Chapter 270\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ellie POV\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cassian didn\u2019t waste time with pleasantries.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He stood in the sitting room of the Silver Fang packhouse, hands clasped behind his back, his posture rigid in a way I recognized immediately. This wasn\u2019t the Cassian who teased the boys or argued politics over breakfast.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This was the enforcer. The strategist. The man who had kept me alive when everything else was falling apart.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rae sat beside him, her expression tight, eyes sharp as they tracked every movement in the room.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nolan lingered near the doorway, deliberately casual but coiled beneath the surface. I could feel his attention on me like a living thing, steady and protective, even as he pretended to examine a crack in the stone wall.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s wrong?\u201d I asked quietly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cassian met my gaze. \u201cWe caught Claire.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The words landed heavier than I expected.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cCaught?\u201d Nolan repeated, his voice flat.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the border,\u201d Cassian confirmed. \u201cShe was trying to leave Moonstone.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The room seemed to tilt slightly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rae leaned forward. \u201cShe was running. Back to Pine Ridge. To Kieran.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
My first instinct was disbelief-not because I doubted Rae, but because part of me still wanted to believe Claire had been\u2026 misguided. Misled. That she\u2019d truly thought she was helping.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said Nolan was manipulating me,\u201d I murmured. \u201cThat Kieran was the right choice. That I\u2019d be safer with him.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nolan\u2019s jaw tightened.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you believed her?\u201d Cassian asked gently.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I shook my head. \u201cNo.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rae studied me carefully. \u201cShe believed it, though. Or convinced herself she did.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cassian nodded, \u201cShe insisted her intentions were good. Claimed she was trying to \u2018save\u2019 you.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom me,\u201d Nolan said quietly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Silence followed. It was the truth that none of us wanted to fully examine, not now, in light of everything else that was happening.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I turned toward him. \u201cThat\u2019s not your fault. We\u2019ve talked about this.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He met my eyes then, something dark and conflicted moving beneath the surface. \u201cIt never stops, Ellie. Even now. Even with everything in the open. They keep trying to rewrite you-rewrite us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\/4\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 270\u00a0<\/p>\n
+25 Bonus\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cassian cleared his throat. \u201cI let her go.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
That snapped Nolan\u2019s attention back immediately. \u201cYou what?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s gone,\u201d Cassian said steadily. \u201cBanished from Moonstone. She won\u2019t be a problem again.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rae shot him a look but didn\u2019t contradict him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I could see that Nolan wanted to argue, wanted to demand that Cassian explain himself. The tension in his shoulders, the tick of his jaw made that clear. But he refrained. Let out a slow, deliberate breath and rolled his\u00a0<\/p>\n
shoulders back.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nolan\u2019s voice dropped. \u201cAnd Kieran?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cassian\u2019s expression hardened. \u201cHe\u2019s still meeting with anyone he thinks might weaken you. Which means he\u2019s getting desperate.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The word sent a chill down my spine.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Desperate people did reckless things.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After Cassian and Rae left, the packhouse felt too quiet.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The boys were asleep upstairs, their soft breaths drifting faintly through the open hall. I stood at the window, watching the lights of the city flicker beyond the grounds, each one a reminder of how many eyes were on us\u00a0<\/p>\n
now.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nolan came up behind me without a sound, his presence warm and familiar. He didn\u2019t touch me at first\u2014just stood close enough that I could feel him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re thinking too loudly,\u201d he said softly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I huffed a weak laugh. \u201cYou\u2019ve always said that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He rested his hands on my hips, careful, grounding. \u201cTalk to me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI keep wondering how much of this is my fault,\u201d I admitted. \u201cIf I hadn\u2019t disappeared. If I hadn\u2019t been so afraid\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cStop,\u201d he said immediately.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I turned in his arms. \u201cNolan-\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou protected our children,\u201d he said firmly, \u201cYou protected yourself. That was never wrong.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI protected them from you. I didn\u2019t even give you a chance. Everyone who knows the truth about what happened with me and the boys thinks you\u2019re some kind of a monster and it\u2019s all my fault.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He pulled me back against his chest, his arms wrapping around my waist firmly. I let myself met back into him. The contact helped to ease the storm of guilt and fear that was roiling inside of me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou did what you thought was necessary. I gave you every reason to distrust me, Ellie. And we both know that you were right.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
2\/4\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 270\u00a0<\/p>\n
+25 Bonus\u00a0<\/p>\n
His words startled me, I looked up at him, our eyes meeting. He didn\u2019t explain, just held me a little closer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The answer came to me in the silence. Felicity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She had still been here when the boys were born. If I had brought them home to Silver Fang right away, Felicity would have been waiting. She tried to kill them when she poisoned me. There was no reason to think she wouldn\u2019t have tried again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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A Cold Marriage That Turned Warm 270 Chapter 270\u00a0 Ellie POV\u00a0 Cassian didn\u2019t waste time with pleasantries.\u00a0 He stood in […]<\/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-23839","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\/23839","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=23839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23839\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}