His rough palm caressed my cheek with the gentlest touch. “I could never ignore my Rosebud. But I won’t let you go anywhere until you hear everything and forgive me.”

“That would never happen!” My eyes narrowed. I wiggled in his hold, but as always, I failed to escape. My gaze flickered to those stupid bulging muscles underneath his sleeves.

“It will. I’ll make it happen. Now what did my Rosebud want from me?” Leaning in, he took a desperate sniff of my hair. His heady scent was messing with my senses.

Leaning back from him, I said, “I want you to terminate the contract. I want to leave.”

The mention of leaving had him tense. His arms tightened around my waist and jaw clenched. The old Achilles Valencian was back in full force as his features hardened. I saw the storm swirling inside him through the windows of his soul. Those stormy gray orbs.

“You’ll never leave me, Rosebud. Never again. I won’t let you.” The coolness of his voice sent shivers down my spine.

“Well, it was you who let me go. I didn’t leave on my own. I was pushed away,” I said, holding his gaze.

His stony features softened. “I didn’t want to, Rosebud. No sane person would push the only light away from their life. But—”

“But you had to.” I completed for him, gulping the thickness of my throat. “Tobias told me everything.”

Surprise etched on his face. “I had no choice, Rosebud. Trust me, I kept meeting you and spending time with you even after knowing how I would affect your life in a bad way. I was too selfish to let you go.” Pain flashed across his eyes.

“But you did,” I whispered. My heart clenched. “You left me.”

Shaking his head, he pressed his forehead against mine, letting out a trembling breath. “I never left you, Rosebud. I could never.”

“What do you mean?”

“Yes, I separated you from me. But I was always around. Though I couldn’t touch you, my eyes always did from afar,” he said, stopping my heart. Raising my left hand, he kissed my wrist, gazing at my bracelet. A soft smile tugged at the edge of his lips. “This looks more beautiful on you than I imagined.”

A gasp slipped through my lips. My eyes widened.

The anonymous person who gifted it to me was… him?

“It was you?”

He nodded, kissing my forehead.

“But… how?” I was shocked. All the time I wore it on my wrist, and I didn’t have any idea it was him who left the box that day outside of my door.

“How could I not give a congratulation gift to my Rosebud on her graduation day?”

“You were there? Y-you saw my graduation?” My voice came out like a meek child.