Chapter 13 - The Reckoning of Eyes
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Damian froze, his hands hovering inches from her shivering shoulders.
The sheer terror in her eyes shattered him completely. She looked at him not as her lover, not as her protector, but as the monster who had come to finish the job.
Then, his gaze dropped.
Beneath the heavy, unzipped winter coat, he saw the massive swell of her seven-month pregnant belly. He stared at it, his breath hitching in his throat.
Two heartbeats. Two children. His children.
“Charlotte,” Damian whispered, tears spilling from his fierce gray eyes. He reached out, his hand shaking violently, and gently touched the curve of her stomach. “My God. You’re freezing.”
Another contraction hit her. Charlotte cried out, doubling over in the snow.
“Don't touch me!” she yelled, slapping his hand away. “You called me a mistake! You told your father I was nothing!”
The words hit him like bullets.
“I lied,” Damian begged, ignoring her protests and stripping off his heavy, warm overcoat. He wrapped it tightly around her shivering body. “Charlotte, listen to me. My father was going to use you against me. He was going to have you killed to keep me in line. I had to make him believe you meant nothing so he wouldn't put a hit on you.”
Charlotte stared at him, her lips trembling. “You... you lied to protect me?”
“I would burn the world down for you,” Damian swore, carefully lifting her into his arms. She was so light, despite the babies. “I thought I was saving your life. I didn't know you were pregnant. I didn't know Silas was hunting you.”
Before Charlotte could process the magnitude of his confession, the crunch of snow alerted them.
May you like
Silas stepped out from the tree line, clutching his broken wrist, flanked by three more armed men.
“Well, well,” Silas sneered, his breath pluming in the cold air. “A touching family reunion. Too bad it ends here.”
