?Chapter 1030:


    As Lydia reached the next step, Jeffry looked up at her. “How have you been all this time?” he asked, his voice almost gentle.


    That single question was a knife twisting in Lydia’s chest, stirring up old hurt she thought she had buried. Determined not to let him see her pain, she clenched her jaw and forced herself to swallow it down. Hatred burned in her chest. It seemed unthinkable that Jeffry could speak so gently, as if he still had the right, when he had already destroyed her trust. He had made his choice. He had walked away to marry another woman. Nothing could ever erase that betrayal.


    Lydia’s expression turned as cold as winter itself. Her voice carried the chill of frost. “You do not have the right to ask.”


    Jeffry reached out, maybe hoping to hold on to what was already gone, but Lydia recoiled as if his touch burned her.


    “Don’t touch me! I don’t want your dirty hands on me!” Lydia hissed, her wordsced with fury.


    For a moment, Jeffry looked like he might break. His breathing grew heavy, but he managed to collect himself. A quiet, almost pleading tone crept into his voice. “I never made out with my wife.”


    He had no intention of starting another fight with Lydia. For once, he just let it go.


    Ever since meeting again after so much time apart, Jeffry realized he and Lydia hadn’t had a single conversation that didn’t spiral into another fight. All he wanted, though, was to find his way back to her. Time spent alone had changed his perspective. Losing Lydia made him realize she wasn’t someone he could simply move on from—her absence left a void he couldn’t ignore.


    Jeffry tried to bridge the distance, his voice soft but firm. “There’s never been anyone else. You’re the only woman I’ve ever been with.”


    Lydia didn’t even flinch. She didn’t believe a single word. Her tone stayed ice-cold as she said, “Whatever it is, it’s got nothing to do with me. I don’t even want to know. Keep it to yourself.”


    A frown deepened on Jeffry’s face as he watched her. This kind of coldness was new—she’d never spoken to him like a stranger before.


    Jeffry found himself staring at her, memories flickering in his mind. It hadn’t been long ago when everything was different. There was a time when Lydia’sughter filled his world. She used to slip into his study without a sound, bare feet padding across the floor, jumping into hisp and demanding his attention. Now even the thought of his hand on her shoulder made her recoil. The look of disdain in her eyes hit him hard, slicing through the fog of nostalgia. Jeffry’s normally upright posture slumped just a little, and hisposed eyes trembled faintly, made all the more poignant by the rundown building standing behind him. Emotion roughened his words. “I was so full of myself. I never once thought about how you felt. I’m sorry. Lydia, just—don’t talk to me like that. Please.”


    Jeffry held himself with the kind of natural poise that turned heads—shoulders squared, frame lean, moving like he’d stepped out of a magazine spread. He was the Harper family’s firstborn and already making waves in the tech world. Never once had he lowered himself the way he just did.


    Fresh stories here gα?ησν????s?c?m


    Hearing the tremor in his voice, Lydia paused, her resolve wavering for a heartbeat. In all her memories, Jeffry was always the steady one—cool,posed, exuding a quiet confidence, the sort of man who seemed to have the answer to everything.


    Lydia’s hand twitched, uncertain, as if she might reach for him after all this time. Just as she drew a breath to speak, footsteps sounded behind her. Ethan appeared without warning, cutting through the moment. “Why are you hanging around down here?”


    Lydia jolted as if shaken awake. “I’m heading up now,” she answered quickly. Turning away from Jeffry, she hurried up the stairs, moving so fast it seemed she was trying to outrun her own feelings.


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