"Hailey, are you okay?" Evadne finally asked when they were alone.
After eating, she'd politely asked Michael if she could look around the Dalton garden with Hailey. In truth, she hadn't cared about the orchids... she just wanted a chance to talk to her without an audience.
"Yes, I'm fine," Hailey replied, walking slowly along the neat rows of orchids. She reached out, fingertips skimming light over a cluster of pale blossoms. Then, all at once, she stopped, turned, and looked straight at Evadne.
"Do you like Michael?" she asked bluntly.
"Excuse me?" Evadne blinked, caught completely off guard. "I have a fiancé," she reminded her, as if Hailey wasn't there the night Hades dropped to one knee in front of hundreds of high-society guests and officially asked her to be his girlfriend.
"I know, but…" Hailey's voice trailed off. The rest of the sentence stuck in her throat.
"But you don't trust the women who get close to Mr Heavensblade," Evadne finished softly. "Because you know they like him and they're trying to get his attention."
"Yeah. Something like that," Hailey admitted, cheeks flushing with embarrassment.
"If it makes you feel better," Evadne said, "he's not my type. Even if, according to Casadin, Michael is superior in every physical aspect and he, quote, 'looks like he should just be the guy carrying Mr Heavensblade's shoes in the background.'"
She laughed as she said it, then stepped closer, gently taking Hailey's hands in her own.
"You don't have to be on guard around me, Hailey," Evadne said quietly. "I'm not the kind of girl who snakes someone else's boyfriend."
She paused… then winced.
"Actually…" Guilt flickered in her voice. "Actually, I am."
Hailey's eyes widened.
"But hear me out first, okay?" Evadne added quickly. "So... Hades and I have been betrothed since we were six, I think. The original plan was that Hades would be adopted by the Falcons specifically to marry me, so that I'd take the Falcon name. They couldn't adopt me, so they adopted him."
They started walking again, following the stone path through the garden as Evadne talked.
"Hades hated me back then," she continued with a wry smile. "He thought his whole life was being shaped just to be 'perfect' for me. That everything he did... every class, every training, every expectation... was so he could stand beside me. And he resented it."
Hailey listened silently, fingers lightly brushing the leaves of a nearby plant.
"And even though he was betrothed to me," Evadne went on, "he actually had… something… with my niece, Cieryl. We're the same age, Cieryl and I. Their relationship was never official, but she was basically the center of his universe."
She let out a rueful little sigh.
"Hades and I used to clash all the time at NYE," she said. "We couldn't stand each other. At one point, I even proposed we just fake being the perfect couple in front of our parents, but inside school he could be openly with Cieryl. I told him I'd cover for them. I'd be their alibi."
Hailey's brows knit tighter at that.
"But somewhere in the middle of all that pretending," Evadne whispered, "we… changed. We fought so much we started to understand each other. He started defending me against his 'friends.' I started seeing the real him beneath all the resentment. We developed feelings. And then we ended up together."
She glanced at Hailey with a crooked, almost guilty smile.
"So technically," she asked, "I didn't really steal Hades, right? I mean… he was mine in the first place. Right?"
"I… think so?" Hailey answered, still not entirely sure.
"But anyway," Evadne continued, "Cieryl kind of made it her life's mission to get me in trouble after that. Every little scheme she pulled to make me look bad always backfired because Hades would end up protecting me."
"Are you not scared?" Hailey asked suddenly.
"Scared of what?" Evadne tilted her head.
"Of karma," Hailey said quietly. "Regardless of the circumstances… you still hurt your niece by taking the man she loves. You said it yourself earlier... she used to be the center of Hades' universe. What if they still have feelings for each other?"
Evadne smiled, but there was a softness in it... an acknowledgment that the question was fair.
"Well, I didn't tell you the full, juicy details," she replied. "Because some of it isn't mine to tell. But, before Hades and I got together, they had already fallen apart. He found out Cieryl cheated on him. When he thought he had no one, I was the one person he called."
Her lips curved into a small, smug smirk.
"And I was also the person who told him where to find Cieryl so he could catch her cheating," Evadne admitted in a conspiratorial whisper. "Then I waited for him to call me. I wanted to be there when he needed someone the most."
"You… manipulated him?" Hailey asked, stunned.
"Yeah," Evadne said without flinching. "But at that time, we genuinely hated each other's guts. I just wanted to cause him trouble. I didn't do it thinking, 'Oh yes, this is how I'll steal him.' I just wanted to poke the bear."
She gave a small laugh.
"Then after that," she added, "when he started choosing my side over his so-called friends… when he kept standing between me and the people trying to hurt me… the feelings just… happened."
She exhaled, then made a face.
"I'm not being very convincing, am I?" she said. "Here I am, telling you to trust me not to steal your fiancé, when I literally just confessed to stealing someone's boyfriend."
Evadne looked at Hailey with a genuine smile.
"How about this," she said. "I'm not going to promise you that I will never steal Mr. Heavensblade from you... because I know you'd doubt that kind of promise. But I will promise you this, and Flynn can vouch for me... if I ever decide to take something, or someone, from you, you will not be caught by surprise. I'll do it right in front of you and I'll tell you to your face while I'm doing it."
Her eyes glinted, half-teasing, half-dead serious.
"That's how confident I am that I can take anything I set my mind on," she went on. "So until that day comes... if it ever does... let's be 'friends' for Flynn's sake. Deal? Like they say... keep your friends close, and your enemies closer."
Evadne offered her hand for a handshake.
Hailey hesitated for a moment, then finally smiled back... this time, a small but genuine smile.
"Frenemies then," Hailey said, taking her hand.
"Frenemies," Evadne echoed with a soft laugh.
She slipped her arm through Hailey's, linking them as they started walking again between the rows of orchids.
"You know what," Evadne added, "I should give you a little tip on how to be a Heavensblade fiancée."
Hailey glanced at her, curious despite herself.
"Since we've already established that your fiancé is, by far, the most handsome man in the universe," Evadne said, chuckling, "don't waste your energy stressing over every woman who wants to throw herself at him. I'm sure Mr. Heavensblade has great taste and very high standards. The kind of woman who just tosses herself at his feet? I doubt she'll even get a full sentence from him."
She gave Hailey a reassuring smile.
"So instead of focusing on him all the time and twisting yourself into knots trying to please him, do what makes you happy while we're still young," Evadne continued. "Show those women that being affected by them, being jealous of them, is beneath you. After all, the most handsome man in the universe chose you to be his fiancée."
She stopped walking and turned to face Hailey fully.
"I noticed it earlier," Evadne said, "and even when you visited me at the hospital. You wanted to join our conversations, but you held back because you felt you had to sit beside Mr. Heavensblade and keep him company. It was his choice to sit there like a cold statue in the room, Hailey. You don't have to become a statue too just to prove yourself to him."
Her tone gentled, but her words stayed firm.
"In love, you don't have to prove yourself," she said. "You have to be you. You have to show the person you love who you really are, so that he can love that person. If you keep molding yourself into what you think Mr. Heavensblade wants, he won't love you... or at least, he won't love the real you."
She squeezed Hailey's hands lightly.
"Love isn't supposed to be counting your steps so you don't trip while walking behind the man you love," Evadne said softly. "It's supposed to be walking with him, and knowing that even if you stumble, he's there to catch you when you fall. So one day, when you look back on that moment, the two of you can laugh about it like it happened yesterday."
Evadne took a breath, eyes warm and sincere.
"I know you love Mr. Heavensblade so much that you accept his cold treatment," she went on. "I'm not going to tell you to stop loving him. But try to love yourself more, Hailey. You really are a beautiful person... inside and out. I can see that. And I know you're not hard to love. You don't have to try so hard just to be loved."
She smiled and gently patted Hailey's hand.
"I hope one day you'll see that too," Evadne finished.
Hailey didn't know what to say. Her throat felt tight. The guilt she'd been carrying since that morning rose and curled in her chest. How could she ever have thought of hating someone like Evadne? Someone who spoke to her like this... honest, blunt, but kind?
"We should go back to the boys," Evadne said after a moment, turning toward the main garden again. "Casadin can be so annoying sometimes, especially around cold and stoic people like Mr. Heavensblade. He'll poke and poke and push their buttons so hard, I wouldn't be surprised if they're already throwing punches by the time we get back."
She walked ahead first, giving Hailey a bit of space... to think, to breathe, to finally really notice how beautiful the Dalton Villa's orchid garden actually was.
Evadne followed the path back toward the garden canopy... only to stop in her tracks.
It wasn't just Michael, Casadin, and Flynn sitting under the canopy anymore.
There was another girl there... around their age, with cotton-candy pink hair that fell in soft waves over her shoulders. At first glance, she looked perfectly human. But Evadne knew better. The aura around her was familiar. It was the same subtle, unmistakable angelic pressure she had felt from the angel who'd been watching her and Hades at the hospital days ago.
"You have another visitor," Evadne said to Hailey when the other girl finally caught up with her.
Hailey followed her gaze toward the canopy and frowned slightly.
"Is she one of your friends?" Hailey asked.
"No," Evadne replied quietly. "I believe she's Mr. Heavensblade's personal guest."
She walked forward toward the canopy.
Casadin was seated at the table... and currently locked in a silent staring contest with Michael Heavensblade. Michael sat there with his usual unreadable, cold expression. Casadin wore his signature charming, infuriatingly smug smirk... the kind of expression that could make a saint want to punch him just to wipe it off his face.