WHEN THE FOG CLEARS

The journey back to the capital was driven entirely by Liam.

I sat in the passenger seat, relaxed and carefree, holding his hand the entire way.

I never bothered questioning what his true intentions were at seventeen, even if time had eventually worn down those youthful edges.

Seasons revolve, people change, but the love of seventeen remains forever innocent.

I bravely faced my own heart, walking gracefully and fearlessly toward any possibility of the future.

Just as I was about to nod and fully commit, Liam’s mother tracked me down.

That fiercely powerful noble matriarch—I had only caught a distant glimpse of her once, back when she aggressively confronted Liam when I was fourteen.

She possessed the supreme privilege of looking down on anyone, naturally including me.

“Miss Evelyn, self-awareness is a virtue. Liam rarely gets a vacation, and I’ve arranged a blind date for him with the daughter of a prominent family. He went. I think you should understand what that means.”

She spoke unhurriedly, maintaining the absolute posture of someone superior.

Smart people speak in hints; there was no need for her to waste extra words.

She didn’t like me, which meant the Liam family could never accept me.

I nodded: “I understand.”

That very night, when Liam came to find me, I cut straight to the point: “Liam, what your mother said—you don’t need to check it out, I didn’t go to that blind date…”

I paused, then pushed forward: “Liam, I think we’re still not suitable.”

I could spend seven years trying to please Julian’s mother, molding myself into a flawless daughter-in-law.

But I didn’t have another seven years to waste trying to please someone else’s mother, begging her to reluctantly accept me.

To put it bluntly, if I were in my early twenties and deeply in love with Liam, perhaps I would have fought tooth and nail for it.

Pity was, I was no longer young.

For me right now, love and men were merely a seasoning, no longer an absolute necessity.

Life is always like this—rarely do things align so perfectly.

Right timing, right person—that remains the hardest thing to find.

Liam stood tall and unyielding, tears welling up in his eyes more than once over a single person. He stared at me for several long seconds before speaking: “Evelyn, I am no longer twenty. Nobody controls my marriage anymore; I will marry whoever I choose, and no one can interfere—including my mother.”

“Seven years ago, if I had wanted to, you wouldn’t have been able to leave the capital. But I respected you. Now, I respect you just the same, respecting whatever choice you make.”

I always thought high-society families rarely produced genuine lovers. I had witnessed too many arrogant scions living dissolute lives, playing games with power and sex, treating love as disposable, loving one person today and casting them aside tomorrow. True devotion and exclusivity seemed impossible to them.

I had heard countless stories where protagonists traded away a shred of romance just to return to their family duties and dutifully marry arranged matches.

Now it seemed, those were simply cases of meeting the wrong person, or never truly fighting for freedom of marriage.

I looked at Liam, standing firm in my resolve: “We are still not suitable.”

Prejudice is a towering mountain impossible to cross, and I had no desire to climb it—nor did I wish to pander to anyone ever again.

Liam lowered his gaze: “You don’t need to wrong yourself, nor do you need to pander to anyone. My mother will turn around and beg you one day.”

Brushing away a strand of hair blown by the evening wind, I sighed coldly and cruelly: “From now on, don’t come looking for me.”

Liam accepted everything with calm resignation: “I will wait for you. Waiting until you’re willing, waiting for the day you regain your courage.”

He seemed so accustomed to waiting, accustomed to loving only that one person—like a whale heading toward the deep sea, like a bird returning to its forest, driven entirely by destiny.

And as for you, Evelyn.

Keep walking forward down your own path, chasing the wind and moon without ever stopping.