Edward kept a careful distance His voice was gentle, almost cautious, when he spoke.
1 know our families had an arrangement, but we barely know each other. I’ll take the guest room. You don’t have to
worry about anything
The Edward everyone else saw – stone–faced, unreachable – was not the man standing in front of me. In private. he
was disarmingly kind. The knot in my chest loosened a little more.
I smiled and said goodnight. Once he left. I washed up, changed, and sank into bed.
The last few days had drained me dry. The moment I finally let my guard down, exhaustion pulled me under like a
current, and I was out.
The dream pulled me right back under.
In the dream, Arthur and I were married, and to the world, we were the perfect couple. He held my hand in public.
smiled at the right moments, said everything he was supposed to say.
The second we walked through our front door, the performance ended. He barely spoke to me, and every night he slept
in a separate room, shut away behind a closed door.
Every time I tried to talk really talk to him — he deflected with that practiced, hollow smile. He told me I was
Imagining things, that he was sleeping separately so he would not disturb me during the pregnancy.
The dream blurred, then lurched forward until I was standing in the moment I had been trying to forget Arthur
dragging me down the basement stairs, his face stripped of anything human.
The basement was damp and lightless. Pain ripped through my abdomen so hard it nearly blinded me
I curled up on the concrete, and when I looked up, all I could see was Sophie’s framed photograph propped on a shell
above me like something on an altar.
Arthur’s voice reached me from the top of the stairs, cold and even Get on your knees and apotan
feel what she felt
the pain the helplessness when you drove her to t
I woke up geaping soaked in sweat Edward’s face was right there eyes wide with conven
Hey Hey
yours obay You were having a nightmare He pressed the track of his hand aan het
when he realized I did not have a lever
He poured on a glass of water without being asked Dis gout certainty of each malt gesto e
steady voice made thelbing as he despice my beat shook my head good comt von Usas Hoe
The glasom
Then I remembered and sorts
mony farm minal have changed because Edward’s hughen the 450x
Litrad
INSTALL
The turt
“What is it? You can tell me. We’re married now – you don’t have to carry things alone.”
I swallowed hard. The words had been lodged in my throat for days.
“Before this before I married you – I was pregnant with Arthur’s child. I ended the pregnancy after I found out he h
fallen for someone else.”
I forced myself to keep going. “I’m grateful you did this for me, Edward. That you married me to help me get away fro
him. But if any of this bothers you, I understand. We can quietly file for divorce once things settle down.”
His expression went still. The warmth seemed to drain out of the room.
He looked at me, and the look was so direct it held me still. “Is that really what you think this is? That I married you a
favor?”
He drew a slow breath and held my gaze. “I already knew about the baby, Chloe. There is nothing in your past that co
ever make me think any less of you. The only thing I feel is that I should have been there sooner.”
His voice dropped. “I used to believe Arthur was the man who would give you the life you deserved to have. That is why
stepped aside.”
“If I had known what he
to you, I would have taken you away from him years ago.”
The nightmare fin
something wa
He stay
pol
Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.
