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Chapter 13

Author: Sweet Chocolate
The headlines painted the Dawsons as the perfect family—devoted husband and wife, accomplished children, a model of success among the elite.

"What a joke… My mother weighed barely ninety pounds when she died, her hands covered in bruised needle marks. She should have lived a long life.

"And the Dawsons? Their business is far from clean. After all the lives they’ve ruined, do they really deserve to be called a model family?"

I pressed a hand over my eyes, forcing back the flood of emotion threatening to break free.

"Liam, I used you. I knew you would never forgive betrayal, so I led her straight into breaking your trust.

"If that hurts you, if you hate me for it, I can live with that. But I need to be the one to drag her to hell myself."

I pushed everything else down, burying it beneath cold resolve as I met his gaze.

But then Liam reached for my hand, the one I had clenched behind my back.

He lifted it gently to his lips and pressed a kiss against my trembling fingers.

"Chloe, your han
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