?Chapter 1639:


    Ste shook her head slowly. “I’m fine. Please don’t worry about me.” She just needed a moment to absorb the fact that William had been nning to take down Arlo this entire time.


    She turned to look at Sharon and Josie, her voice barely above a whisper. “He knew everything from the beginning. He just… didn’t want me caught up in any of it.”


    Sharon and Josie shared a weighted look, their eyesmunicating emotions too tangled to put into words. Even if William had understood Arlo’s true nature from the very beginning, that knowledge didn’t erase the harm he had inflicted on Ste during his episodes.


    Sharon shifted her attention back to Ste and asked carefully, “What do we do now? Should we go inside?”


    Ste forced down the emotions threatening to surface and shook her head firmly. “No. He has no idea I’m here, and if I walk in now, I might throw off everything he’s been working toward.” The safer choice was to act as though she knew nothing at all, sparing him anyplications he didn’t need.


    With that resolution settling in her mind, she turned to Sharon and Josie. “Let’s go. We need to act like we never heard any of this.”


    The three of them slipped away without a sound and made their way back down to the restaurant’s ground floor. Ste cast one final look toward the staircase that led upward before she turned and followed the others out through the doors.


    Part of her desperately wanted to march back in there and tell William she knew the truth — that she was ready to stand beside him and face whatever came next together. But she also understood that this wasn’t the right moment. William must have hadpelling reasons for deciding to shoulder this burden alone. If she barged in without warning, she might onlyplicate things.


    Sharon noticed how distracted Ste seemed as they walked and reached over to nudge her arm gently. “Stel, where did your mind just go?”


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    Ste pulled herself out of her spiraling thoughts and managed a weak smile. “Nothing. I was just thinking that maybe I should have more faith in him.”


    Sharon couldn’t find the right words to respond, so she let the silence speak for her instead.


    The moment the three of them stepped out of the restaurant, they spotted Haley standing just outside, seemingly waiting for them all along. Her eyes swept over Ste’s troubled expression, and a half-smile curved across her lips. “Well, Ste, did you manage to see what you came here for?”


    Ste stopped and locked eyes with her without hesitation. “Haley, you need to stay out of my business. I don’t care what brought you back to this country, but if you keep showing up in my life and hurting the people I care about, don’t expect me to hold back.” She could easily drag up every incident from their past if she needed to — and when that happened, Haley would once again find herself painted as the viin in the public eye.


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