Page 326 of In Love with a Cruel Billionaire

He's never touched me, and I wondered about it before, but now I know why.

I don't want to put any of you at risk, and that's why I wanted to tell you first.

Because I know you can make the tough decisions.

Tell me to stay away so that Mairi and Nala are safe.

Diana's words hit him like one blow after another, and all he could do was take every fucking thing in numb silence. A part of him was still in denial, wanting to rage against the fates. He was sorry - of course he was damn sorry that life had turned out the way it had for de Graaf, but couldn't any other woman fall in love with him? Couldn't it be anyone else but Diana?

Now, he understood why Diana had been looking at him the way she had been doing so all this time. From the very start, she had come here, prepared for him to cut ties with her, and she would have accepted it. Maybe she had expected it even. God knew, the way Esther had brought her up, Diana had foolishly come to believe that she would never be worthy of people's love.

When she finally finished talking, he could only look at her for one long moment, wondering how it was that he had missed it. Sometime between the past and the present, Diana had grown from being the little girl he knew and turned into the woman she was now.

Someone who loved like he did, loved so damn fiercely that she had the strength and courage to throw everything away, just to be with the man she had entrusted her heart with.

Looking at her, he said quietly, "I don't think you came here to ask for my permission for anything."

Diana couldn't stop crying, couldn't do anything but just look at him and wish...oh God, she wished...she wished...

"Because it seems to me that you've already made up your mind."

The tears fell faster, and her heart started breaking.

"And that you're just here to tell us we have a new member to welcome to our family."

She stared at him in shock.

And then she threw herself in his arms. "Damen. Damen. Damen." She started sobbing against his chest. She had so many things to say, but in the end, it was just his name that she could utter, just like how it had been before, and she had been a little girl asking for her big brother's help.

And he had always been there for her.

Always.

"Sssh. I know." Damen kissed the top of her head. "And I'm proud of you, baby." His voice turned rough with emotion. "You've got this.We'vegot this."

Together

---