Chapter 181\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEllie and the boys?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nolan nodded once. \u201cI want to be part of their lives. I just don\u2019t know how without breaking everything all over again.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lance studied him, seeing something rare for his older brother, honesty stripped bare of armor. His own guilt settled like a stone in his stomach. Lance had a relationship with the boys. He was there at their birth. August and Ian recognized him, reacted when he visited.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nolan was a stranger to them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve been giving her space?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it\u2019s killing you.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
>>\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nolan let out a breath that was almost a laugh. \u201cPretty much. My wolf is going insane knowing that they\u2019re out there and I\u2019m not around to protect them. It\u2019s destroying my focus.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou ever consider just telling her that?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe deserves peace,\u201d Nolan said quietly. \u201cI\u2019ve caused her enough pain. I don\u2019t want her to think I\u2019m trying to pull her back before she\u2019s ready.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lance tilted his head, thinking. \u201cYou\u2019re overcorrecting.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, I\u2019m serious,\u201d Lance said. \u201cYou\u2019ve gone from overbearing to absent. There\u2019s a middle ground somewhere, and if you want her to see you\u2019ve changed, you\u2019re going to have to find it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nolan\u2019s eyes lifted toward him, thoughtful but tired. \u201cYou sound like you actually care if this works.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lance shrugged. \u201cI do. I was serious when I said that I love her, Nolan. But I\u2019m smart enough to see that I\u2019m not the one she needs. Besides that, you\u2019re my brother. I spent most of my life angry at you for things I didn\u2019t understand. I\u2019m not making that mistake again.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Something in Nolan\u2019s expression softened. \u201cThat means more than you know.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lance gave him a half-smile. \u201cBesides, I met the woman you made me promise to marry. If I can forgive you for that, I can forgive you for anything.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nolan actually laughed-quiet, genuine, the sound easing some of the tension from the room.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For the first time in years, it felt almost normal between them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nolan POV\u00a0<\/p>\n
When Lance left, the silence of the office returned. The rain had slowed, leaving streaks of water running down the windows, catching what little light broke through the clouds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I sat back in my chair, staring at the space my brother had just occupied.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It felt strange, this new version of us. There was still distance, but it wasn\u2019t sharp anymore. It was something that could be crossed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\/2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 121\u00a0<\/p>\n
+25 Bonus\u00a0<\/p>\n
I glanced down at the reports scattered across my desk. Rogue activity, border patrols, trade requests-none of it mattered as much as it should. Not when my thoughts kept circling back to the same place.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ellie.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I closed my eyes for a moment, letting her name echo in my mind. I could almost hear her voice, soft and steady, see the way she tilted her head when she smiled. The boys\u2019 laughter. The sound of their heartbeat the one time I\u2019d held them both.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I wanted to be part of that again. To be worthy of it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But wanting and deserving weren\u2019t the same thing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019d hurt her, and that truth wouldn\u2019t change just because I regretted it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019d spent the last weeks giving her space, letting her rebuild the life she wanted in Moonstone.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I told myself it was the right thing to do-that she needed distance to heal-but every day that passed without her voice chipped at something inside me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lance\u2019s words lingered. You\u2019re overcorrecting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Maybe he was. Maybe waiting in silence was its own kind of cowardice.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I was putting all of the expectation on her. All of the emotional labor of making a decision. It wasn\u2019t fair of me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I was being selfish again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I rubbed a hand over my face, staring at the flickering light of the desk lamp. \u201cYou\u2019re a fool, Nolan,\u201d I muttered under my breath.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But even fools could try again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Maybe it was time to stop hiding behind good intentions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Maybe the next step wasn\u2019t waiting\u2014it was showing her I\u2019d changed. I had to show her, it couldn\u2019t just be words. I\u2019d lied to her too many times for my words to mean anything.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t know how yet. But I would figure it out.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And when I did, I\u2019d make sure that when she looked at me again, she wouldn\u2019t see the man who broke her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She\u2019d see the man trying to become something better.\u00a0<\/p>\n
2\/2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 187\u00a0<\/p>\n
A Cold Marriage That Turned Warm 181 Chapter 181\u00a0 \u201cEllie and the boys?\u201d\u00a0 Nolan nodded once. \u201cI want to be […]<\/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-23750","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\/23750","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=23750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23750\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}