"What''s wrong?" Evangeline caught the way he pressed his hand to his eye.


    Finn didn''t answer right away. He waited until the pain eased, then shook his head.


    That old injury in his eye acted up from time to time he was used to it by now. After a moment, he rubbed his eyes. When his vision finally cleared, it was as if everything had gone back to normal.


    "Probably just strained my eyes a bit,” Finn said, brushing it off.


    But Evangeline couldn''t miss the red veins spider-webbing through his eye. She remembered, suddenly, something he''d let slip before-how he''d once hurt his


    eye.


    Back then, he''d joked about it.


    But looking at him now, she realized ordinary eye strain didn''t look like this.


    Just then, a thought flickered through her mind.


    "Wait here a second."


    She unbuckled her seatbelt, opened the car door, and hopped out.


    There was a pharmacy not far from the Whitmore family estate. When she was little, she''d once tumbled from a tree, leaving her eye bloodshot and swollen. Her mom had gone to that very pharmacy for medicine, and within a week, her eye had healed.


    Now, Evangeline hurried there, bought the same eye drops, and returned to the


    car.


    Finn saw the bounce in her step as she got back in, and couldn''t help but smile. "Where''d you disappear to? All mysterious and secretive."


    Evangeline waved the bottle of eye drops at him.


    "These work wonders. Should help a bit."


    She slid back into her seat, twisted the cap off, and leaned over toward him.


    The golden sunset spilled in behind her, bathing her hair in a warm glow. Her delicate features seemed almost ethereal in that soft light, and her amber eyes sparkled.


    Finn gazed at her, his heart skipping a beat.


    They were so close now, he could feel her breath mingling with his.


    "Lower yourself a bit-tilt your head back," Evangeline instructed, holding the bottle in one hand and gently tipping his chin up with the other.


    Finn was too tall; his legs were long, but so was his torso. At this angle, she couldn''t quite get the right position for the drops.


    There was something strange about being this close, but despite the odd feeling, Finn found himself obeying without protest.


    Evangeline squeezed the drops into his eye, then gently massaged the area around it.


    "Feel any better?" she asked.


    Finn grabbed a tissue from the glovebox, handed one to her so she could wipe her hands, then used another to dab the leftover drops from his face.


    Honestly, they wouldn''t do much good. His injury was old-this stuff couldn''t really help anymore.


    But when he saw Evangeline''s hopeful, expectant look, he found himself smiling anyway. "Much better," he said.


    A harmless lie.


    Evangeline saw through it; the redness in his eye hadn''t faded at all. And when she''d leaned in to help, she''d noticed a tiny scar, barely visible, at the edge of his pupil.


    So, it wasn''t just eye strain, or a minor injury. This was something far more serious, and no over-the-counter remedy would fix it.


    But she didn''t call him out. Instead, she set the eye drops in the center console. "I''ll just leave these here. If you feel ufortable, use them—they might help a little. And try not to strain your eyes so much, okay?"


    Finn nodded.


    Still, Evangeline felt uneasy.


    He was lying.


    And she knew he was lying.


    But she couldn''t bring herself to confront him about it. It was a gentle lie, after all -and sometimes, it was better for both of them to leave things unsaid. Exposing the truth would only make things harder.


    Just like when Soren had pressed Finn with those questions earlier, making everything so ufortable.


    With that thought, her mind began to settle.


    "Evangeline." Finn spoke suddenly, breaking the silence.


    She gave a quiet "Yeah?" and looked at him-only then realizing, from the seriousness in his eyes, that something had changed.