He Loves Me Right, Finally novel Chapter 166

Wynette followed Alice down to the main banquet hall on the first deck.

It was already filling up steadily, with the ship set to depart in about half an hour.

Alice pulled Wynette into a corner and dropped into a seat, chin propped in both hands.

"Still not speaking to Mr. Lawrence?" Wynette asked, thinking back to the icy silence between them earlier.

Alice's expression pinched the moment Jamie's name entered the air. "I didn't even want to come today. He told me you'd be here, said Adriel was hoping I'd come keep you company."

Tonight's auction was hosted by the Lawrences.

Jamie had built a foundation dedicated to cardiac patients, providing not just financial support but access to legally sourced donor hearts at no cost to recipients.

The Lawrences held an auction every year in a different location, funneling every dollar raised directly into that foundation.

The cruise liner had been Alice's idea, an offhand remark about wanting to see the ocean, and somehow it had made the final decision.

And yet, despite being the reason for the venue, Alice hadn't wanted to come.

Adriel had brought Wynette knowing she wouldn't recognize many faces, and not wanting her to spend the evening feeling out of place, he'd asked Jamie to bring Alice along.

Hearing all of that, Wynette felt something quiet and warm shift in her chest at everything Adriel had quietly arranged.

She smiled at Alice. "He really does treat you well, you know. Have you ever considered actually talking to him about what's bothering you?"

Jamie's attention never left Alice.

Wynette had caught it more than once.

Alice tilted her head and turned the question right back around. "Adriel treats you well too. Have you thought about giving him a real chance? I've never once seen him like this with anyone."

The words landed squarely, and Wynette genuinely didn't know where to look for a moment.

How'd this conversation migrated so efficiently to my personal life?

Before she could find an answer, Alice kept going, "Someone being good to you isn't the measure of whether you should be with them. Sincerity is."

She paused, and something more private moved into her voice. "I think he's hiding something from me. I can't feel his sincerity, and that's what it comes down to."

That was the heart of it, the real reason Alice had been fighting with Jamie.

She'd tried having an honest conversation with him before, and he'd deflected every time, brushing it off with the practiced ease of someone who'd decided the subject was closed.

So Alice had pushed to end the engagement, and Jamie had flatly refused, settling instead on a postponement with no defined end date, telling both families it would last until Alice decided to marry him of her own accord.

Wynette couldn't argue with Alice's logic. Being treated well wasn't the same thing as being loved, and she knew that as clearly as anyone.

Her mind drifted, almost involuntarily, to the shape of her own situation with Adriel.

If she was being honest with herself, his sincerity wasn't subtle. It had been standing in plain sight for a while now.

"Do you actually not like him?" Alice asked, cutting through the quiet. She was watching Wynette with the attentive calm of someone who'd already made up her mind. "Because you really don't look like someone who doesn't."

Bystanders often saw things more clearly than the people living inside the moment.

Alice had seen it. Wynette had already started to feel something, and was holding herself back for reasons she hadn't fully named yet.

Wynette's expression flickered through several shades of awkward at once, because she had absolutely no idea how to answer that.

Alice's voice came out softer this time, deliberate and kind. "Don't let one bad experience convince you that you're not worth real love. That was on him for being blind to what he had. You're wonderful. You deserve something wonderful back."

"It's not that," Wynette said honestly. "Mostly I was still in the middle of dealing with everything involving the Shepherds, and the company had so much going on, I genuinely didn't register what he felt until embarrassingly late."

Even saying it out loud, she recognized how long her own processing had taken.

By the time she'd caught any hints of it, she'd dismissed every single one as wishful thinking. Adriel couldn't possibly have feelings for her.

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