She lowered her head and wiped hard at her eyes. Only then did she notice that none of the food on the table had been touched.
“Did you get stood up?” She looked up at him at once.
Then she realized he hadn’t been here on a blind date at all. The corners of her mouth almost lifted, but she held her breath and waited for his answer.
Chris looked down at her. Her eyes were red, but they still shone like stars.
Something seemed to burn in his own eyes, as if something inside him had been set on fire and destroyed. His pupils tightened slightly, and a dark, possessive shadow gathered deep in his gaze.
He pulled her into his arms.
Even through their clothes, his broad palm felt scorching against her waist and back. His throat moved, and his voice came out low and hoarse.
“Don’t change the subject. Say that again.”
The fire in his dark eyes made her heart shake. It felt as if fireworks had gone off inside her head.
In the empty restaurant, only their voices echoed.
“Chris, will you be my boyfriend?”
“Winter, let’s be together.”
A pebble dropped into the water, and ripples spread across the surface. Their reflections trembled in the shifting water, then slowly disappeared.
By the crescent-shaped lake, the wind kept blowing her hair into her eyes. She bent down and picked a small bluish-purple flower with a green, flexible stem, intending to use it to tie her hair back.
But Chris took the flower from her.
He pulled her into his arms.
His hands were steady and powerful, but when it came to something as simple as tying her hair, his movements were unexpectedly clumsy.
“Like this?”
“You’re terrible at this. Your punishment is tying my hair every day from now on.”
His broad palms cupped her face. He smiled and said something, and she grew so embarrassed and annoyed that she tackled him into the flowers, biting and nipping at him.
“What are you, a puppy?” Chris lightly pinched her chin, his eyes full of laughter, then kissed her.
The flowers beneath them were crushed, and petals clung to both of their clothes.
Under the moonlight, the breeze swept across the sea of flowers. His warm fingers brushed gently over her brows and eyes.
“Winnie.
“Would you dare marry me?”
He looked exactly as he had that year, when she first saw him in the hallway while a housekeeper held her hand.
“Mr. Xander, Mrs. Xander Sr. said Scott will be living at the Xander estate from now on.”
“As long as she doesn’t bother me.”
Her ears rang.
Her chest clenched violently, and she coughed up blood.
Why?
Thunder cracked through the pouring rain.
She rushed out of the house, only for her wrist to be caught in a crushing grip.
“Winnie!”
She turned back.
The boy’s face and the man’s face overlapped.
From then until now, she had spent more than ten years trapped in a lie.

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