?Chapter 1572:


    William cut her off, his voice even and distant. Just as disappointment pricked her heart, he suddenly asked, “Ste, do you really think I would believe anything you say now?”


    Ste’s breath hitched. Disbelief shed across her face. He did not trust her?


    “You say you remember everything, but that changes nothing for me. It only makes my resentment deeper. This time, you chose to leave with Marc, did you not?”


    The color drained from her face. “I — I admit I wanted to go, but Marc showed me pictures of you dancing with another woman and told me you had ignored the fire at the vi. William, please do not be so cruel to me.” Tears trembled at the corners of her eyes, desperation bleeding through every word.


    William’s lips curved faintly, devoid of warmth, his gaze icy. “Ste, once trust shatters, it never returns the same. You chose to believe Marc. That is a fact. You boarded the ne and left. That is also a fact.” His eyes drifted toward the pitch-ck night beyond the window, his voice sinking low. “I am exhausted. I do not want to hear this anymore.”


    Tears slipped free. Ste reached for his sleeve — and he avoided her touch without hesitation.


    He hade to save her. He clearly cared. So why did he feel so impossibly distant?


    “William, you were never like this before. What happened to you? Did that Arlo Nina mentioned do something to you?” After recovering her memories, Ste sensed something was deeply wrong with him. Even if he believed she had betrayed and forgotten him, he would never have treated her this way. This was not the William she remembered.


    Hearing her questions, he said coldly, “Get out.”


    He closed his eyes, shutting her outpletely.


    All the words she wanted to say lodged painfully in her throat. A sudden sharp ache red at the back of her head, making her wince and release a faint, pained sound.


    William gave no response at all.


    The aircraft cut smoothly through the dark sky, the low drone of the engines filling the otherwise hushed cabin. Ste curled up with her arms wrapped around her legs, her gaze fixed on the darkness beyond the window as her thoughts churned.


    Time slipped by unnoticed. Eventually, restlessness overtook her and she rose and made her way toward Luca. She needed answers about William.


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    When Luca noticed her approaching, he straightened reflexively. He remembered what she had said about recovering her memories, and uncertainty flickered across his face.


    Ste took a seat, nced briefly at Nina and Marc sitting opposite, then spoke in a cool, measured tone. “William was missing for over a month and was most likely captured by a mercenary leader named Arlo. His memories are now disordered — he believes I betrayed him. Arlo is undoubtedly the cause.”


    Luca’s eyes brightened instantly. After weeks of fruitless searching with Steven, they had finally found a direction. Identifying Arlo could reveal everything William had endured.


    Ste shifted her gaze to Nina, whoseplexion had gone ashen. Her voice dropped even colder. “Nina, what did you do to him?”


    Nina red back, hatred zing in her eyes. “Why should I tell you anything? Do not delude yourself, Ste. I hope William never forgives you. Better yet, I hope he never gets better.”


    Ste recovering her memories hadpletely disrupted Nina’s ns. Now she wanted William to remain broken forever — she wanted them to love each other while trapped in endless misunderstanding, reaching for one another and never connecting.


    Ste met Nina’s venom with quiet contempt. “You call this love? Do you understand how much his fractured memory has tortured him?”


    Nina clenched her jaw. “When he ordered my finger cut off, did he care about my pain?” The loss had be a permanent wound — a mark of her ipleteness.


    Ste replied calmly. “You are the one who turned him into this. The William I loved would never have done something like that to you.”


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