on funded by the Mills Corporation, was his territory. She felt a knot of anxiety tighten in her stomach. She was here for a pro bono legal con

ng, the kind reserved for billionaires and foreign dignitaries. Graves, looking powerful and severe in a dark suit, and beside him, a w

ge her, his attention immediately returning to Aurelia. He murmured something to her, his expression softening in a way she'd only seen

women in the sam

her lips. "You must be Cleone," she said, her voice as soft as silk but

Cleone as a trivial footnote in his life. Cleone felt her

replied, her tone even. "I'm

such wonderful care of me. He never reall

arriage, her life, her sacrific

. "Our marriage is mor

e. "Is it? He married you because I was in a coma and his family demanded an heir. I

sterile, public lobby of his family's hospital, hit Cleone with

pping to a conspiratorial whisper, leaning forward in

omach, a gesture so deliberate, so ful

eyes locking with Cleone's. "He needs t

ing in the hollow space where Cleone's hear

dignity she had clung to, the years of repressed pain, humiliation, and

d on pure, pr

palm connecting with Aurelia's

feigned shock, a flicker of triumph

his face contorting into a mask of fury as he took in the scene: his fragil

devastating revelation, had just blown