Page 165 of Modern Romance January 2025 1-4

‘Have you forgiven your father?’

Maria’s face showed surprise at the question. ‘No.’ Her tone softened a little. ‘But I understand him better.’

‘What does that mean?’

‘That I am not angry with him anymore. Not for sending me away.’ She lifted a hand to Sebastian’s cheek. ‘Though it is impossible to forgive him for taking all of this from you.’ She sighed. ‘Why are you thinking about him now, Sebastian, when everything is finally as it ought to have been?’

Because Rosie had made him think. She’d made him look and see and understand. She’d pushed him when he didn’t want to be pushed. She’d been brave time and time again. Brave in a way he simply didn’t know if he could be. He shook his head, confused, angry, lost.

‘But it’s not. You should not have been cut from the line of succession. You should be inheriting the throne.’

‘I have no interest in the throne,’ she said with a lift of one shoulder. ‘I never did. All I wanted was to come home again, to be here.’ She gestured to the garden.

Sebastian made a noise, a strangled sound. Rosie had every reason to run from commitment. She was just as scared of rejection as he was. She was utterly alone, and yet she was also brave. Was he really going to let her down? Was he really going to keep hiding, playing it safe, when she was willing to take such risks?

‘But that’s not what’s bothering you.’

‘It is, in part.’

‘And the rest?’

The rest? The rest was everything. The rest was an awakening, a sense that he had made mistake after mistake, pushed away when he should have pulled closer, said no when he should have shouted yes, over and over again.

He dropped his head into his hands and let out a low, dark growl. ‘I think I’ve done something really damned stupid.’

‘What is it, darling?’ Maria watched as he dragged his hands through his hair. When his gaze met hers, Maria saw a look of disbelief in the depths of her son’s eyes, a look of shocked, confused disbelief and then, relief. Because finally, he understood, and he was ready to be brave, just like her.

‘I believe I’ve fallen head over heels in love with my wife.’

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

ATFIRST,SHE’DCONTEMPLATEDsending him away. Their conversation from the day before was still running verbatim through her mind, had been torturing her all night. She wasn’t ready for round two.

But she needed to see him. She needed to prove to herself that shecouldsee him. Yesterday, she felt as though the world had stopped spinning; today she needed to show herself that this was not the case.

He was just a man.

True, a man she loved.

But she was strong. She would conquer this: starting now.

She took her time checking her appearance. It was important to Rosie that she look poised and perfect—not broken, like she was inside. She coiled her hair tightly into a bun, inspected the suit she wore for lint, slipped her stockinged feet into a pair of heels then walked with a confidence she didn’t feel towards her office, where Laurena had installed Sebastian.

At the door, she took a deep breath before pushing it inwards. He was standing, hands on hips, and every single pretension of poise fell to her feet.

Her breath escaped her in a single whoosh.

He looked so perfect.

Utterly, desperately perfect, but it wasn’t about that.

She loved him.

And while she knew she would have to conquer that feeling, she could only look at him now and imagine a lifetime without him, without their intimacy, without him to talk to, and she wanted to curl up in a ball and cry.

She didn’t though.

Outwardly, she kept her features in a neutral mask of curiosity. Inwardly, she trembled all over.

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