Chapter 127\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nolan POV\u00a0<\/p>\n
I couldn\u2019t get her out of my head.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even after the music had faded and the ballroom returned to a blur of faces and clinking glasses, all I could feel was the press of her hand in mine, the heat of her gaze when she\u2019d looked up at me. That dance had burned into my veins, sharper than any battle wound.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ellie.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I told myself it was the mate bond clawing at me, a wolf\u2019s instinct, nothing more. But the lie didn\u2019t hold long.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Because when I closed my eyes, it wasn\u2019t just her scent or her touch that haunted me-it was her laughter from years ago, her stubbornness, the way she used to look at me like I was more than the man my father said I\u2019d never be.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The truth lodged itself in my chest like a blade. I had feelings for her. Maybe I\u2019d always had them, buried under duty, anger, and the weight of my family\u2019s expectations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And gods, I had ruined everything.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I dragged a hand down my face, pacing the length of my room. My thoughts turned, unbidden, to Felicity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Felicity, with her sharp smile and softer lies. Felicity, who had been a constant shadow at my side. She had been comfort and chaos all at once, and I had convinced myself that being with her was choice, freedom. That she was what I wanted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But the truth was darker. The truth was a secret I\u2019d buried so deep, even I sometimes pretended it wasn\u2019t there.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The night my parents were attacked by rogues still played in fragments\u2014blood on the forest floor, splintered branches and underbrush, the sound of my mother\u2019s scream echoing through the trees.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I had been too far away to save them. By the time I reached them, my mother was gone, her body limp in my arms.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But my father\u2026 he was still breathing. Barely.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He\u2019d pulled me close, his hand sticky with blood as it clutched at mine. His voice was a rasp, weak, but his words seared themselves into me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was too hard on you,\u201d he whispered. \u201cAlways pushing\u2026 never enough. I\u2019m sorry.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I had shaken my head, choking on the metallic air. \u201cDon\u2019t talk like that. You\u2019ll make it through.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
But he only tightened his grip. \u201cLive your own life, Nolan. Don\u2019t be chained by me. Don\u2019t let my mistakes bind you. If Felicity makes you happy\u2026 stay with her. Don\u2019t waste your chance.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
His eyes, pale and glassy, had searched mine. And then they\u2019d gone still.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019d taken those words as his dying wish-that I marry Felicity, that I honor what had cost him his life. Because it had been my choices that caused this.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They had followed me into the rogue zone when I foolishly tried to run away to be with Felicity. If I hadn\u2019t put her above everything else, my parents would\u2019t have come searching for me. They wouldn\u2019t have been killed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The rogues had struck when I wasn\u2019t where I should\u2019ve been.\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\/2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 127\u00a0<\/p>\n
+25 $665\u00a0<\/p>\n
So I told myself I owed it to him. That I had to follow through, even if it meant binding myself to Felicity despite my instincts screaming at me that I was meant for someone else.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But now\u2026 now every time Ellie smiled, every time her eyes sparked with that fire I remembered, I felt the weight of that vow like a noose around my neck.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I had destroyed her once. I had taken the fierce, witty woman and worn away at her confidence until she was a simpering mess, desperate for a shred of affection.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The car accident was like a reset. This was the Ellie that I had broken once. I was determined not to let her become that frightened, desperate version again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But I couldn\u2019t stop wanting her still.\u00a0<\/p>\n
BIG SALE: 3500 bonus free fou you\u00a0<\/p>\n
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A Cold Marriage That Turned Warm 127 Chapter 127\u00a0 Nolan POV\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t get her out of my head.\u00a0 Even […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-unremembered-mate-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23696\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}