Chapter 145
Evelyn’s POV
Kane’s statement caused my eyes to grow wide with a mix of worry and disbelief. I used all of my reserved
strength to sit up and face him.
“You can’t do that,” I protested.
“The hell I can’t!” he fumed. “After what I’ve just been told, I have half a mind to go room by room and end their lives myself. None of them is even conscious; it would be considered a mercy killing.”
I clenched my jaw. “After all of the work I’ve been putting in, you can’t just put an end to it all!”
He scowled. “So what if you’re able to help them? Is it worth losing your life over this?”
“Yes, because at least here I know that I’m actually worth something more than some role in a contract!” I shouted back. My voice broke off at the end.
All the air had seized in my lungs. Goddamnit.
My anger was met with silence. Kane’s eyes were wide from my unexpected outburst, as was I. It was as though the words had fumbled out of my mouth before I had a proper chance to run them through my mind first.
The look on his face was one I had never seen before. Astonishment, fear, and incredulity.
I never fully intended to let the truth of how I felt about the contract ever come out. Not if I could’ve avoided it.
Kane lowered his gaze and grabbed the back of his neck. “When we both signed that marriage contract, I was under the clear impression that we both knew what was expected of us.”
My tone was dry and cutting. “Oh, believe me. At the time, when you first explained it all, it made sense. We were both on fairly equal standing. Neither one of us wanted this marriage.” Kane slightly flinched. “The two of us were in it for our own personal reasons.”
I readjusted my position on the cot and let my gaze drift over the room.
“For a time, I was okay with it. I was too focused to truly understand the weight that this contract held over me. Between wanting to heal my wolf and juggling various pack events, I’d’ become far too distracted to really notice.”
Kane decided to pull up an empty chair next to my small bed. A line had formed between his brows. He was focused solely on me. The weight of his gaze never left me.
“I truly thought that I would have been able to keep up the guise of a legitimate marriage and play my part as Luna. And for a time, I believe I did. Like I mentioned before, we were both getting something valuable out of this arrangement, and things were working out. Until…”
“Until what?” he pressed.
My chest constricted while a slight pinkish hue wanted to spread across my cheeks. I was never someone who would openly share her feelings. In fact, the only person whom I could remember sharing my deepest thoughts with was my mother.
But, I suppose, given the notion that Kane was my legal husband…
“Until I started believing that you genuinely cared for me,” I said quietly. “A mistake purely on my part.’
His brows drew together-not so much in distaste, but rather perplexity.
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I let out a humorless laugh, still feeling the subtle ache in my ribs.
“When I proposed that you and I appear to be more intimate in front of others, I truly thought that it would have been you who was going to have the hardest time being convincing. But it turned out to be me,” I confessed shamelessly.
I tried taking steadier breaths, hoping to withhold my tears until after this conversation.
Goddess, I need to get this said, I thought. I was convinced that merely holding this information in was part of the reason why my body was so quick to give out.
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