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.

trying to make it right, if only he could catch the faintest glimmer of forgiveness from

He was terrified that Charlie would look at Eve with the

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

pushed him, Charles didn't know if Eve could

way: letting Charlie

if she reached for her—maybe, just maybe, there

she still

tuck this secret away a little longer,

over. He couldn't

crawled by, each second dragging,

few minutes

rolled up to the mall entrance. Evelyn stepped out, flanked by two cheerful girls Charles had arranged to

slightly distant smile, letting herself be swept along with the crowd into the

stayed glued to the entrance. She'd

recognized her right awayphotel