The Day Our Promise Breaks (Charles and Evelyn)

She didn’t realize—the country she was heading to wasn’t her dream destination at all.
It was somewhere far worse.
A place that could only be described as hell on earth.
...
Evelyn heard the news: Dahlia had arranged her own passage, and her destination was the notorious northern border.
Images flashed through Evelyn’s mind—news stories and documentaries about what happened to people who fell for those kinds of traps. The
horrors they endured.
Evelyn’s expression softened considerably.
“This won’t come back to bite you, will it?”
Brooks quickly reassured her. “No, she found those people on her own. It has nothing to do with me.”
He shared the same thoughts as Charles: for all the harm Dahlia had done, a quick end would be too easy. They wanted her to suffer, to truly regret
every choice she’d made.
Even if she was caught and brought back, her so-called mental illness would keep her out of prison. The justice system here just didn’t have a way to

deal with people like her.
But a place like that? That was fitting punishment for someone like Dahlia.
Only then did Evelyn feel relieved.
Brooks, remembering the fire last night, thought of Charles. He turned to Evelyn, his tone gentle. “Evelyn, Charles is at this hospital too. Would you
like me to go with you to see him?”
Last night, if Charles hadn’t arrived in time—if he hadn’t rushed in without hesitation, putting his own life on the line—Eve and Mrs. Josephine
wouldn’t be safe and sound right now.
Brooks was truly grateful to Charles for that. Because of him, Evelyn and Mrs. Josephine were unharmed.
Evelyn looked up at Brooks in surprise, but before she could answer, Josephine spoke up. “Charles stopped by earlier. Eve’s already seen him.”

She understood Brooks’ intentions. But after watching Evelyn finally take a step forward with Brooks, ready to start over, Josephine didn’t want
anything to jeopardize that.
She knew her niece all too well.
Eve cared about Charlie far too much.
She could never forgive Charles for Charlie’s death. But she had once loved him so deeply.
Josephine remembered those long days when Evelyn was in a coma, how Charles would sit beside her, massaging her hands, speaking softly of

their past.
In every word of Charles’s remorse, it was clear just how much Evelyn had once loved him.
He was her first love—the man she’d tucked deep inside her heart. How could someone just forget a love like that?
Evelyn simply wouldn’t let herself love him again.

The grief over Charlie’s death hadn’t faded.
And Evelyn might find herself helplessly falling for Charles all over again.
That would only bring her more pain.
Josephine couldn’t bear to see that happen.
So, she’d rather Evelyn didn’t know, and instead stayed with Brooks.
...
Brooks noticed Evelyn’s face fall at the mere mention of Charles’s name.
Seeing how she withdrew, he decided not to press the issue.

Their assistant came back with the discharge papers, and the three of them left the hospital together.
From an upper window, Charles sat in his wheelchair, watching as Brooks helped Evelyn and Josephine into the car.
Charles’s hands tightened on the armrests of his chair.
...

“Find a way to contact the people running things over there. I want her to suffer. I want her to wish she’d never been born.”
“Yes, sir!”
Aiden hurried off to make the call.
Once the surgery was scheduled, he returned to escort Charles to the operating room.