Eleven Years All to the Wrong Man novel Chapter 22

Besides, compared to staying in the city where creditors showed up at their door every other day, Riverside Millford was much quieter and more comfortable.

As he told her all this, Evan leaned lazily against Emma's shoulder, his fingertips idly caressing her earlobe. He asked, "Are you scared to be with me?"

The sensation on her earlobe tickled, and Emma instinctively leaned into his embrace. She looked up at him and asked back, "Scared of what? Will I get assassinated for being with you?"

Evan chuckled and shook his head. "No, not that."

"Then it's fine. If being with you won't kill me, what's there to be afraid of?"

Young love is incredibly pure, untainted by worldly concerns. Back then, Emma didn't understand what Evan was truly asking.

On the surface, he was asking if she was scared to be with him.

In reality, he was asking if she was scared to be with someone like him—a person with poor grades, a family drowning in debt, a father in prison, and a mother who had disappeared. Someone who, by all accounts, had no future.

Given Evan's circumstances at the time in Riverside Millford, if you asked a matchmaker to find him a partner, she would've felt like she had no conscience for even trying.

So, when her family found out she was dating Evan and planned to leave Riverside Millford with him, her mother was so angry she nearly fainted. Even her mild-mannered father flew into a rare rage, locking her in the house and forbidding her from going out.

Unfortunately for them, Emma was the type who responded to persuasion, not pressure. The more they tried to control her, the more she rebelled.

Her love for Evan was real, and so was the fact that her head was clouded by love and passion. In the end, she ran away without a second thought.

She was sixteen when she left Riverside Millford. Evan was seventeen.

Eleven years have passed since then.

She is now twenty-seven, and Evan is twenty-eight.

***

She pressed her hands against the soft mattress, trying to sit up, but her arms felt weak. After a few attempts, she still couldn't manage it.

Defeated, Emma lay back down, frowning at the man before her, expecting a reasonable explanation.

Seeing this, Evan calmly picked up the glass of water from the nightstand and held it out to her. "Don't be difficult. Take your medicine first."

"Evan!"

Emma's frown deepened, her tone becoming more insistent.

She actually had some faint memories of what had happened last night, but they were incomplete.

Evan knew her stubborn streak. He knew she wouldn't take the medicine until he explained.

With a sigh of resignation, he said, "You passed out last night. I had Dr. Morrison come over to check on you. It's nothing serious. He said you caught a chill and… overexerted yourself, which is why you developed a fever."