Chapter 253: He Knew Me Before I Did
Xu Kai exhaled, long and unsteady.
Relief flooded through him—hot, overwhelming, almost unbearable. His shoulders dropped, and his head bowed slightly as if a burden too long carried was finally beginning to lift.
For a moment, the silence stretched between them, thick and fragile, like the quiet before a storm. His breath was still warm against her skin. His hand remained gentle on her waist, unmoving. But his eyes—his eyes held everything. They searched hers with a kind of quiet ache, as though her question had cracked open something deep inside him.
Then he slowly pulled back, just enough to see her face more clearly. He cupped her cheek with both hands now, holding her as if she were something he was afraid might disappear.
"Liora..." he whispered her name like it was a prayer.
She flinched slightly, unsure of what she was about to hear. The words she’d just spoken echoed in her mind like a cruel test. A challenge. Something she hadn’t meant to ask, but had to—because she was scared. Scared of being two people. Scared of being neither.
"I know why you asked me that," Xu Kai said softly, his thumbs brushing her cheeks. "And I don’t blame you."
Her throat tightened. Her eyes stung, and she almost wished he would be angry. That he would pull away. It would be easier to bear than the tenderness in his gaze.
"But listen to me," he said, his voice lower now, almost a whisper. "Even if you had never told me... even if you walked into my life as someone else entirely... I’d still find you. My heart would still choose you."
Her lips parted, breath caught, but she couldn’t say anything.
He leaned in and kissed her forehead, slowly and gently. "When I met Liora, I didn’t see Aeris. I didn’t remember Aeris. But I fell for her anyway. I didn’t know why, at first. I just knew I was drawn to you."
His hands moved down to hold hers between them, warm and steady. "You smiled like her. You got angry like her. You challenged me like her. And the more I got to know you, the more I... started to feel like I was remembering something I hadn’t even realized I’d lost."