(Rebecca's POV)
"He paid me to be seen," she says. "He was very specific about it. Public place. Somewhere you might come, if you came at all — he told me you might, he said there was a chance, small, but real. He wanted—" She stops again, and this time when she starts back up, something in her face softens, like she's finally getting to the part she actually came out here to say. "He wanted to know if you still loved him. That's what he told me. Almost word for word. He said he needed to know if you'd still fight for him — the way he's been fighting for you, this whole time, in his own way. He didn't know how else to find that out. He said you two hadn't been talking. Not since — " She glances down, delicate, avoiding the word she clearly knows belongs there. "Not since everything that h
