"Wait!" Katelyn insisted, pushing him away again, establishing a small but necessary distance. "Will you be sincere?" Her eyes were piercing. "What about the won you’ve seen in the past? What did you do about Evelyn? She ca to lecture the other day!"
Her voice escalated as she delivered a clear, fiery warning. "What if more won co later? I swear, you’ll die by my hands if that happens!"
Sage listened without flinching, knowing he deserved this scrutiny. "What Evelyn did was indeed my negligence in the matter," he admitted honestly. "I ended everything with her on a good note from my side. As for the others, no one has returned to . It never happened, except for a very few old acquaintances."
He stepped closer. "Kate, I swear, I am not the man who is relieving his stress through sex only. In the huge amount of ti we spent together, you must have seen this as well. My views have changed. Did you not feel it even once? Tell ."
He then opened his stance, his vulnerability laid bare. "And if you still have doubts about , then you can walk away from now. What I said last night was so wrong. If you want to punish , then you can do that too. I was hurt this ti. Too hurt. I really wanted you to embrace ."
He concluded with a vow regarding his family, the source of much of Katelyn’s fear. "And as for my family, if they try taking any benefits from you, I will just walk away from them. I give you my word, Kate. If I find them taking advantage of your position, I will be the first one to stop them. Maybe my words don’t carry the weight now, but if it happens in the future, I will not let it affect you or your family."
"What about your mother? You have been searching for her so desperately. Only your father knows about her," Katelyn asked, shifting the topic to a persistent pain point in Sage’s life.
"If Dad had to tell about her, he would have done a long ti ago," Sage stated, a weariness in his tone. "I have asked soone for help, and he has asked for a few weeks to gather information. In short, I will look for her myself."
"Hmm. You could have asked my brother, Gabriel, to help you," Kate suggested.
"I told you I didn’t wish to bother Gabriel with my problems when he is burdened with his own. Moreover, it is my problem. I should solve it myself," Sage opined firmly. He then shifted, his mood lifting, eager to reconnect after their emotional breakthrough. "Shall we kiss now? We never had a proper kiss before," he asserted, reaching for her.
"No!" Katelyn gently shoved him away again. She was not done addressing the hurt he caused. "What you said last night was absolutely wrong about . Even though I have confessed my feelings to you, you need to make see if, in the future, in any argunt, you will use sothing similar for or not," she affird.
She recounted the pain with clear sincerity. "I cried because of you. And I could not sleep well because of what you said. Now, show what kind of man you can be for ," she stated, taking a few strategic steps away from him, forcing him to prove himself.
Sage did not offer any explanation for what he did last night. He simply nodded, because he understood completely that he was wrong.
"So, are you leaving? Stay here," he asserted, stepping quickly toward her trolley bag. "I will cook for you. You must be tired from the journey. I have one more room in the apartnt. If you don’t want to rest in my room, you can do so in the other one."
"Alright," Katelyn agreed, her resistance softening at his attentiveness.
He bead, his first genuine smile since their argunt, and led her toward the spare room. As he pushed the door open for her, he continued, his tone lightened by curiosity, "By the way, how did you find out the passcode of my apartnt?"
"I guessed it would be my birthday," Katelyn replied simply, a faint trace of pride in her voice. "But why did you keep it as a code?"
Sage stopped near the lower edge of the bed, his surprise evident. "Well, a few days ago, I was thinking that we would start living together. I an, it was just a weird thought, and in that thought, I ended up putting your birthday as the passcode." He paused, his eyes full of admiration. "You are smart."
"You called naive," Katelyn reminded him instantly, her sharp glare showing she had not forgotten his hurtful words from the night before.
"I’m sorry," Sage said promptly, appearing right in front of her.
"I won’t forgive you," Katelyn snapped back, trying to maintain her firm stance. "Now, leave," she commanded, gesturing toward the door.
Sage simply nodded and brushed past her. But he was swift and unexpected: he managed to plant a soft, lingering kiss on her cheek before disappearing from her sight, leaving her with the pleasant shock of the contact.
Katelyn imdiately turned on her heels to find him, but he wasn’t at the door. A slow, warm smile spread across her face. She simply shut the door to the guest room.
anwhile, just outside the room, Sage paused. He closed his eyes and reflected on the truly awful things he had said to Katelyn last night, and he winced, giving himself light slaps on the forehead.
"She returned for ," he muttered, his heart swelling with renewed gratitude. "I was such a bad guy to her. I claid to have feelings for her, then I hurt her. I have to prove to her with my actions that she will be happy with ."
With that new resolve to win her heart through genuine effort, not just words, he walked purposefully to the kitchen, found an apron, tied it securely, and imdiately began cooking for Katelyn.
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