Chapter 21: Betrayal and Redemption.

Inside the forest, it was eerily still as Chloe and Liam walked down the meandering paths, their footfalls cushioned by a heavy carpet of dead leaves. The moon was low in the sky, casting long, eerie shadows that flitted through the trees like some sort of specter of the night. As much as tranquility was whispered in the environment, tension was brooding between the two of them. An unspoken tension had been building ever since the conversation under the stars. Chloe couldn't shake the feeling that something was off and that Liam was hiding something from her again. They went along in silence, and the silence grew between them, growing large and swallowing up everything, except for the noise of rustling leaves or the far-away hoot of an owl. Chloe glanced at him from time to time, trying to read his face for any sign of the turmoil raging within him, but he kept his expression inscrutable; his thoughts were a mystery. Finally, when Chloe just couldn't take the silence anymore, she ne