If he'd not seen her just moments before, Aidan might have believed that this was the Evey he knew she could be. Currently, though, he didn't trust her. He didn't trust that she was being honest, even with herself. He envisioned Evey putting on the mask to make the world believe that she was something she was not. It was as if he could mimic the motions of humanity with her. And who better than him to know that it was a mask? Who better to play out the pantomime of humanity? He who had pretended to be something that he was not for hundreds of years.
The rub of it was that she didn't want his help. Aidan could tell that she wanted nothing to do with him. She had gotten into some routine of propelling herself through the world one step at a time without him, had perhaps even begun to recover herself - though hadn't gotten very far by what he'd seen - when he'd come along to tear down her walls and destroy the progress she'd made.
He'd ruined her.
To make matters worse, there was literally nothing Aidan could think of to help her. He could summon Peter, of course, force her to stay until her best friend arrived to pick her up, but what in the mean time? Stand there staring at one another? She was clearly not going to say another word to him that didn't revolve around her being let go. Which made him feel like he was keeping her prisoner. Evey had lived as a prisoner once already in her life, in the most actual meaning of the word. She had fought for her freedom, physical and mental. She deserved to fly on the winds as she chose to, even if those winds were gearing up into a tornado.
Then, also, the teeth of the unrelenting pest in his heart, tearing and twisting and feeding him cruelty through every bite. That villain that he had once been, clamoring up to the surface of himself, encouraging him to admit that he owed this girl nothing. This was not his Evey, she was hardly a person at all, she could wither and perish if she so desired, because she was some frail specter and nothing more.
Aidan felt the war rage within himself.
He knew, finally, that letting her go was right. Not because he wanted to see her gone from his life, to watch her disappear and pretend that this encounter never happened, but because he could not keep her against her will. Because despite any lacking of vitality on her part, she was still an Evey Hammond, a willful and prideful being who deserved the right to make her own decisions. He knew that he loved her above all things, and if she wanted to go, he would not force her to stay.
Aidan dropped his hands from her, regret looming already, indecision racing through his veins, tears burning in his eyes. He felt such pain, and knew it was unfair to express it to her. He had no place.
He nodded and put his hand on the knob, turned it slowly and stepped aside as he opened the door for her.