Chapter 190
“I tried to tell you but the timing never felt right.” she whispers and I barely catch it over the hum of the engine.
“How can I be sure?” I ask, hating the vulnerability in my tone. “How do I know that everything – your feelings for me, us
wasn’t just another lie?”
Aubrey leans forward. “Why would you think that? I never intended to get involved with you or Max, I was trying to lie low with Grandma.”
“So it was all a lie?” I tell her.
“What? No… it… I am…” Aubrey reaches out, her fingers. brushing my arm. I flinch involuntarily, and she withdraws, hurt flashing across her features.
“It wasn’t,” she whispers. “Originally I was running but never from you, Soren. I swear it. I would have told you, I should have told you but…
I clench my jaw, warring with myself. Part of me yearns to pull her close, to lose myself in her warmth and forget the pain of the last few days. But the wounds are too fresh, the trust too fragile.
“But what? You need to explain because I am struggling to understand how you can love someone and lie to them.”
“That’s why I didn’t tell you, I would have but I was petrified of losing you and Max or the life I had with you both.” I swallow thickly. “Even now with his damn mark on my neck, Soren, I
Chapter 100
still love you, and would choose you. I would die for you and Max.” She tells me and I know that much is true because she threw herself off a cliff to keep my son safe with no regard for her life as she did so.
As we round the corner towards home, I steal another glance at her. She sits curled in on herself, looking small and lost. Despite everything, my heart aches to comfort her.
I open the mindlink telling the guards to open the front gates, I won’t be stopping, I don’t want to risk anyone spotting Aubrey in the car. It would be out that we found her by now, and captured her and Bianca, but no one knows what we have done with them. I need to keep it that way for now.
“Aubrey, I need you to lay down in the back of the car until I tell you to sit back up.” She looks at me but quickly complies, lying down across the backseat without question, but I sense Damian’s curiosity when his face turns in my direction as we pull in through the front gates. I immediately head to the garages around the back of the castle.
But the questions linger, poisonous whispers in the back of my mind. What else has she hidden? What other secrets lie buried, and is something of this magnitude even salvageable.
I park the car, the engine’s rumble fading to silence. Neither of us moves to get out and Damian pretends to be still asleep. “You can sit back up.” I tell her and she does. I see she wants to ask why as I let the garage doors fall closed.
“I want to believe you,” I say finally, meeting her gaze. “But I need time.” Breaking the awkward silence.
Aubrey nods, a single tear trailing down her cheek. “I understand,” she murmurs. “I also understand if you do
Chapter 1901
decide to hand me into the council, I will cooperate. I won’t fight you or run.” She tells me and I twist in my seat and peer over at her. “I need to speak with them anyway after what I learned from Bianca.” she mutters the last comment.
My brows furrow in confusion at her words and Damian finally sits up from his slumped position. Aubrey reaches for the door handle with a heavy sigh.
“You’ll remain.” My words are sharper than intended and Damian looks at me opening the mindlink.
“Take Bianca to the dungeons. I need to speak with Aubrey.”
“Are you sure that is wise, your aura is all over the place,” Damian is quick to reply while Aubrey leans back her hand moving from the door handle.
