Chapter 84: The First Kiss

Victor remained missing through Saturday. Derek and Ethan's team continued tracing the vehicle while Louis stayed available by phone. Freya tried to work, but the apartment felt heavy with everything neither of them had finished saying.

In the evening, she found Louis standing near the living-room window.

"Can we go out?" she asked.

He turned. "Now?"

"Just walk. I need air."

They went to a small riverside park several blocks away. The weather was cool, and only a few people remained on the path.

For ten minutes, they walked without discussing Victor, Greyline, or the notebook.

Then Freya stopped.

"I'm not ready to tell you everything."

Louis faced her.

"But what I said yesterday was true. The person you married three years ago and the person standing here aren't exactly the same."

"I know."

"No, you don't."

"Then tell me when you're ready."

Freya stared at him. "You're seriously going to leave it there?"

"Would forcing you help?"

"No."

"Then yes."

She suddenly felt dangerously emotional.

"You're making this difficult."

"By not interrogating you?"

"Exactly."

Louis almost smiled.

Freya looked away toward the river. "I stayed because I thought you were completely bankrupt and had nobody left."

"I know."

"I planned to help you rebuild. Then when you became rich again, I figured maybe we'd separate and I'd take a reasonable settlement."

Louis's expression changed. "Reasonable settlement?"

"That was the plan."

"Was?"

Freya realized the word she had used.

Her heart began beating faster.

Louis stepped closer. "Is it still the plan?"

She should have said yes. It would have been safer.

Instead, Freya whispered, "I don't know."

The distance between them suddenly felt very small.

Louis lifted a hand but stopped before touching her. The hesitation gave Freya time to move away.

She didn't.

His fingers brushed lightly against her cheek.

"Freya."

She looked up.

The kiss was gentle, almost cautious. Nothing like the dramatic kisses she wrote into novels. It lasted only a few seconds before Louis pulled back enough to watch her reaction.

Freya's mind went completely blank.

"You could have warned me," she murmured.

"Would you have refused?"

It was the same question he had asked after their first date.

Freya stared at him, then grabbed the front of his coat and kissed him again.

That answer was clearer.

When they finally separated, Louis rested his forehead briefly against hers.

Freya started laughing.

"What?" he asked.

"Nothing. My life is ridiculous."

He didn't understand how literal she meant it.

On the walk home, their hands brushed several times before Louis simply took hers.

Freya didn't pull away.

Her secret still existed. Victor was still missing. The conspiracy surrounding their families was nowhere near solved.

But one part of the future had changed permanently.

Leaving Louis was no longer a simple ending she could plan in advance.

Back at the apartment, Freya went into her room and leaned against the closed door with both hands over her face. Several seconds later, her phone vibrated. A new comment from L had appeared beneath her latest chapter: "The romance is progressing too slowly." Freya stared at it, then laughed so hard she had to sit down.

The next step could wait until morning. Too many things had changed at once, and neither of them wanted to make another decision simply because uncertainty was uncomfortable. They had learned that patience often revealed more than pressure ever could.