Page 116 of Stolen By the Heartless Duke

“Can we… sit?” Colin asked quietly. “Just for a moment.”

Evan nodded immediately. “Yes. Of course.”

He guided Colin gently back toward the cottage doorway, still keeping a hand on him as if afraid to lose contact again. Jane followed at a slower pace, watching them carefully.

Hector remained just long enough to confirm what he already knew. They were safe. For now. And then he stepped forward too, into the threshold of the small cottage where everything that had been fractured between brothers had, at last, been found again.

The cottage felt smaller once all of them were inside.

Not cramped exactly, just charming in a way that spacious London houses rarely were. One main room served as both kitchen and living space: a worn table, a small hearth, shelves with mismatched cups. A single door led to what must have been the bedroom, half-hidden behind a hanging cloth that had once been white.

Everything here had the quiet permanence of something built for necessity, not comfort. Evan moved first, almost instinctively taking charge of the space.

“Sit,” he said gently, guiding Colin toward the table. “Please. All of you.”

Colin obeyed without argument, still clinging to Evan’s presence like a lifeline that might slip away again if he wasn’t careful. Jane remained near him, hovering between giving him space and refusing to leave his side entirely.

Evan moved to the hearth, checking it quickly, then returned with a slight hesitation in his step, as if he wasn’t sure what role he was supposed to play now that there were witnesses to his real life.

Hector did not sit. He watched. For a moment, no one spoke. Then Evan turned, and his eyes landed on Hector properly for the first time since they had entered.

Something shifted in the air immediately. Hector stepped forward. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Evan blinked, as if he had expected many things, but not that tone. Jane shifted slightly, but said nothing.

Colin looked down at the table. Evan held Hector’s gaze. Hector’s voice rose, just slightly.

“I am your brother,” he said. “And you let me believe you were gone. You let me think…” He stopped, as if the thought itself was too volatile to finish. “You let me think the worst.”

Silence pressed in hard. Evan did not flinch. If anything, he looked… tired.

“I didn’t do it to hurt you,” Evan said quietly.

Hector let out a short, humorless breath. “It did not avoid hurting me.”

Evan nodded once, accepting that without resistance. Then he stepped closer, not challenging, just closing the distance. “I couldn’t tell you,” Evan said simply. “Not all of it.”

Hector’s brows tightened.

Evan continued. “You know what you are like when you care too much,” he said, a faint, almost sad edge to his voice. “You would have followed me immediately. You would have pulled every connection you have, every resource, every influence you possess.”

Hector did not deny it.

Evan nodded slightly, as if that silence was confirmation enough. “And Strachan was already watching me,” he went on. “Closely. Too closely. If you had involved yourself, he would have seen you too. And then Colin. And then all of it would have collapsed before we had any control over it at all.”

Hector’s expression tightened.

Evan held his gaze steadily. “I was trying to keep him focused on me alone,” Evan said. “If I could keep the attention narrow, contained, then Colin had a chance. A real chance.”

Colin’s fingers curled slightly against the edge of the table, but he did not speak.

Evan’s voice softened further. “But I was wrong in the way I went about it,” he admitted. “I know that now. At the time, it felt like the only way to keep either of you alive.”

He looked down briefly. “I thought if I disappeared long enough,” Evan said, “he would lose interest. Move on. Find someone else to fixate on. I underestimated him.”

Hector’s jaw clenched again, but the sharpness bled out of him. He could not be angry with his brother for long. Here he was, alive. No matter what he had done, the disappearing, the deceit, Evan was alive.

Evan lifted his gaze again. “And I am sorry,” he said. “For all of it. For making you believe I was gone. For what it cost you while you were searching. For what it cost Colin.”