Chapter 199

Princess Elena’s POV That night, sleep would not come. I turned from one side of the bed to the other, sheets twisting around my legs, the ceiling staring back at me in the dark. The villa was quiet and Eric was in the room next to mine. Close enough to reach. Far enough to feel like a stranger. After what happened in my study, I had refused to speak to him again. I needed space. I needed time to think. I knew why he had done it. I wasn’t foolish. He had crossed continents to bring that “gift” to Villa Celeste. He thought he was rewriting the wrongs. Erasing his delay. Correcting his failure. But wasn’t it too late? Where was he when Sara hunted me in the shadows? Where was he when I warned him again and again? When I stood in that prison cell and told him I was set up in that hotel room with Philip? Why didn’t he listen? Why didn’t he believe me? That was the wound. Not Sara. Him. The doubt in his eyes back then. The hesitation. The distance when I needed him. You cannot execute doubt