CHAPTER 172

If I hadn’t entered into this marriage contract with Kylo, what would have happened to my mother and me? Would we have withered away, abandoned by the very people who pretended to care for us?

I shudder to think about what might have happened if Kylo hadn't stepped in. Perhaps I would’ve died alongside my father’s legacy, a mere footnote in the Andersons’ twisted games.

And yet, as I stood there in the doorway, I couldn’t ignore the strange comfort Kylo’s presence had brought into my life.

Was it fate, or mere coincidence, that our paths had crossed like this? Perhaps, in a world filled with betrayals, Kylo was the one piece of stability I could cling to.

***

I was sitting in the living room, my legs were folded under me, and I was just looking into space with no focus.

If I had been in a room elsewhere, I’d have preferred the solitude but the stillness of the house was suffocating and the only thing that kept me company was the ticking of the clock which seemed to chime at me in an e