She had expected another defense.
“I knew what you needed,” Ethan continued.
“I knew about your mother’s illness.
I knew your brother had stopped going to school.
I knew you weren’t pretending that money didn’t matter.
But I still decided I needed to know more about you before letting you know me.
That wasn’t equal.”
“No.
It wasn’t.”
“And I can’t make it equal by explaining it.”
For a moment, only the sound of the garden remained between them.
Ella looked toward the mansion.
“Did everyone know?”
“Very few.”
“The butler?”
Ethan nodded.
She closed her eyes.
So that warning had not been imagination.
“Why didn’t he tell me?”
“Because I asked him not to.”
Ella opened her eyes again.
“Of course you did.”
She turned toward the doors.
Ethan did not stop her.
“Where are you going?”
“Away from you.”
“Ella, you don’t have to leave tonight.”
She looked over her shoulder.
“That’s the first choice you’ve offered me since I entered this house.”
He flinched.
Ella returned to her room and locked the door.
She did not sleep.
She sat in the expensive dress she had changed into for dinner and stared at her reflection until dawn.
The face in the mirror looked the same, but everything around it had become uncertain.
She thought of her mother.
Her brother.
The medicines already being paid for.
The school expenses that could finally be covered.
Then she thought of Ethan standing in the garden with another man’s face in his hands.
At sunrise, someone knocked softly.
Ella said nothing.
A few seconds later, Ethan spoke from the other side.
“I’m not asking you to forgive me.
I only want to explain the rest when you’re ready.”
She remained silent.
“And whatever you decide about me,” he added, “your mother’s treatment will not be taken away.
Your brother’s schooling will not be taken away.
I won’t use them to keep you here.”
Ella’s head lifted.
That mattered.
Not because it erased what he had done, but because the worst fear inside her had been that her family’s survival was now another string he could pull.
“Leave me alone,” she said.
“All right.”
His footsteps moved away.
Hours later, Ella finally came downstairs.
Ethan was waiting in the same dining room where she had first noticed his hands.
