Hoyt’s face was still tense by the time he walked out of the shop. Concerned, Deirdre asked, “You alright?”

He wiped some light sweat off his face and said bashfully, “I’m so sorry, Miss McKinnon. The point was to buy you some clothes, but I ended up dragging you into our drama and made you watch all that… embarrassing stinker.”

“Nonsense,” Deirdre replied reassuringly and gave him a small smile. “There was nothing embarrassing about it. It’s what relationships are like, dramatic and complicated.”

Just like her own. No one would have known the lengths she had gone through for a man—to be willingly used as an impostor for two years, be incarcerated, disfigured, blinded, and lose the child she so wanted to bring to the world.

Her relationship story was the biggest stinker of them all.

“A word of advice, Mr. Leigh,” she said. “Sometimes, blaming yourself for everything that has happened only prevents you from moving on when you should.”

Hoyt blushed and nodded. “R-Right. You’re righ