him this way, that she shouldn't let herself hope. And yet, for the first time in as long as she could remember, she wanted to hope.
The quiet town around her remained calm, serene, almost indifferent to the storm of emotions stirring inside her. But Liana felt it — the pull of something forbidden, something fragile, yet powerful.
Her fingers brushed the petals of a rose again, and she whispered to herself, a secret she wouldn't admit to anyone:
Why does he feel like home… when he should be nothing to me at all?