?Chapter 402:


    Upon hearing the question, Ashley quickly turned to the café counter and asked for a pen and some paper. Once they handed it over, she sat back down and started sketching in front of Freya.


    Even after all the time she’d spent with him, not once had she taken a photo—she never had the courage to. The thought alone had felt too risky.


    But his face was etched into her memory, like a mark she could never erase.


    After ten tense minutes, a rough but recognizable sketch began to take shape beneath Ashley’s pencil.


    Freya’s eyes narrowed, a shadow crossing her expression as she stared at the all-too-familiar face on the paper. Her expression turned icy. Lifting a finger, she tapped the sketch right between the man’s brows. “Does he have a scar here? About three centimeters long?”


    Ashley’s hand stalled midair, the pencil hovering just above the paper. Her eyes widened in shock, pupils shrinking. “How—how could you possibly know that?”


    Freya’s expression shifted in an instant—cool and serious, like a switch had flipped.


    Without a word, she unlocked her phone, swiped through a few screens, and brought up a hidden photo. She turned the screen toward Ashley. “Is this him?”


    Ashley’s breath caught in her throat. Her eyes locked onto the image—his face, so familiar it could haunt her in dreams. Her lips parted slightly. “Yes.”


    A storm of questions rose inside her. Why did Freya have this photo? How did she even know who he was? Nothing about this made sense.


    Before Ashley could speak again, Freya cut in with a question that came out of nowhere. “Do you want a normal life?”


    Ashley blinked, still struggling to process everything. “What?” she muttered,pletely thrown.


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    “Return to him. Tell him you can’t get close to Kristian, and suggest that I should take your ce.” Freya’s wordsnded like a cold p, jolting Ashley from her daze. The air around her seemed to shift, charged with a new, unsettling energy.


    “Do you… do you grasp the weight of your words?” Ashley stammered, her voice trembling with a mix of fear and disbelief.


    “I do.”


    “He may be captivating, but he’s nothing like Kristian,” Ashley pressed on, a desperate edge to her voice as she yed on Freya’s known weakness for charming men. “You…”


    “Don’t you yearn to live in peace with your grandmother and younger brother?” Freya’s eyes were piercing, her gazeser-focused, cutting deep into Ashley’s soul.


    Of course Ashley did. How could she not long for that kind of life? She clung to that thought, repeating it like a silent prayer in her head. Yet, desiring peace and…


    Thrusting Freya into danger and epting the weight of those consequences were worlds apart. Ashley knew the sting of past errors—her actionsst time had nearly caused irreparable damage. She couldn’t allow history to repeat itself with the same grave mistakes.


    “If that’s really what you want,” Freya said, her tone steady but firm. “Then listen to me. Do exactly as I say. You only get one shot at this.”


    Ashley was caught in a fierce battle within herself. Torn between the allure of a peaceful life and the weight of her own conscience.


    A wry smile twisted her lips. The irony was not lost on her—howughable it was that someone like her even had a conscience.


    Freya’s words from theirst unsettling encounter echoed in Ashley’s mind:


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