Chapter 355
Chapter 355:
Wanting to stall for as long as he could, Alden gave a carefully worded response: “I just don’t want to lose my wife p>
“You’re lying!” Eleanino snapped, refusing to let up. “You were going to leave her from the start p>
“But once I found out she was Nyno, everything shifted.” That wasn’t the truth, though.
Alden had already fallen hard for Helena long before he knew she was Nyno.
At the time, the thought of betraying Nyno was too much to bear, so he put up emotional walls, kept her at arm’s length, and lashed out with cold words—doing whatever he could to smother the feelings that kept pulling him toward her.
“Then why didn’t you tell her the truth once you found out she was Nyno?” Eleanino tried to manipulate Alden, her voice steady. “Alden, stop avoiding what’s in your heart. You never loved her, not really. You stayed with her because you thought you owed Nyno something. But after the memory loss, you finally saw it for what it was—there was nothing real between you and Helena. Even when you figured out she was Nyno, you still tried to use that amnesia to get rid of the marriage built on guilt p>
She looked at Alden with soft eyes, eyes that begged him to understand.
She lowered her voice and said gently, “Alden, you’ve got to stop hiding from how you feel. You’ve already made things right with Nyno. You’ve paid back what you owed. From here on out, you don’t owe her anything. You’re free now. Let yourself live p>
Alden didn’t flinch. He just stared straight ahead.
His silence stretched the moment longer than it needed to.
Meanwhile, Helena sat on the other end of the call, completely unaware of the plan unfolding between him and Dario. But the silence on the line made her chest tighten.
Her heart thudded with dread. Why wasn’t Alden saying anything? Could Eleanino be right?
“Alden,” Eleanino said, “look at me and tell me p>
Finally, he opened his mouth. “Xavier handed me Helena’s file a long time ago. But I didn’t open it. Not until the night before the banquet, when I finally got the courage. After the banquet, I went to her. But p>
C𝒽𝒶𝓅𝓉𝑒𝓇 🅐t g𝓪l𝑛ovєls.𝓬○𝓶
Eleanino leaned in. “But what p>
Helena’s hands balled into fists. Her breath hitched as she waited.
“But I saw her with Dario,” Alden said. A crooked, bitter smile tugged at his mouth. His tone dropped low, roughened by something unspoken. “They looked close. She was smiling in a way I’d never seen when she was with me. I thought maybe—it’s time I stopped holding on and let her go p>
He never liked explaining himself. Especially not to anyone outside his own circle. Right now, all that talking was just his way of buying time. Helena didn’t see it.
His words caught her completely off guard. Suddenly, she remembered the moment when Dario held her hand and told her how he felt about her. That strange heat on her back at the time—it made sense now.