Their eyes met, and the intensity of Axel's gaze made Evelyn's heart skip a beat.
She clasped her hands tightly on her lap, forcing herself to remain steady as she waited for the truth she desperately wanted to know.
Axel exhaled slowly, the sound heavy with reluctance. "Your father," he began at last, his voice stripped of its usual ease, "and my parents used to be best friends."
Evelyn froze, genuine shock rippling across her face.
"…Best friends?" she repeated, struggling to reconcile the image with everything she knew.
Axel nodded once, his gaze distant. "In their youth," he clarified quietly. "They were inseparable. They trusted each other more than anyone else."
The truth alone felt surreal. The idea of William Walter laughing alongside Alexander and Amanda Knight seemed almost impossible to imagine, given the bitterness that now defined their relationship.
