Chapter 467

“Ailam, please, just hear me out,” Carly pleaded, trying to defend herself.

Adam stood motionless, his gaze unwavering. “Carly, I don’t want excuses. I just need to know—where is the emerald necklace?” A cold, unsettling sickness curled at the corner of his lips. “You wouldn’t be lying to me, would you?”

Carly’s breath hitched. “Lie to you? About what?”

“That the woman who saved me in the cave wasn’t you. That all this time, you’ve been deceiving me, pretending to be someone else.”

His eyes bored into hers, like a predator sizing up its prey. Carly’s spine tingled with a sense of dread. Adam had never looked at her like this before. Had he figured it out? Did he know she was an imposter?

His stoic expression unsettled her more than anything. She couldn’t tell how much he knew. Despite this, she couldn’t afford to confess—not when everything she had was on the line. “Adam, I don’t understand. Why would you even think that?”

Her voice faltered, a trace of hurt in it. “I’m the one who saved you in that cave. You promised me you’d take me with you, that you’d be responsible for me. Have you really forgotten all of that?”

“If it really was you, that would be perfect. I’ve invested over a decade in you, Carly. But if you’ve been lying to me, you know what the consequences will be.”

Leo had asked him who he wanted the woman from the cave to be; Adam didn’t know. All he felt was a rising panic. He had given over ten years of his life to Carly and poured so much of himself into her. If it wasn’t her who saved him, how naive would he have been? And even worse, what if the woman in the cave had really been Celine? If it had been her, then he’d spent all this time hurting the very person who had once saved his life. That was a truth Adam couldn’t bring himself to face.

Carly forced a smile. “Adam, don’t worry. Of course, I wouldn’t lie to you.”

“Then prove it. Show me the necklace tonight. Seeing is believing. That necklace is the only true proof of who you are.”

Carly knew there was no way out now. “Adam, I have the necklace with me,” she said quickly.

Adam’s gaze sharpened. “Then show it to me.”

“I will,” Carly said, her voice tinged with a hint of shyness. “But this necklace is our symbol of love. I’d rather show it to you tonight—at your condominium.”

Adam’s lips tightened into a thin line.