It took Jude a moment to connect the dots.


    It must have been about ten years ago. A long time, anyway.


    It was Seth''s second year back in the country, and Jude used to hang out with him all the time.


    Back then, Seth was just starting his business, and things were tough.


    His first office was on the top floor of some old, run-down building. It was freezing in the winter and sweltering in the summer.


    For a while, Seth was constantly having Jude orderrge quantities of seafood to be delivered.


    But when it arrived, Seth never ate it. He''d just sit there, peeling shrimp and cracking crab legs.


    He would give all the meat to Jude and Healy, which led to a long period where the mere sight of seafood made Jude feel sick.


    That''s why the memory was so vivid, even a decadeter.


    Jude and Healy had asked him about it, of course.


    Seth had exined that the stress of starting a business was getting to him, and that peeling seafood was his way of de-stressing.


    And at the time, they had actually believed him.


    Only now did Jude realize the truth. Seth wasn''t learning to handle seafood to blow off steam.


    He was obviously doing it because he knew Noreen didn''t like to.


    "Seth, don''t tell me you were already in love with Noreen back then?" Jude asked, voicing the question that had been bugging him for years.


    Seth finished the ss of wine in his hand before answering.


    "Even earlier."


    Jude''s heart skipped a beat.


    Even earlier?


    When exactly was that?


    Seth had hidden it too well.


    It wasn''t just Noreen who hadn''t noticed; even his closest friends, the ones who''d grown up with him, had beenpletely in the dark.


    "You did all that, but you never told Noreen?" Jude was puzzled.


    "Tell her what? They were just small, insignificant things."


    He poured himself another drink, his eyes half-lidded and dark. "Besides, what right


    did I have to drag her down with me?"


    "If that''s the case, then why did you ever get involved with her?"


    Seth''s grip on the ss tightened, his voice raw as if filled with wind. "I''m only


    human. Sometimes, I lose control."


    The drug that night had been the catalyst, unleashing all the feelings he had forcibly suppressed deep within his heart.


    Once unleashed, they were impossible to contain.


    When he sobered up, he was immediately filled with regret for what he''d done.


    But it was Noreen who had told him.


    not to worry about it, that she had


    someone she loved deeply but couldn''t be with, and that he didn''t have to take responsibility Contents


    While he was bitterly disappointed, he also felt a secret sense of relief.


    He kept telling himself it was better this way, that she didn''t love him.


    If she didn''t love him, it wouldn''t be so painful when they eventually went their separate ways.


    At the same time, he warned himself that it was a mistake he could only afford to make once.


    But he had overestimated his own self-control.


    Once the bnce was broken, Seth tried everything to regain hisposure.


    He threw himself into work, went on business trips, avoided her...


    But emotions, when suppressed to the extreme, have a way of rebounding with a vengeance.


    After the first time, there was a second, and a third...


    Once you get a taste for it, you can''t stop.


    Noreen would never know that after every single time, he was consumed by regret, which made him grow colder toward her.


    He had even be so addicted to their rtionship that he postponed his ns for revenge by two years.


    In the end at was Sage Joyner who had to remind him that if he dyed any longer, his target would retire with full honors and quietly


    disappear abroad to live a life


    Teisure.


    He would have both the des and the money.


    ...


    Jaxon stood up to make the rounds, toasting the guests at each table with Sue by his side.


    When they reached Noreen and Castle''s table, her smile was painfully fake, her jaw clenched tight.


    Jaxon, on the other hand, was perfectlyposed, greeting Castle cheerfully and even exchanging a few words with Noreen.


    As they clinked sses, Sue''s hand "trembled," and she spilled half a ss of red wine all over Noreen''s dress.


    Jaxon''s expression darkened.


    Sue put on an innocent face. "Oh, I''m so sorry, Miss Gilmore. It was an ident."


    "It''s fine." Noreen had no patience for such petty tricks.


    Even Jaxon seemed embarrassed by the disy. He snapped at Sue, "Miss Gilmore is my guest of honor! Take me to get that cleaned.op now!"