Page 53 of The Secret that Shocked Cinderella

She would do whatever she needed to do to be with Soriya. It was her hill. She would die on it.

And given that she was living with a tiger, that was very, very likely.

CHAPTER NINE

HEHADBEENcaught in his own trap. He had spun a web so very deceptive, that even he had begun to believe it. Had begun to erase the truth of what had happened between them the night she had told him of her pregnancy.

Had begun to believe in the connection that they had created.

But it was a lie. A very clever one, but a lie nonetheless.

And now... Now she hated him.

She had not lied. She had spoken with the full force of truth.

I love you.

I hate you.

He had heard both things from her last night, and both had been true.

But it did not change his resolve.

He knew what he had to do.

But...

She would never let him touch her again.

There was a strange echo in his soul that reminded him of when his mother had died.

It felt like grief. He always felt as if he was standing some distance away from his emotions. Examining them from afar, looking at them with some dispassionate distance.

And so, this was not a crippling feeling, rather it was simply there.

She was right. He had never held Soriya.

Because he had that distance. And it was a valuable thing. It served him well.

It mattered.

He had been torn from his mother’s arms when he was five years old. He had not seen her again until he was an adult, who could make his own decisions and do what he wished with his time.

He had found her. The reunion had not been what he had hoped.

She had been so broken, bent by all the years of sorrow and poverty. Of a hard world and emotional devastation.

She hadn’t liked to look at him. In his suits. She hadn’t liked to hear him speak.

Still, she had mattered to him.

But it had been too late for him.

When he had been ripped away from her, it was as if he had been torn from his own heart.

The intensity of it had been too much for his small body to bear, and he was convinced it had damaged his ability to connect after. That and the general cruelty of his father. It had provided him with protection, and he did not regret it. But she made him wish...

She made him wish things could be different. That he could be different.

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