Chapter 55 Caelum

• Damn. Damn. Damn! Every word Alexander speaks echoes in my mind, and panic creeps down my spine like a slow, insidious poison. This cannot be happening. Of all the cursed coincidences in the world, this is undoubtedly the cruelest, the most impossible, the most unbearable.
• I see Alexander slightly raise his right eyebrow, his expression shifting into a subtle nuance of surprise. He’s analyzing my hastily blurted-out question—an impulsive, uncontrolled reaction that exposes exactly what I most want to conceal. My anxiety betrays me, slipping through the tone of my voice, incapable of staying hidden.
• “Yes,” Alexander responds with an almost victorious smile, his gaze fixed on his wine glass. “We met. It was better than I could have hoped.” He speaks with a disarming tranquility. “After our conversation, Caelum, I considered the possibility that Aria had rebuilt her life, perhaps even married. But when I saw the two children… beautiful twins she has,” he pauses, taking a long sip of his wine, and the weight of his words falls onto the table like a lash.