“What brings you here, Your Grace?”

Eden had never heard Winter’s voice so cold.

Eden understood.

He knew that he could no longer just turn up on her doorstep unannounced.

And yet…

He couldn’t bear to let another day pass without doing something.

The moment he took a step towards her, Winter retreated without hesitation.

The distance between them remained unchanged.

Her silent warning was unmistakable: ‘Don’t come any closer.’

She looked at him and asked again.

“Why are you here?”

“We… still have things we need to talk about. Winter, we never had the chance to have a proper conversation at the salon.”

He had so many things he wanted to say.

But more than that…

There were countless things he wanted to hear her say.

Simply standing before her, alive and breathing, was enough to leave him speechless.

He looked at the face he had longed to see again.

“I thought…”

“I’d never see you again.”

Eden took another cautious step forward.

But he deliberately left enough space between them that he could barely reach her with an outstretched hand.

More than anything, he wanted to prevent her from turning around and walking away.

“…”

Winter wasn’t used to seeing this side of Eden.

Speaking to her like this?

Out in the middle of the street?

Had he forgotten that it was a narrow street with constant foot traffic?

She couldn’t fathom what more there was to say.

He was the kind of man who naturally attracted attention wherever he went.

This wasn’t Vartz.

This was the neighborhood where Mrs. Roche had lived for decades.

The nearby residents had long since become familiar enough with her to greet her whenever they crossed paths.

The people of Santero might not recognize Eden as quickly as they would have done in Vartz.

However, precisely because he was a stranger, he was more likely to attract curious glances in a neighborhood like this.

Part of her wanted to walk straight into the house and end the conversation there and then.

However, he was the man who had found her address almost immediately after seeing her at the salon.

He wasn’t someone she could simply avoid forever.

If this conversation had to happen…

It was better to finish it now.

Just then, an icy gust of wind blew past.

Winter instinctively pulled her neck in against the cold and ran through the possible locations in her mind quickly.

Her house would have been the quietest option.

But she had no intention of letting Eden in.

Eden spoke first, anxiously waiting for her answer.

“Should we talk in the car?”

Winter looked at him in silence.

It was only then that she noticed the unfamiliar black car parked at the end of the dead-end alley behind him.

There was no way they could continue talking out here.

However, she didn’t want to wander around looking for somewhere else.

“…It won’t take long.”

Eden started walking first, with Winter following quietly behind.

The black car, which was parked in the shadows, gradually came into view.

Eden opened the passenger door and waited until Winter was seated.

A moment later, he closed the door on the other side and took his place behind the wheel.

For once, he was grateful that he had dismissed his attendants.

At the time, he had simply wanted to come alone.

Now, he was relieved that no one else was there.

The moment the doors closed, the sounds of the outside world disappeared.

Silence settled over the car.

Winter kept her eyes on the window and said nothing.

With both hands on the steering wheel, Eden struggled to decide where to start.

Her mind was filled with countless thoughts, none of which were easy to express.

It was Winter who finally broke the heavy silence.

“What is it you want to talk about?”

Her voice was calm.

But the caution in it had not disappeared.

“If you have something to say, then say it.”

There was no need to dance around the subject.

Eden drew a slow breath against the tightness in his chest.

“…How have you been living here? After the accident… what exactly happened to you…”

His lips parted and then pressed together again.

On the way here…

While waiting for her…

He had rehearsed countless things he wanted to say.

But now she was sitting beside him, he didn’t know where to begin.

In fact, he wasn’t even sure if anything he said would ever reach her.

His hands tightened around the steering wheel as he slowly closed and then reopened his eyes.

He desperately wanted to break the silence.

Yet even that felt impossibly difficult.

It was only after a long time that Winter finally turned to look at him.

Seeing the man who had always been so calm and self-assured at a loss for words felt strangely unfamiliar.

It left her quietly unsettled.

It was as though she were looking at a painting whose colors had faded over time until it was almost unrecognizable.

Perhaps it was because she had never seen that expression on his face before.

Before long, Winter arrived at a simple conclusion.

He had believed she was dead.

And now that she was alive and sitting right in front of him, he was simply overwhelmed by the shock.

That alone was enough to explain why Eden Mayer was behaving so strangely.

Having accepted that, Winter quietly began to tell him what had happened after the accident.

“The train accident happened without warning, and I didn’t want to go back to the life I’d left behind. From the moment I boarded that train, I’d already decided that Santero would be where I started over. I wanted to live as though I’d been given a second chance at life.”

Eden couldn’t bring himself to respond.

He could vividly imagine the state of mind Winter had been in when she got on the train.

Having swallowed her words about building a life with their child, Winter clenched her jaw.

There was no point in saying it now.

Her expression hardened as she added coldly.

“If there’s anyone to blame for letting everyone believe I was dead, then I won’t deny my share of the responsibility. Is that why you’ve come, Your Grace? To blame me for it?”

The question carried no expectation whatsoever.

It was as if this reunion meant nothing to her.

Pain flashed across Eden’s face.

“Of course not.”

His grip on the steering wheel tightened until the veins on the back of his hand stood out.

Turning toward her, he spoke in a strained voice.

“I know better than anyone that I have no right to blame you. Do you know what I wished for more than anything… every time I stood before your grave?”

The conviction Winter had built around her heart—the promise never to be hurt again—wavered ever so slightly.

“I wanted to turn back time.”

“I wanted to go back to the day we said goodbye… and hold on to you over and over again.”

“…”

“The thing I couldn’t bear the most was…”

“Your Grace.”

Winter cut him off before he could continue, his words spilling out as though he were making a confession.

She couldn’t understand what he was trying to say.

Was he truly regretting something that had happened so long ago?

Whatever that farewell had meant…

Its ending could never be changed.

They were always destined to part.

Was it because Eden was meant to marry someone else?

Or because of the shameful past that bound his family to her father?

Winter slowly shook her head and looked at him, as though reminding him of a reality he had somehow forgotten.

“Nothing changes just because someone you thought was dead turns out to be alive.”

Her brown eyes remained fixed on him.

They had gone cold, as though they would never allow themselves to be hurt again.

“From the very beginning, we were never meant for each other, Your Grace. Even knowing that, I still chose to stay with you. That was my greed.”

“Yes.”

“It was nothing more than a foolish longing.”

“Winter.”

“I’m just an ordinary person trying to get through each day here. I was no different before, and I’m no different now… I still live in a world completely separate from yours, Your Grace.”

“Nothing has changed.”

Winter lowered her gaze.

She didn’t want to unleash the resentment that had come too late.

However, when she delved into the depths of her heart and gave voice to the feelings she had buried for so long…

Her voice trembled slightly.

“As long as the fact that I’m Jeffrey Wood’s daughter remains unchanged.”

Eden’s throat tightened.

She herself had uttered that loathsome name.

Winter was asking him a question.

‘Have you really forgotten?’

‘Have you forgotten that I am Jeffrey Wood’s daughter?’

“…”

It felt as though he had been hit squarely in the chest.

The pain spreading through his body was not just guilt.

In an instant, he was taken back to the moment he had chosen to let Winter Wood go because of that name.

The moment that had destroyed everything.

It was only now, far too late, that Eden had revealed the simplest truth.

“…That wasn’t your fault.”

Winter slowly shook her head, as though his words offered no comfort at all.

“But reality wasn’t like that. Even to you, Your Grace… that name was an indelible stain.”

She called herself his stain.

Yet there were no tears.

No trembling.

This quiet composure shattered Eden all the more.

The Winter he remembered had always been open about her feelings.

She laughed.

She cried.

She gave her heart without reservation.

The days he had spent with her had been vivid and full of life.

But now…

She sat before him, seemingly devoid of all emotion.

Eden denied it at once.

“That’s not true.”

“Every moment we shared…”

“Every one of them was precious to me.”

Winter slowly shook her head, as though she had just heard something utterly absurd.

‘Precious?’

It was a word that had never belonged to him.

“From the very beginning, Your Grace… we were never looking toward the same future.”

“Winter… please. Just listen to me.”

“No.”

“It’s my turn to speak.”

“Back then… I thought simply being able to stay by your side was enough.”

“So even when it hurt so much it felt like my heart was rotting away…”

“I never said a word.”