The man spoke as though he were imparting important information, but his tone remained casual.

Before long, the conversation had shifted entirely to Winter Wood.

As he stared into his glass, Eden’s eyes darkened with dangerous intensity.

He found the situation absurd, too.

After all, he was the one who had denied what they shared.

He was the one who had belittled it and walked away.

And yet, the mere mention of her name left him rooted to his seat.

Every word he heard left a bitter taste in his mouth, as though he were sinking deeper into a swamp with no way out.

A faint, self-mocking smile touched his sharp features.

Just then, the person sitting opposite him spoke.

“Eden, how are things going with the Lindal marriage arrangement?”

The question came from Cedric Lav.

Eden didn’t answer immediately.

The meeting had been arranged at his uncle’s insistence.

Contrary to public speculation, he had no intention of rushing into marriage with Violet.

When the subject of the rumors remained silent, Cedric pressed further, clearly curious.

“So when are we finally going to hear wedding bells?”

“I don’t have any concrete plans.”

Eden cut him off, his tone making it clear that the discussion was over.

He could sense the meaningful glances being exchanged around the table, but he had no intention of explaining himself.

There was a reason he had never bothered to correct the rumors.

After all, what could seem more like a betrayal than the appearance of another woman at the end of a relationship?

A crooked smile tugged at his well-defined features.

The woman who had caught his attention from the very beginning—the woman he had found impossible to ignore—had turned out to be that man’s daughter.

The coincidence felt almost too perfect.

However, if it had all been part of a carefully planned scheme, too many things failed to add up.

It was like a set of gears that should have meshed perfectly, yet somehow remained slightly out of sync.

“That’s right.”

The words slipped from his lips like a muttered thought.

“What? What’s that supposed to mean?”

Ignoring Cedric’s question, Eden got up from his seat.

He walked out of the lounge, thick with cigarette smoke and meaningless conversation.

He ignored the manager, who hurried after him with practiced courtesy, and headed straight for the exit.

As soon as the doors opened, an icy northern wind rushed towards him as if it had been waiting.

Standing beneath the bright glow of the streetlamps, he lifted his eyes to the dark night sky.

He had never intended to make Winter the target of some petty act of revenge.

If that had truly been his intention, disrupting Jeffrey Wood’s quiet life in a remote rural town would have been easy enough.

However, ending the relationship had already severed the long, complicated ties between their families.

Ultimately, it was Winter who suffered the most

After all, it was he who had deceived and betrayed her.

And even knowing that, he felt no sense of relief.

Instead, it was as though something heavy had settled in his chest and refused to budge, no matter how hard he tried to ignore it.

“Miss Wood returned the key to the house on Greyburn Street.”

After Winter left Vartz, his secretary gave him a small parcel.

Inside was a key.

It was accompanied by a short note.

[It doesn’t belong to me, so I’m returning it.]

That was all she had written.

There was no signature.

No greeting.

No explanation.

It was a quiet but unmistakable refusal to accept his offer.

The message was brief, yet its meaning could not have been clearer.

Winter wanted nothing from him.

“Ceres…”

The quiet murmur faded into the empty air.

Winter had told him that she had never gone back to her hometown after moving to Vartz.

Yet she had suddenly left the studio and gone home.

She was a woman who had settled alone in an unfamiliar city, pursuing nothing but her dream of becoming a painter.

This was why he had never imagined that she would leave Vartz, even after they had ended their relationship.

“Idiot.”

A cold, self-mocking laugh escaped him.

The image of her reddened eyes from their final meeting resurfaced without permission, stirring his thoughts once again.

“Your Grace, it was you who first…”

He could easily imagine the words she had never been able to say.

After the portrait commission ended, she had been ready to walk away.

It was he who invited her to dinner.

He was the one who had approached her first when she had been standing there feeling uncertain and unsure of what to do.

He was the one who sent people to the studio to arrange another meeting.

He was also the one who relentlessly closed the distance between them, never giving her the chance to turn him away.

From the very beginning, it had been Eden who kept reaching out to her.

He had no right to dismiss her anger.

After all, it was him who had set everything in motion.

The freezing wind continued to howl around him.

Eden stood motionless, facing it head on.

The cold cut through him like a knife.

He hadn’t drunk nearly enough to become intoxicated.

Even if he had drunk all the alcohol in the room, this bitter wind would have sobered him in an instant.

As the minutes passed, his emotions churned more fiercely against his will.

It was as though they were mocking him, reminding him of the wretched farewell he had chosen.

***

The train derailment in eastern Karachi was one of the worst disasters the region had seen in years.

Following the accident, families and loved ones rushed to nearby hospitals as soon as they heard the news.

Mrs Roche was one of them.

She hurried to the hospital as soon as she received a call from Santero, where she lived.

“Fortunately, your granddaughter’s emergency contact information was written on her necklace and tucked into her pocket. That’s how we were able to reach you. I’ll take you to her room now.”

The nurse explained that it was an incredible stroke of luck that they had been able to contact a guardian so quickly.

Several of the derailed train cars had caught fire after the accident, making it extremely difficult to identify many of the injured and deceased.

Breathing heavily from exhaustion and anxiety, Mrs Roche spoke in a trembling voice.

“Then… my daughter and granddaughter are both safe?”

“Lily only suffered minor cuts and bruises. Aside from that, she’s in good condition. According to the rescue team, it seems your daughter was holding her tightly during the accident. However, the child’s mother…”

The nurse trailed off.

The relief that had briefly brightened Mrs. Roche’s face immediately vanished.

“I’ll explain everything once we get upstairs.”

“Please… lead the way.”

They finally reached the end of the corridor.

The nurse opened the door.

Mrs Roche stepped into the room, her legs trembling.

Her eyes immediately found the small figure sleeping in the nearest bed.

Lily.

Having seen countless photographs of her sent by her daughter, Mrs Roche recognized the child at once.

Just as the nurse had said, Lily appeared remarkably unharmed given the scale of the disaster.

Then her gaze shifted to the bed beside it.

The nurse spoke quietly.

“She’s asleep because of the anesthesia. Emergency treatment was performed for a fractured arm. And…”

She hesitated briefly.

“There was significant bleeding when she was rescued. Unfortunately, we’ve confirmed that she suffered a miscarriage.”

“What?”

Startled, Mrs. Roche clutched her chest.

When her daughter called to say that she was finally coming home after being away for several years, she never mentioned that she was pregnant.

Taking a step closer to the bed, Mrs. Roche stared at the unconscious woman.

Then her eyes widened.

“W-Wait…”

Her voice shook.

“This isn’t Clara.”

“What do you mean?”

“The patient.”

Mrs. Roche stared in disbelief.

“This isn’t my daughter!”

Mrs Roche shook her head vigorously.

At first glance, the young woman lying in the hospital bed bore a striking resemblance to her daughter.

She had brown hair and appeared to be in her early twenties.

But she wasn’t Clara.

‘What in the world…?’

Neither the nurse nor the hospital staff knew what had happened.

With no other option, Mrs Roche began visiting the other hospitals to which the victims had been transferred.

Clara wasn’t there either.

Overwhelmed by pain, Mrs Roche eventually tracked down one of the rescue workers who had reportedly saved her granddaughter.

After making countless enquiries and being referred to various people, she finally met a man who had recently returned from the accident site.

“There seems to have been a misunderstanding. The scene was extremely chaotic. Naturally, we assumed the woman holding the child was her mother.”

It was only after hearing the full story that Mrs Roche ventured into the morgue.

She checked and rechecked.

Clara wasn’t there.

If her daughter was neither among the injured nor among those whose identities had been confirmed…

There was only one possible explanation.

The official handling the accident investigation spoke carefully.

“Unfortunately, there are many victims whose identities cannot yet be confirmed. The fire inside the train carriages has caused severe damage to the bodies. In many cases, even family members are unable to identify them with certainty.”

Overwhelmed by despair, Mrs Roche slumped into the chair beside Lily’s hospital bed.

When she first heard that her daughter and granddaughter had been rescued together, she thanked God repeatedly.

But the reality before her was heartbreaking.

Unable to wipe away the tears streaming down her face, she could only gently stroke Lily’s hand as the child slept peacefully.

More than anyone, she wanted to believe in a miracle.

But the disaster had been far too devastating.

After a long time, Mrs Roche finally lifted her head and looked at the young woman sleeping quietly in the bed beside Lily’s.

She had no idea who she was.

But, judging by the circumstances, one thing was certain: This woman had saved her granddaughter.

She might also be the only person who knew what Clara’s final moments had been like.

***

Winter woke up early the next morning.

A sharp pain shot through her arm, causing her to frown.

Then she took in her unfamiliar surroundings.

Her eyes widened.

Before she could fully gather her thoughts, a woman she had never seen before hurried towards her.

“You’re awake?”

The woman sounded relieved.

“Please don’t try to move yet. Stay right where you are.”

She quickly turned towards the door.

“I’ll go and get a nurse.”