Page 94 of The Laird’s Sinful Claim

She'd done it. She'd finally confronted him. Told him how his behavior was affecting her. Demanded better.

And he'd ridden away.

Just like she'd known he would.

Because that's what men did when challenged them. When one refused to be controlled. They left. Or they made a woman pay for her defiance.

She'd thought David was different. Had believed, stupidly, that he might actually listen. That he might care enough to change.

But she'd been wrong.

He was just like her father after all. Just better at hiding it.

The tears came then, hot and angry and devastating. Elinor wrapped her arms around herself, trying to hold in the sobs that wanted to break free.

She'd married him to escape one cage. Only to find herself in another. And this time, it hurt so much worse.

Because this time, she'd started to care. Started to hope. Started to believe that maybe, just maybe, she'd found someone who saw her as more than property.

But she'd been wrong.

And now she was alone in a castle that felt more like a prison every day, married to a man who cared more about protecting her than actually being with her.

"Me lady?"

Elinor looked up to find Ainsley hovering nearby, concern written all over her freckled face.

"Are ye alright?"

"No." The word came out broken. "But I will be."

Because she'd survived her father's house. She'd survived the auction. She'd survived the attack.

She could survive that too.

Even if it felt like her heart was breaking. Even if David never came back. Even if she spent the rest of her life trapped in that beautiful cage, married to a ghost.

She turned and walked back into the castle, her spine straight and her head high.

But inside, she was shattered.

And she didn't know how to put herself back together.