There Is No Paradise Where I Ran Away To (14 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 17

“Shall I kill Theo Evans?”

Under the late afternoon sun, Edwin handed the reins to a servant and returned to the mansion, halting mid-step on the staircase.

It was such an easy question. Such an easy answer.

Just do it. Kill that thorn in your eye—the tailor—and burn down his entire shop.

That simple reply had lodged itself in his throat.

Whenever he saw Vivian, uncontrolled impulses kept surging up uncontrollably.

The first impulse upon meeting Vivian again after fourteen years was to make her cry. The second was to discipline that insolent attitude of hers by letting her waste away until she was nothing but skin and bones. The third was to deliver an unexpected death she hadn’t planned for.

And if he followed that fourth impulse, Ebelline’s magnificent dress would become Theo Evans’s posthumous masterpiece.

“I’ll carry it out flawlessly today, if you just give the order.”

“Do you think I’m hesitating because I doubt your competence?”

From fleeing Preston to settling in Newway until this very moment, he had never made an impulsive decision.

Impulse ruins everything. That belief had profoundly shaped his life.

The only exception was Vivian Ebelline. In front of her, impulses refused to be suppressed. Rational judgment and patience barely shone at all.

And yet, amidst countless impulses, it was Vivian Ebelline who had held her ground. That very constancy incited within him impulses he’d never known before. Thus, acting on that fourth impulse hardly mattered—everything would surely fall into place regardless.

Theo Evans was a barricade on the long, meticulously swept path. Instead of simply tearing it down, he paced in front of it, delaying a decision and mulling over pointless doubts.

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