“You’ll never forgive me.”
The words lingered between us like a wound left open too long.
The hotel suite had gone completely silent.
Outside the windows, Seoul glittered endlessly beneath the night sky.
Beautiful.
Cold.
Untouchable.
And somehow it felt exactly like Daniel Hart.
I stared at him for several seconds without speaking.
Part of me wanted to scream.
Part of me wanted answers.
And the worst part?
Part of me still wanted him to touch me the way he used to.
I hated that.
More than the lies.
More than the manipulation.
I hated that my body still remembered loving him.
Daniel noticed the shift in my expression immediately.
Of course he did.
Nobody knew me better than him.
That realization hurt too.
Finally I whispered:
“Tell me.”
His jaw tightened.
“Sophia—”
“No more half-truths.”
My voice came out sharper now.
“If you destroy me tonight, at least do it honestly.”
Pain crossed his face instantly.
Real pain.
But he nodded slowly.
Then finally said the sentence that changed everything again.
“My father knew who you were before I did.”
The air left my lungs.
What?
Daniel looked exhausted now.
Like every word physically hurt him.
“The night we met wasn’t an accident.”
My stomach twisted violently.
No.
No, no, no.
The charity event.
The spilled champagne.
The conversation on the balcony.
The first kiss weeks later.
Those moments belonged to me.
They were mine.
Weren’t they?
Daniel watched the realization break across my face.
And somehow he looked like he hated himself for it.
“He arranged it.”
The room tilted around me.
I laughed softly under my breath.
Not because anything was funny.
Because my brain genuinely couldn’t process this level of betrayal anymore.
“So what?” I whispered.
“You approached me because your father told you to?”
“No.”
Too fast.
Too emotional.
Daniel stepped toward me immediately.
“At first I didn’t even know why he wanted me near you.”
I crossed my arms tightly.
“But you stayed.”
His silence answered enough.
Tears burned behind my eyes again.
God.
I was so tired of crying because of him.
Daniel rubbed his forehead slowly.
“My father became obsessed with finding your mother’s missing evidence after the accident.”
The word accident sounded wrong now.
False.
Manufactured.
He continued quietly:
“When he realized your mother might’ve hidden something before she died… he started watching everyone connected to her.”
My heartbeat became unbearable.
“Everyone?”
Daniel nodded once.
“You included.”
The suite suddenly felt freezing cold.
For years…
someone had been watching me.
Watching my life.
Tracking me.
Waiting.
I turned away from him instinctively.
Because suddenly I felt exposed in ways I couldn’t explain.
Daniel noticed immediately.
“Sophia…”
“Did you ever love me before knowing who I was?”
The question came out broken.
Raw.
And suddenly nothing else mattered anymore.
Not Madrid.
Not my mother.
Not the necklace.
Just this.
Just us.
Daniel looked completely shattered now.
“Yes.”
The answer came instantly.
No hesitation.
No calculation.
And somehow…
that terrified me more than lies.
Because it sounded real.
I shook my head slowly.
“You don’t get to do that.”
His expression tightened.
“Do what?”
“Tell me you love me after admitting everything was manipulated from the beginning.”
Daniel stepped closer carefully again.
“My father manipulated the beginning.”
His voice lowered.
“But he never controlled what happened after.”
God.
That sentence almost destroyed me.
Because part of me believed it.
And I hated myself for still wanting to.
Daniel looked at me like a man standing at the edge of something fatal.
“You think I don’t know what I became?”
Silence.
Then quietly:
“I spent three years trying to convince myself I was protecting you while slowly turning into him.”
That hurt.
Because it was true.
I could see it now.
The guilt.
The control.
The secrecy.
The impossible choices.
Daniel hated Richard Hart because he was becoming Richard Hart.
And he knew it.
My voice softened before I could stop it.
“Then why didn’t you leave?”
Daniel laughed once under his breath.
Broken.
“Because every time I tried…”
His eyes lifted to mine.
“…you looked at me like I was the safest thing in your life.”
The tears finally fell before I could stop them.
Damn him.
Damn him for knowing exactly how to break me.
Daniel stepped closer slowly.
Carefully.
Like approaching something fragile.
“I loved you before I understood what love could cost.”
The room felt unbearably small now.
Intimate.
Dangerous.
His hand lifted instinctively toward my face.
Then stopped halfway.
Because suddenly neither of us knew whether he still had the right to touch me.
And somehow…
that hesitation hurt more than everything else tonight.
Then suddenly—
someone started banging violently against the suite door.
Both of us froze instantly.
Another bang.
Harder this time.
Then Evelyn’s voice shouted from outside: