When Arwen opened her eyes, she had decided on her option.
She turned and looked at Aiden, her gaze filled with an emotion too raw to hide anymore.
"Aiden, I don't want to hide anymore," she said, making his brows knit in slight confusion.
His gaze narrowed slightly, but she didn't falter.
Keeping her eyes locked on his, she continued, "I know it will be easy to make things better if I apologize and say that I didn't an to say what I said … that I didn't actually dislike it when you ntioned your first love just now. But I can't. Because I don't regret saying it at all."
Aiden's expression eased as realization dawned in his eyes.
But he didn't interrupt. He simply listened to whatever she had to say … with all interest.
"I can't lie just so that you will feel better and less offended by the stance of your old love," she said, her voice firm yet soft. "Because a lie will always be a lie. And if the sa situation were to happen again, I know I wouldn't react any differently. So, I choose to be honest with you."
"Honest?" he echoed gently.
She nodded, her gaze flickering with quiet resolve. "Yes. Honest. Without pretending. Without hiding how I truly feel."
Aiden nodded, his voice low and warm. "Go ahead, then."
Arwen took a small breath. "Aiden, I know you had a past —a girl you once loved deeply. You never hid that from , and for that, I am truly grateful. But gratitude doesn't give the strength to carry it with forever."
"They say first loves are hard to forget. I believed that, too. That's why when you told there was soone you have had in your heart, I knew that even if you promise to make your present and future, we will always have your past in between us —dormant but there. I have had no complaints about it before because I thought it would never affect anything."
She paused, searching his eyes.
"But lately … it has started affecting . More than I want to admit."
She gave a fragile laugh. "Fettuccine Alfredo is my favorite. Especially when you cook it. But when you told you learned to make it for her … I just wanted to hate it from my core."
Her eyes shimred, but she didn't look away. "She must have been amazing to make you fall so deeply for her. I have never t her and maybe I never will —but still, sohow, the re ntion of her has started to make … uneasy.
She smiled, though it was faint. "Strange, right? But I am being honest. The thought of sharing even a shadow of you with soone else —past, present, or future —makes my heart ache."
She felt like a villain for saying it, but she couldn't help it. It was her truth. One that she could no longer deny.
Drawing a breath, her voice dropped into a whisper. "Maybe you gave her a part of yourself that no one else will ever have again. Maybe there are things that belong to her mory. But now that she is gone …" her gaze sharpened, brimming with possessiveness. "I want you to just rember ."
"Whether it is Fettuccine Alfredo, or anything in your life … I want it all associated with . You are my husband, and I want my husband to just belong to and only . No one else. Neither from the past nor from any other phase of life."
She bit her lip, as if bracing herself for rejection. "Do you get it?"
Aiden stood still for a long mont, absorbing every word. His face remained unreadable, eyes dark and quiet.
Then, slowly, he raised his hand and cupped her cheek, his touch warm and grounding.
"Did you get jealous of her?" he asked.
And his question only made Arwen frown.
Was that what he had to ask her after all that she had said?
"Jealous?" she repeated.
He nodded with quiet surety. "You just sounded jealous."
"What if I am jealous?" she asked back. She didn't want to accept it, but she did envy the girl who held his past. "Will you just shrug it off, saying that those are just so impulsive emotions? And as it will pass away, I will get used to it."
Aiden shook his head. "Jealousy isn't an impulsive emotion, Moon," he said gently. "It's intimate … vulnerable. It doesn't co from nowhere —it cos from caring too deeply. For loving soone enough that the thought of them being hurt, or having once belonged to soone else, unsettled sothing inside you."
He stepped closer, his voice low with conviction.
"Jealousy ans your heart is involved. It ans you have let soone in so deeply that even their past feels personal. It's never an impulse. So, tell , are you jealous, Moon?"
Arwen stared at him for a mont. Until today, she feels that jealousy was a toxic emotion, always frowned upon. But the way he put it didn't make it sound so wrong.
"I am," she admitted, finally. "I felt jealous when you said that you ntioned her so intimately. Yes, I was jealous."
Aiden's heart thumped loudly inside his chest. His gaze beca thick with emotion.
He didn't blink rather searched her face in detail as if looking for sothing. And he found it … deep in her gaze.
But that didn't feel enough. A silent confession doesn't feel enough.
He wanted her to confirm it for him. Loud and clear.
The cup of his hand shifted a little ... uncontrollably, as he drew her closer to himself. "Does that an you have fallen for , Moon? Do you love ?"
Arwen paused, not sure what to answer.
His gaze felt desperate, and she could tell he was waiting for her to say yes.
Was it important for him?
"I am waiting to know, Moon. Tell , do you love ?"
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