He Scorned My Love Now He Watches My Rise Chapter 27
I had my mother get some rest, then went downstairs.
When Colton saw me, he held out the box.
“The check is about to expire.”
“Then let it expire.”
“That money should never have been accepted.”
“What I wanted back then was a clean break. The moment I transferred that money, we were even.”
His hand slowly fell.
It had been two months since I’d last seen him. He no longer wore the insignia of the Alpha heir.
“The disciplinary review is done.”
“I heard.”
“My succession rights have been revoked indefinitely. I’m on ordinary patrol duty now.”
Colton gave a small, humorless laugh.
“I used to think no one would ever truly walk away from the Moretti name.”
“And that’s why you thought I’d come back?”
“Yes.”
He didn’t avoid my eyes.
“I put too much value on what I had, and too little on you.”
He opened the box.
The mechanical watch lay quietly inside.
His name, engraved three years ago, was still on the back.
“I’m not here to ask you to get back together with me.”
“Then why are you here?”
“To return this to you.”
“The store bought the watch back. You bought it again. It belongs to you now.”
“But it was your birthday gift to me.”
“No,” I corrected him.
“It never made it into your hands.”
His eyes slowly reddened.
It seemed that only in that moment did he finally understand that there was not a single thing between us that could serve as a new beginning.
The claim had never been completed.
The apartment had never been transferred.
The money had been settled.
Even the watch with his name on it was nothing more than a secondhand item I had returned and he had later bought for himself.
“Siobhan.”
He called my name as I turned to leave.
“If back then, in that dining room, I had stood by you—”
“Then we wouldn’t be here today.”
A flicker of light came into his eyes, then died just as quickly.
Because we both knew there was no second chance waiting back there.
“I can keep waiting.”
“Colton, losing your succession rights wasn’t some price you paid for me.”
I looked at him.
“It was you taking responsibility for what you did.”
“Don’t try to trade it for me looking back.”
He tightened his grip on the box, then finally nodded.
This time, he didn’t follow.