Return Of The Heiress For Revenge - Chapter 494

Chapter 494: End It!
Natalie nodded. “I’ll take care of him. Go.”

Inside the house, it was dim and quiet. Natalie helped Max toward the hallway, each step a slow shuffle. He mumbled incoherently once or twice something about her or Lisa, but she did not ask him.

She opened his bedroom door and started guiding him toward the bed, but just as she reached to turn on the light, he shifted. Quick and heavy. He spun, trapping her suddenly between him and the closed door.

Natalie froze. Her hand instinctively reached for the doorknob behind her, but it was useless now. Max’s arms weren’t touching her, but his presence was a wall—his hands planted on either side of her head, caging her in.

Her breath hitched. His eyes were half-lidded, but intense. Sharp, even through the haze of alcohol.

“You are ignoring me?” he asked, voice low, ragged, too intimate.

The question cut through her like a blade, unexpected and raw.

Natalie’s heart slammed against her ribs. “What…?”

He leaned in a fraction more, close enough for her to feel his breath against her cheek. “You always look at me like I’m going to disappear. Or destroy you.”

Her lips parted, but nothing came out. She wasn’t sure what to say, or if she could trust her voice if she tried.

He wasn’t touching her. But even his presence was overwhelming for her.

“Do I scare you, Nat?” he whispered again, softer this time. Vulnerable, almost like a confession.

Natalie didn’t move.

His breath lingered warm against her lips, his forehead just an inch away of touching hers, and yet he didn’t close the distance. He stayed like that—so close it ached. his eyes searching hers like he was trying to read thoughts she didn’t even know she had.

“I would never hurt you,” he said, his voice rough, laced with something deeper than the whiskey he had swallowed all night.

Natalie’s lips parted. Her pulse thrummed in her neck. The proximity was dizzying, overwhelming, but she didn’t pull away. She looked up into his eyes tired, open, and so painfully vulnerable.

“I know,” she whispered. “I trust you.”

That did something to him. His lashes fluttered, his jaw tightened—but still, he didn’t kiss her. He just stared, and it was worse somehow. That look scorched her from the inside out, as if he were memorizing the exact shape of her hesitation, the fragility of her trust, the question trembling in her eyes.

One more inch and he’d break every unspoken rule they’d both been clinging to.

But he didn’t move forward. And he didn’t step back either.

“I know,” she whispered, her voice a soft promise in the silence. “I trust you, Max.”

And that did something to him.

His expression shifted, softened. His head dipped slightly. His nose brushed hers barely. The space between their lips dissolved into a single breath, and for a heartbeat, it felt like time forgot to move.

She felt his breath ghost over her lips, and her fingers trembled at her sides.

An inch more… just one.

But he kept staring at her Like she was something he didn’t know he was allowed to touch.

Like he was afraid that if he did, he’d shatter something sacred.

Her breath caught, her chest rising and falling too fast. She could hardly meet his eyes under the intensity of that gaze—it wasn’t just a look, it was heat, weight, everything she had been trying not to feel.

But then—softly, shakily—she asked, “What about Lisa?”

And just like that, he froze.

The storm behind his eyes dulled. The tension in his shoulders changed—not gone, but guarded now.

He leaned back just enough to break the moment, though not far. His hand dropped to his side, and he stepped away slowly, like coming back to earth from somewhere too high.

He rubbed a hand over his face before turning to sit at the edge of the bed, elbows on his knees. His voice came after a long silence, low and uneven.

“We met at the hospital. Her brother was injured and she looked so vulnerable.,” he began, eyes on the floor. “She needed help and I gave it and then she started pursuing me, telling me she had fallen for me me. I have never been courted or followed. I have always been busy with my work. I did not know how to say no. and did not feel the need to do it since I have to settle down someday and she looked kind and caring. So I accepted.. She made everything feel easy—like I didn’t have to try too hard to be liked. And I liked that. I needed that back then.”

Natalie stood by the door, silently watching him.

“I didn’t want to be alone anymore. So I stayed. Even when the feelings didn’t grow. Even when I knew it wasn’t… that kind of love.”

He finally looked up at her, and there was no hiding in his gaze now. It was bare. Honest.

“I thought staying would be enough. That I could learn to love her the way she needed to. But the more I tried to force it, the more it felt wrong. Especially when—”

He stopped himself.

His fingers tightened against his knees.

Natalie stepped forward, her voice barely above a whisper. “Especially when… what?”

He looked up at her again. And this time, the silence felt louder than anything he could say.

“Especially when it stopped feeling easy to lie to myself,” he said.

And it was her turn to freeze.

Natalie felt her breath catch again, but this time it wasn’t from surprise—it was from knowing. From the truth that had been sitting quietly between them all along, waiting for someone to finally say it aloud.

Max had never said her name, but she felt it in every word.

Her fingers curled into her palms as she took a step forward. Then another. The distance between them disappeared slowly, like fog burning away in sunlight.

“Why didn’t you just end it?”