Chloe
She hesitated.
The weight of his question pressed against her ribs, heavy, unrelenting.
How she met Kevin.
How everything started.
How everything unraveled before she even realized.
She could feel Kian waiting—steady, patient—but she knew him too well.
Knew that beneath the calm, there was something sharper.
Something lingering.
Something ready to sink in the moment she spoke.
So—she took a breath.
"It was ten months after I left Macresia."
The words hung between them.
Kian didn't move.
Didn't react visibly.
But she saw the subtle tension in his grip against the steering wheel.
She continued anyway.
Because stopping now?
That would be worse.
"We were official after two months. Then, six months later, he proposed."
Another pause.
Longer.
Tighter.
Kian still didn't speak.
Still didn't press.
Still let her talk, despite the weight in his silence.
So she kept going.
"We got married a week after that."
The words barely felt real as she said them.
Not because she regretted them.
Not because she wanted to take them back.
But because—there had been no proper wedding.
No grand event.
No slow, careful planning.
Just marriage.
Quick. Unceremonious.
Something done because it was supposed to be done.
Her fingers tightened slightly against her lap.
"I didn't know I was pregnant yet. Almost two months in before I found out. It… was an accident. I forgot to take a pill after that night, so I wasn't aware."
She exhaled softly, watching the road stretch ahead, refusing to glance at him now.
"I thought I'd never come back to Macresia. Or maybe I would, but I wouldn't stay. Kevin never truly knew my background."
Another silence.
Thicker this time.
And now?
Now she felt it.
The thing she had tried to avoid.
The thing she had known would come.
The tension in Kian.
Not from her words—but from the timing.
Ten months.
That was all it took.
Ten months for her to be with someone else.
Ten months after leaving him.
She hesitated again, pulse steady, breathing controlled.
Because she knew Kian.
Knew his pride. Knew how much he had loved her.
Knew that even now, even here, even after everything—her choices had still left something broken in him.
But she had moved forward.
She hadn't dwelled on the past.
She hadn't sat in regret.
She had continued her life.
Because back then, that was all she knew how to do.
Kian inhaled slowly, sharp, controlled.
Then—he shifted.
Carefully.
Not toward her.
But toward something safer.
Something that wouldn't unravel everything between them.
"How did Kevin treat you? Then. And throughout your marriage?"
And just like that—she had no choice but to keep answering.