Page 74 of Her Sinful Duke

When he looked down at her, he could see confusion in her beautiful eyes. He smiled in an effort to reassure her that she hadn’t done anything wrong. On the contrary, she was doing everything right.

“Have you… changed your mind?” he asked tenderly.

“I…” she started, blushing before she even said the words that were on her mind. “I’m sorry that I made you wait for me when I wanted you as much as you wanted me…”

He cupped her cheek gently with his hand. “Shh, my darling,” he said, noticing a stray tear rolling down her cheek, leaving a wet trail. He wiped it with his fingers. “I would have waited for you forever, you know that now.”

“I… I’ve spent so much time in that horrid place that I didn’t know how to react when someone treated me as nicely as you and your grandfather did. You treated me as someone you loved, not just someone you tolerate.”

He brought her over to the bed, and they both sat down. He wrapped his arm around her, pulling her close. She rested her head on his shoulder, continuing.

“I swear I’m not as bad as everyone says I am,” she said through the onslaught of tears. “I always tried to be as good as Vanessa, but my parents always preferred her to me, and then Adeline came, and she immediately became Mother’s favorite. I… I never felt loved by my family, never.”

His heart was breaking for this beautiful woman who deserved nothing but love, and yet, she never received it. He vowed to himself to make her happier than any woman had ever been. That would be his lifelong mission.

“I just wanted some time to adjust to normal life again when I married you,” she admitted as the onslaught slowly subsided. “That’s why I was pushing you away — because I was afraid you would also think I wasn’t good enough…”

“I would never think that,” he said, cupping her face with both hands and forcing her to look at him. “Never, Penelope. I also thought the same, that you wouldn’t think I was good enough, that you would think I was like my father…”

“Your father?” she asked, her eyes drinking in the sight of him with so much love and tenderness that he felt as if his heart would burst with emotion for this woman.

“Yes,” he nodded, realizing that it was his turn to confess. “I know I’ve hurt you with my cold, aloof behavior, but just like you, I was trying to protect myself from heartbreak.”

He paused for a moment, looking deep into her eyes before he continued.

“You see, my father preferred the allure of the bottle to anything else, and when he drank, he would become very violent. For my mother, my sister, and myself, every day was a torment. He would verbally and physically abuse all of us. No one was spared from his wrath. I always tried to make myself the object of his torment, but I wasn’t always successful in that.”

He paused again, inhaling deeply. The onslaught of memories was heavy, wrought with pain and bitterness he had been keeping bottled up for far too long. “One night… it became extremely apparent that he had drunk more than he usually did. Much more. He was throwing things around the house. I was not home at the time, but I saw what he did before he…” He couldn’t bring himself to say it, even after all this time.

“Oh, James…” He heard Penelope’s sweet voice. It gave him the strength to finish his story.

“That was the night when he murdered my mother and my sister. Then… he killed himself.” Tears started to stream down his face, and he didn’t even try to wipe them away. He was crying for all those he had lost, all those he would never see again. “When I came back, I found them all dead.”

“James, I am so sorry…” She wrapped her arms around him, pulling him close.

“I was afraid you might believe them that I am like my father.” He finally whispered his greatest fear.”

“You could never be like your father,” she argued, looking at him in the eyes. “Never. You are just a broken soul, like me.”

CHAPTER36

“We will mend each other… together,” he said softly, gazing at her.

“Together,” she replied, unable to contain her delight, her relief, her love for this man who had risked everything to save her.

“As for your parents and Vanessa, you will leave all of that to me,” he said mysteriously, not wishing to divulge anything else.

“What are you thinking?” she asked curiously. She didn’t want to ruin her good mood by thinking about them although she knew that she would have to do so eventually. “I honestly don’t want to see them ever again. Just Adeline.”

“Is that what you want?” he asked tenderly.

“Yes,” she nodded. “I don’t want to have them near me any longer.”

“I understand,” he said. “But we cannot allow this cruelty on the part of your sister to go unpunished. And I have just the right thing.”

“What?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. She trusted him more than anyone else.

“You will see for yourself tomorrow,” he told her even more mysteriously this time. He took her hands into his own. “You need to rest now.”

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