Amelia coughed softly, the sound breaking the suffocating silence between them.
"Seduced?" she repeated, disbelief lacing her voice."I seduced you?" she asked, staring at Aldric as though he had spoken a foreign language. "When?"
Aldric's grip loosened. He stepped back, withdrawing his hand as if touching her had burned him.
"You don't need to know" he said coldly.
Amelia's chest tightened. She swallowed, her voice trembling despite her effort to sound calm.
"Did you… fall in love with me?", she asked.
For a moment, the night stood still.
Then Aldric laughed, it wasn't warm. It wasn't amused. It was sharp and empty.
"Love?" he echoed. "You don't deserve one."
The words struck like a blade.
"I don't even know what love is, my little princess" he continued coolly. "So don't get your hopes up."
Something inside Amelia shattered, she felt it quiet, painful, irreversible.
She turned her face away, but it was too late. Aldric saw it.
