The Day Our Promise Breaks

Chapter 628

The noise of the mall faded away, tucked behind the cozy nook of the café.

Charlie nestled up to Luna, clinging like a little kitten. She kept her head down, taking tiny, careful bites of the delicate pastries Charles had just brought over.

Across from them, Charles couldn't tear his eyes away from his daughter's face. He drank in every tiny shift in her expression, as if he could capture and hold onto this miracle—this reunion he thought he'd lost forever. He watched so intently he barely even blinked.

His phone, left on the table, lit up with a silent flash. A message popped up—it was from someone he'd stationed near Evelyn: They'd be at the mall entrance in just a few minutes.

Charles's heart tightened. An anxious, electric tension wound through him. He drew in a shaky breath, chest twisting with a riot of hope and dread.

He wanted so badly for Charlie, in the instant she saw Eve, to remember-to have those hidden memories come rushing back. To recall she once had a mother who loved her with everything she had.

Even if...

Even if that meant she'd also remember him-the father who let her down, who'd been cold and distant for those five lost years. Even if she hated him, resented him, never forgave him—that didn't matter.

All he wanted was for Charlie to find her way back to Eve. For Eve to have her daughter again.

spend the rest of his life trying to make it right,

was terrified that Charlie would look at Eve with the same wary,

she'd suffered, possibly bear that kind of rejection from her own child? She

she'd pushed him, Charles didn't

fear-that sharp, aching worry-was why he'd chosen this roundabout way: letting Charlie "bump

her, if she reached for

she still turned

tuck this secret away a little longer, at least until

He couldn't risk hurting

each second

few minutes

entrance. Evelyn stepped out, flanked by two cheerful girls Charles had arranged to be with her. They

herself be swept along with the crowd into the bright,

entrance. She'd seen Evelyn's on Charles's phone,

recognized her right awayphotel