Mara
“I love you, Vander,” Martha said, her voice barely more than a whisper. Her eyes, swollen and rimmed with red, searched his face for a glimmer of mercy. “But I won’t be mad if you want to end it.”
Vander didn’t speak. His silence was suffocating, but his restraint spoke volumes.
“My marriage to Alaric… it wasn’t consensual. I was shackled into it. And for years, I dreamt of a strong man—someone brave enough to pull me out of that nightmare.”
She took a shaky breath, fingers clutched tightly around the blanket on her lap.
“I know I’ve been difficult… unbearable, even. But it was jealousy, Vander. That’s all it ever was. Jealousy that your heart belonged elsewhere. But I never stopped loving you. And I love Lucian too. That’s why I could never do what Alaric asked. I would rather
