The Mafia Lord's Secret Lover (Evelyn and Axel) novel Chapter 442

Chapter 442: Gratitude

"Well, I told you before. I never planned to have a serious relationship with any woman I slept with."

"Hmm, I remember," Evelyn interrupted softly.

Evelyn clearly knows. Axel had always been careful. He never chose women who wanted marriage or a child. He made sure everything remained clear and controlled. He even made sure they took precautions before leaving his room.

"That’s what happened that night," Axel finished.

This time, his smile was different. Lighter. As if a heavyweight barbell had finally been removed from his chest. There was no more hiding. No more half-truths.

Everything was laid out.

Evelyn fell silent, her thoughts tangled between anger, relief, and lingering confusion.

Joseph’s betrayal hurt deeply.

Harper’s scheme disgusted her.

Yet somehow, fate had twisted their wicked plan and pushed her into Axel’s room and warm embrace instead.

Her brows suddenly furrowed again.

"Wait..." Evelyn said slowly, lifting her head to look at him again. "Axel, something still confuses me."

Axel raised one eyebrow, curious about the sudden change in her expression. Just a moment ago, she had been drowning in shock and betrayal. Now her eyes were sharp again, her mind clearly working. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

"How did I end up in your room?" she asked. "I clearly remember planning to return to my own room."

Her gaze searched his face carefully, as if she would catch him if he dared to hide anything.

Axel let out a quiet breath. Of course, she would ask that. That detail had haunted him as well.

"After reviewing the CCTV footage countless times," he began calmly, "I finally figured it out."

Evelyn straightened slightly, startled by the seriousness in his tone. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Instead, she stayed silent, waiting for him to continue.

Axel’s voice remained steady.

"You remember someone bumping into you right before you entered the elevator?"

Her brows slowly knitted together.

"Yes..." she muttered. "I told you before."

"That man worked at the hotel that night," Axel continued. "Harper paid him to put drugs in my wine. The plan was simple. Make sure I drink it. Then she would come to my room."

Evelyn’s eyes widened.

Axel almost laughed, but the sound that escaped was low and dry. "He bumped into you and dropped the room card he was carrying. At that moment, you also dropped your room card, right?"

"Yes."

"I guess that person panicked, or maybe he got confused. Instead of handing you your own room card, he gave you mine."

There was silence.

Evelyn stared at him as if he had just told her the plot of a ridiculous drama series. But she still remembers dropping her room card that day, so what Axel told her now makes sense.

"Unbelievable..." she finally whispered. "I can’t believe it. So the man who bumped into me right before the elevator... was Harper’s people?"

"Hm." Axel nodded. "He was."

She pressed a hand to her forehead.

"So basically," she said slowly, trying to process it, "Harper wanted to drug you. Joseph wanted to drug me. And somehow got mixed up, and the wrong people walked into the wrong rooms?"

Axel gave her a small, helpless smile. "That’s one way to summarize it."

For a second, neither of them spoke.

Then Evelyn let out a short, breathless laugh. It was not because it was funny. It was because it was too absurd not to laugh.

"Why does this all sound so ridiculous?" she asked. "It doesn’t even feel real."

"I agree with you," Axel replied with a faint smile. "It sounds absurd. But that’s what happened."

He remembered the long hours Collins had spent reviewing the footage. The repeated rewinds. The zoomed-in clips. The confusion on the man’s face after bumping into Evelyn. The way he quickly walked away afterward.

At first, even Axel refused to believe it.

But it was the only explanation that made sense, because Collins found that the man was actually someone Joseph had paid as well.

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