CHAPTER 59: A QUIET UNDERSTANDING

Daisy looked ahead. She didn’t know how they ended up here, some quiet stretch of beach just waking to the soft blush of morning but at least, she had a cup of coffee warming her hands and a tuna croissant sitting neatly on her lap.

The tide lapped in slow rhythm, like the world was trying to soothe itself. The gulls cried overhead, distant and detached. It was peaceful, in the kind of way that didn’t ask for words.

She glanced at Elias beside her, only to realize too late that her head had tilted a little too much, her gaze lingering longer than she meant.

"I know I’m too handsome to ignore," he said, without looking at her.

She immediately cleared her throat and snapped her gaze forward. "I mean... I did fall in love with his face at first. That’s why we got married." The lie slipped out too smoothly now.

"Really...?" Elias rested his head on his knees, turning it slightly toward her. "I wish he met you earlier..."

The words hit her like a wave she hadn’t seen coming.

Daisy froze, fingers tightening around the coffee cup. She couldn’t tell if it was the softness in his tone or the weight of what he didn’t say but it stunned her, all the same.

Then Elias spoke again, his voice low, eyes still on the horizon.

"You can ask me one thing," he said. "Just one. Whatever you’re most curious about right now."

It caught her off guard, the sudden openness. Like he was offering her a thread to pull, knowing it might unravel everything.

She stayed quiet for nearly a full minute, the waves filling in the space where her words couldn’t.

Then finally, she asked, "So... why did Camellia say that she and Theo were supposed to get engaged at nineteen?"

Elias visibly tensed. His head snapped up, a flicker of surprise passing through his expression before he masked it with a teasing smirk.

"I thought you’d ask something else," he said, brows slightly lifted. "Is this what we called... jealous?"

"Wouldn’t you?" Daisy shot back, her tone light but eyes steady. "A woman openly saying she wants my husband... and that they were supposed to get engaged at nineteen. What do you feel?"

"I don’t know..." He gave a small shrug, the corner of his mouth twitching with a hint of dry humor. "I’m a man. We’re not exactly built for complex emotional processing."

"Then... just answer my question," she muttered, eyes flicking back to the horizon.

"Well... since I didn’t experience it firsthand... I mean, I wasn’t there then, I only learned about it later," he admitted, voice dropping slightly. "So I can’t say for sure if what I know is completely accurate..."

He paused, as if sorting through fragments of someone else’s memories.

"The thing is, Camellia was adopted... but not officially. She was never on the family registry. From what I know, she was the daughter of dad’s best friend, his buddy from way back. Both her parents died in a car crash. After that, she came to live with them."

Daisy’s brows knit slightly. "So... Kingston never officially adopted her?"

Elias gave a short shake of his head. "Nope. Never put her on the family registry. I think... maybe he didn’t want to erase the memory of her real parents."

A gust of salty wind passed between them. Daisy stared at her croissant, no longer hungry. "So the engagement thing?"

"I heard it was... suggested," he said. "Not by Theo. But Dad might’ve hinted at it once, just to shut up the press. Two talented kids under the same roof, good family names, you know the drill."

"And she took it seriously?"

"She flipped. Furious." Elias smirked, eyes distant with the memory. "She flat-out said, ’I love Julian. Who would ever love a rebellious monster like him?’"

Daisy blinked. Julian. That name again.

She’d heard it earlier, when Elias confronted Evelyn. It had been buried under the heat of that moment, but now, hearing it again, it tugged at her curiosity with more weight.

She almost asked. Who was Julian?

But something told her not to because it seemed like he was not ready to talk about everything that had been a burden inside his head.

So instead, she turned her eyes back to the waves. "She really said that to him?"

Elias nodded. "With all the grace of a girl burning a bridge she didn’t think she’d ever want to cross."

A breath passed.

"And now she suddenly wants him?" Daisy muttered.

He gave a low, dry laugh. "Not him—me."

He turned to look at her for a moment, his gaze steady, then continued,

"She hated the old Theo Kingsley. Said he was too loud, too reckless. Then when he changed... became quiet, cold... she couldn’t stand that either. Honestly... he’s kind of pitiful, isn’t he?"

Daisy gazed at him, searching his eyes like she was looking for something buried deep.

"Hmm... nope," she said, a smile tugging at her lips. "He’s strong. Independent. A bit dramatic, maybe. But not pitiful."

She sipped her coffee. "He’s just... surviving in a world that never really gave him a choice."

That made Elias go still.

For a long moment, neither of them spoke. The sea kept whispering. The morning light, now gold, slipped across the water. Their breaths, visible in the cool air, seemed to slow at the same pace.

When she looked at him again, he was already looking at her.

Something softened in his eyes. Not the usual teasing glint, not the practiced confidence but something honest. Like her words had reached somewhere inside he didn’t usually let people see.

"Daisy..." he murmured her name barely a breath between them.

She didn’t move. Completely still while looking at him, the corners of her lips faintly upturned.

Elias leaned in slowly like he wasn’t entirely sure if he should but still drawn forward, as if the silence between them had finally settled into something that didn’t need fixing.

And when his lips found hers, it felt like they’d finally reached a quiet understanding. No words, no promises, just an answer neither of them had dared to ask for, until now.