Chapter 465
[ 517 words ]
Chapter 465:
Ashley was left standing alone in the doorway, the object of dozens of pitying and mocking stares. The humiliation was a physical thing, a hot flush that spread up her neck and across her face.
Evelyn hurried to catch up with Caroline outside. “My God, Caroline, that was incredible! You were like a queen.”
The regal, intimidating aura around Caroline vanished, replaced by a weary sigh. “I just hate drama.”
Evelyn’s expression turned serious. “But you can’t just dismiss it as drama,” she warned, her voice urgent. “That girl is a symptom of a larger problem. You have to take this seriously, Caroline. You have to protect what you have. A man like Colonel Romero… there will always be women circling.”
Caroline stopped walking and turned to face Evelyn, her expression calm and resolute. “I trust him, Evelyn. I don’t consider a woman like Ashley a threat to him.”
Evelyn threw her hands up in a gesture of fond exasperation. “I’m not saying she’s a threat to him! I’m not saying she could steal him. I’m saying her existence is a threat to you, to your relationship. It causes problems. Look at today. The Colonel was furious, wasn’t he?”
A frown creased Caroline’s brow. “But he wasn’t angry because of Ashley. He was angry at me.”
𝖩𝗈𝗂𝗇 𝗍𝗁𝗈𝗎𝗌𝖺𝗇𝖽𝗌 𝗈𝖿 𝖿𝖺𝗇𝗌 𝗈𝗇 𝗀𝖺𝗅𝗇𝗈𝗏𝖾𝗅𝗌.𝖼𝗈𝗆
“Exactly!” Evelyn exclaimed, jabbing a finger in the air for emphasis. “That’s the whole point. Why do you think he was angry at you?”
Caroline shook her head, a look of genuine bewilderment on her face. “I have no idea. I trusted him. I didn’t make a scene. I acted rationally. I thought he would appreciate that.”
Evelyn stared at her for a long moment, and then she burst out laughing. It wasn’t a mean laugh, but one of pure, incredulous affection. “Oh, Caroline. You are a brilliant, brilliant idiot.”
Caroline just blinked, completely lost.
Evelyn’s smile faded, and her expression became serious, like a teacher explaining a difficult concept. “Men,” she said, “especially proud, powerful men like Colonel Romero, their logic is not our logic. When he sees another woman trying to claim his territory, the last thing he wants from you is your rationality and trust.”
“Then what does he want?” Caroline asked, her voice small.
“He wants your irrationality!” Evelyn said, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. “He wants to see you get jealous. He wants to see you act like he belongs to you, and you’re ready to defend your property. Your perfect, calm composure didn’t look like trust to him. It looked like you didn’t care whether he got snatched away or not.”
The idea was so foreign, so utterly alien to Caroline’s way of thinking, that she was momentarily speechless. “That’s… absurd,” she finally managed to say. “Isn’t my trust the most valuable thing I can give him?”
“To you, maybe. To a woman, yes,” Evelyn conceded. “But to the man who just spent three days convinced you were dead, who clawed you back from the brink? Right now, what he needs is to see you stake your claim. He needs to hear you tell the world, ‘This man is mine, back off.’”
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