?Chapter 624:


    What she didn’t say was that she no longer loved him.


    Maybe her heart was still too soft, afraid he might truly break. Afraid Lionel, now fragile with age, and the rest of the Shaw family, who had shown her nothing but kindness, would be burdened.


    Kristian sat frozen, fingers pausing mid-motion, pain twisting in his chest like a tight knot.


    He wanted to look up and speak, but the sheer weight of those words—”I forgive you”—crushed him. He couldn’t breathe through it.


    His nose stung, and before he realized it, his vision blurred.


    They sat in silence inside the car, a thick stillness wrapping around them like fog.


    Kristian’s phone buzzed again and again, but he didn’t move. He rested his head against the window, as if he couldn’t even hear it.


    When it rang for the fifth time, Freya reminded him gently, “Kristian, someone’s calling you.”


    Kristian straightened up, his eyes still lowered, carefully hiding whatever was left of his pride.


    He took out his phone and answered it.


    “Where’ve you been? Took you long enough to pick up!” Liam’s carefree voice rang through. “Did you forget what day it is today?”


    Kristian’s voice was scratchy,ced with a hollow kind of sorrow. “What day is it today?” he muttered.


    “What’s going on with you?” Liam asked, picking up on the shift in his demeanor. “You sick or something?”


    ?????????? ???? ???????? ????????: ?????????ν?????????????


    “No,” Kristian replied tly.


    Still, Liam couldn’t shake the sense that something wasn’t quite right.


    “You sure you’re okay?”


    “I’m fine.” Kristian looked worn thin—his voice steady, but devoid of strength. “Let’s talk business.”


    “You do realize today’s your birthday, right?” Liam blurted it out, his voice tinged with earnestness. “Happy 28th—you’re creeping up on thirty.”


    Kristian froze. Freya, having overheard, paused too. Her eyes shimmered with an unreadable blend of emotion.


    Was it really the 14th already?


    “I figured you’d forget,” Liam continued. “For the past few years, with your wife around, I didn’t have to worry. But now that she’s divorced you, someone’s gotta step up.”


    Thatnded like a sucker punch, mming into Kristian’s already bruised heart and leaving it cold and numb.


    “You still at the office?”


    “Yeah.”


    “Hurry back. Mom and Dad are outside your home. We’ve got a cake and everything.”


    The emotions Kristian had fought so hard to lock away began to rise again, pressing against his throat. He forced out a muffled, “Okay.”


    After ending the call, he silenced his phone and sent Liam the door code. It was the date of his wedding to Freya.


    Once he managed to pull himself together, he looked over at Freya. The moment their eyes met, it was like something inside him cracked wide open. Emotion surged and tangled in his chest.


    He parted his lips, trying to speak, but no words seemed fitting. Nothing would do justice to the storm in his heart.


    .


    .


    .