Chapter 185\u00a0<\/p>\n
+25 Bonus\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2013\u00a0<\/p>\n
My breath caught. I remembered the dream the black wolf standing between me and the one with blue eyes, the way it had fought to protect me. I hadn\u2019t realized how closely it mirrored reality until now.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cCassian,\u201d I whispered, \u201che\u2019s really changed, hasn\u2019t he?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cassian smiled faintly. \u201cHe\u2019s trying to. That\u2019s more than I could say for him a year ago.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I swallowed hard. \u201cI thought he hated me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe never hated you, Ellie. I know that things between you are complicated, and I probably shouldn\u2019t get involved. It\u2019s not my place. But I know that he never hated you.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
))\u00a0<\/p>\n
My eyes stung, the truth sinking in. I looked toward the twins, their little faces soft and peaceful as they slept.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t want them to grow up without a father,\u201d I said quietly. \u201cI just\u2026 didn\u2019t know if I could trust him.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t have to decide that today,\u201d Cassian said gently. \u201cYou just have to decide whether you want to try.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I nodded slowly, my chest tightening around the quiet ache of hope.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cassian rose and rested a hand on my shoulder. \u201cYou know,\u201d he said, half smiling, \u201cyou and Nolan have more in common than either of you realize.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cReally?\u201d I asked, looking up at him skeptically.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou both love like it\u2019s a fight,\u201d he said. \u201cLike you don\u2019t know how to be gentle. Maybe you don\u2019t. Neither of you has had much in your life that could be called gentle. It\u2019s no wonder you hurt each other. But maybe that\u2019s why you keep finding your way back.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I managed a watery laugh. \u201cThat\u2019s one way to put it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He squeezed my shoulder gently. \u201cGive him a chance, Ellie. Not for what you had, for what you could still build.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
My heart swelled and broke all at once. I wanted to believe that was possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After Cassian left for his next meeting, I lingered on the couch, watching the twins sleep. The clouds had finally broken, and the last traces of sunlight filtered through the curtains, highlighting their dark hair in gold.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I thought of Nolan again, of the way his voice had softened when he\u2019d spoken to me at the park that day, the way his eyes had looked when he first saw the boys. There was pain there, yes, but also something deeper.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Love,\u00a0<\/p>\n
Real and enduring.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There was something about the raw wonder on his face when he\u2019d seen them that made him look almost innocent.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The thought made my chest ache.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe we\u2019re both learning to be gentle,\u201d I whispered softly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cassian was right. There wasn\u2019t much in my life that had been soft. There were still gaps in my memory, but I could recall a lot more now, and it seemed like new memories were surfacing every day.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I remembered the orphanage, how lonely it was growing up there with only the vague knowledge that I was meant\u00a0<\/p>\n
to be somewhere else.\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\/3\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 135\u00a0<\/p>\n
+25 Bonus\u00a0<\/p>\n
I remembered trying to find a way to sustain myself as a rogue in the borderlands. Year after year of cold nights and sparse meals, while I tried to find a place in this world where I belonged. I remember working in the bar that eventually led me to Nolan.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then those early years with Nolan. Everything between us had been so hot and cold. The mate pull was so strong, so overwhelming. I knew that Nolan could feel it, too. I could see it in his eyes when he looked at me sometimes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And when we were alone together\u2026 There was no denying the way our bodies craved one another.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But outside of those moments, it was awful. Nolan acted like my being there was an inconvenience. Like I was only embarrassing him by trying to do what I thought I should as his wife.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Eventually, the desperation took over.\u00a0<\/p>\n
My memories of that time were painful, humiliating. I didn\u2019t recognize myself at all. I had done everything possible to be the quiet, demure, obedient wife that I thought he wanted and it was only met with his disgust.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The twins stirred in their sleep, one letting out a tiny sigh.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I smiled through the tears I didn\u2019t bother to wipe away. For the first time in months, the thought of seeing Nolan again didn\u2019t scare me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Maybe getting hit by that car was the best thing that ever happened to me. Losing my memory of those years for a while allowed me to reclaim myself.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It felt like the beginning of something new was starting. It was fragile, uncertain, but real.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Maybe Cassian was right.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Maybe Nolan and I had to learn to be gentle with one another.\u00a0<\/p>\n
COIN BUNDLE: get more free bonus\u00a0<\/p>\n
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A Cold Marriage That Turned Warm 185 Chapter 185\u00a0 +25 Bonus\u00a0 \u2013\u00a0 My breath caught. I remembered the dream the […]<\/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-23754","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\/23754","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=23754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23754\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}