Chapter 139.

Emilia couldn’t stop thinking about the stranger.

Even after they returned home.

Emilia heard everything her mother and Kylie spoke of. She simply couldn’t make herself respond properly.

Her mind kept returning to that moment.

The brief brush of shoulders.

The strange familiarity that had gone through her body before her mind could make sense of it.

She had tried telling herself it meant nothing.

It had to mean nothing.

There were thousands of people in the city. Hundreds had walked past her that evening. One of them had just happened to smell familiar.

Emilia climbed the stairs slowly.

Behind her, she could hear Kylie laughing with her mother.

Emilia managed a small smile before continuing upstairs. She entered her bedroom and closed the door behind her.

The house was warm.

Christmas lights glowed softly from the hallway downstairs. She could hear faint music coming from the living room.

Emilia stood beside her bed and slowly removed her coat. She dropped it over the back of the chair, then she stopped.

Something felt strange.

Her hand remained on the coat.

She frowned, and checked the pockets.

Her phone was on the right one. Her keys were on the left. She reached into the inner pocket. Her fingers touched something.

A paper.

Emilia froze.

She slowly pulled it out.

It was tiny, and folded twice.

Her heart gave one strange, heavy beat.

She stared at the piece of paper in her hand. She didn’t remember putting anything there. Her fingers suddenly felt cold.

She unfolded it.

There were only a few words.

Her eyes moved across the curvy familiar handwriting.

"Meet me two blocks away to your left."

Her breath stopped.

She read the next word.

"Please."

Then, she read the final sentence.

"Let me explain."

And beneath it, was a single letter.

~ A.

Emilia stared at it.

For several seconds, she couldn’t move. The room seemed to become unnaturally quiet. She read it again, and again.

Her fingers tightened around the paper.

Her heart began beating faster. She looked toward the bedroom door, and then she looked back at the note.

Her eyes burned.

She knew that handwriting.

She knew it. She had seen it on documents. On little notes he’d left beside her.

Her breathing became uneven.

Adrian.

Her eyes filled immediately with tears. She wiped them with the back of her palm, then she looked at the note again.

He had been there. He had actually been there.

The stranger, the dark coat, the black cap, the familiar scent, and that impossible feeling. It had been him.

Emilia covered her mouth.

A tear escaped her anyway. "Oh my God."

She sat down on the edge of her bed.

The paper trembled between her fingers.

He had walked past her. She did not imagine him, and this was not some cruel trick her mind had played on her.

Adrian had walked past her.

And somehow, he’d put this in her coat pocket. While they were touching.

Emilia lowered her eyes. Her chest tightened. She pressed the note against her lips for a second before lowering it.

If anyone discovered this, her scholarship could be at risk.

Adrian knew that. He was the one who had been so determined to protect it.

So why had he left the note?

Emilia stared at the words.

Let me explain.

Her heart twisted.

Explain what? The hearing? His words? Why did he’d sat there and tell them she had been naive?

Why did he allow everyone to believe she didn’t know what she was doing?

Why did he walk away from her? Why had he disappeared? Why did he let three weeks pass without a single message?

Her eyes filled again.

She wiped them quickly.

She shouldn’t go.

That was the obvious answer.

She knew it.

She folded the note again. Her fingers moved automatically. She placed it on her bed, and then she stood.

She walked toward the window.

Outside, Christmas lights decorated the neighboring houses.

People were still moving through the streets.

A car passed slowly.

Emilia stared through the glass.

After a few minutes, she stepped away from the window. She had to stay. She knew she had to.

Her mother was downstairs.

Kylie was downstairs.

It was Christmas Eve.

She couldn’t simply disappear.

And if someone followed her, her scholarship, her education, and everything Adrian had supposedly sacrificed for would be destroyed.

She closed her eyes.

Then another thought came.

He walked past you anyway.

Her eyes opened.

Maybe he’d only wanted to see her. Maybe he’d wanted to speak to her but hadn’t been able to. Maybe this was his only way.

Her gaze returned to the note. She couldn’t take this from him. Perhaps, it was finally time they separated.

Adrian wasn’t someone who pleaded.

Even when everything around him was collapsing, he somehow remained composed. But he’d written please.

Emilia swallowed. She picked up the note. Her thumb moved over the folded edge. She shouldn’t go. She knew that. But she wanted to.

God, she wanted to.

She wanted answers.

She wanted to hear his voice.

She wanted to look at him and find out whether the man she’d spent weeks missing was still the man she’d known.

Her hand moved toward the drawer.

She stopped.

If her mother found the note..... No. She couldn’t think of that. Emilia quickly tucked it into the pocket of her sweater.

Then she looked at herself in the mirror.

She took a deep breath. "You’ll only talk to him." Her reflection stared back at her. "That’s it."

She didn’t believe herself.

She opened her bedroom door.

The hallway was empty.

She listened. Her mother and Kylie were still downstairs. Emilia quietly walked toward the stairs.

She stopped halfway.

Her mother’s voice floated from the living room.

Kylie laughed.

She kept walking.

Kylie looked over when she approached them. "Where are you going?"

Emilia froze.

Her mother looked at her too.

"I—" Her mind raced. "I forgot something."

Kylie frowned. "What?"

"At the store."

Her mother looked at the clock. "Now?"

Emilia nodded. "It won’t take long, Mum."

Her mother studied her face.

Emilia tried to smile. "I’ll be back."

Kylie opened her mouth, then stopped.

Something in Emilia’s expression must have told her not to ask.

"Okay," Kylie said quietly. "She’ll be fine." She told Mrs. Hayes.

Emilia nodded. She pulled on her coat. She opened the front door, and cold air rushed inside.

"Don’t stay out too long," her mother called.

"I won’t." Emilia stepped outside.

The door closed behind her.

She stood on the porch.

For a moment, she didn’t move. Her heart was pounding. She could still turn around, and walk back inside.

Pretend she’d forgotten something. Pretend the note never existed. Instead, she walked down the steps, and kept walking.