Building Understanding

“You don’t need to apologize if you believe that you haven’t done anything wrong,” he replied bluntly.

Although he was telling me that I shouldn’t be apologizing, it made me feel like I should be apologizing all over again. Ace continued looking at me intently and I started to tremble slightly under his intense gaze. It wasn’t like I truly believed that I was void of all fault.

“I’m sorry…” I apologized softly.

“Are the rumors completely false?” Ace asked after a short moment of silence between us.

Completely false?

I didn’t miss how he placed stress on the word ‘completely’. I had just told him that the rumors are false but were they completely false?