Page 73 of Arranged Wolf's Nanny
Her voice cracked. Tears slipped free, streaking down her pale cheeks. “But never…neveranything that would hurt you. I swear it. I swear it on my life. On Eva’s life.”
Something twisted hard in his chest at the sound of his daughter’s name on her lips. But fury drowned it, scorching everything in its path.
“Swear all you like,” he snarled, crumpling the letter in his fist, “your words mean nothing if they’ve already reached ears they shouldn’t.”
Her breath hitched, her eyes going wide with anguish. “You don’t believe me.”
“I can’t.”
The silence that followed was heavier than any roar. Rosalia stood trembling before him, her hands clutched at her chest as though to hold herself together. The lamplight caught the diamonds at her throat, glimmering like tears.
Rick turned away, his wolf pacing just beneath his skin, furious, betrayed, aching in a way he did not want to name.
Behind him, Rosalia whispered, broken, “I would never hurt you.”
But he was too blinded to hear it.
Chapter 17 - Rosalia
Sleep was a stranger.
Rosalia lay in the wide hotel bed, sheets cool against her skin, and stared at the ceiling as though the plaster itself would yield answers. The silence of the suite was broken only by Eva’s steady breathing from the adjoining room. That soft sound should have calmed her, but instead it made her chest ache.
Her mind would not still. Every word from Rick the night before replayed in an endless loop.
You expect me to gamble my pack, my daughter, on your certainty?
His voice had been sharper than any blade, colder than her father’s backhand. He had looked at her as though she were poison.
She rolled onto her side, pressing her hands against her eyes, as though the darkness could drown out memory. But the truth burned anyway: he hadn’t believed her. He had looked at her letter, seen her friend’s name, and all of his warmth had bled away.
He’d assumed she’d betrayed him. That she was even capable of such a thing.
And even worse. Perhaps he was right. Perhaps she had been a fool.
Katie had been her lifeline through all those years of silence, of bruises hidden beneath long sleeves, of her father’s venom echoing in her skull. The letters were her only breath of honesty in a world built of lies. Rosalia had clung to that thread because without it, she feared she would shatter into nothing.
But now…
She sat up abruptly, the sheets tangling around her legs.Enough.
If she did nothing, Rick’s mistrust would calcify into stone. If she cowered here, they would never get answers.
She could not,would not, be the girl who hid behind walls any longer.
Rosalia rose and dressed quickly, pulling on dark wool trousers, a cream blouse, and her plainest coat. No velvet, no embroidery, no jewels. Tonight, she was not her father’s doll, nor Rick’s almost-something. She was simply herself.
Katie wouldn’t betray her. Shecouldn’t.
But Rosalia needed to hear it from her lips, needed the confirmation from her directly. And if her father had been intercepting her letters, then she’d get answers from him, too.
An old, aching fear tugged at her gut, and she pushed it away. There was no room for fear. Not anymore.
Or at least, if there was fear, then she wouldn’t let it rule her. She had fought too hard to overcome it, earned her growing happiness with blood and sheer spite.
And she was happy. She cherished the life she was building for herself, brick by brick. She wouldnotlet it be taken from her. Not if she could do anything about it. And if that meant returning to the belly of the beast, then so be it.
As silently as her human body would allow, she crept out of her room, leaving her things behind. She didn’t need them.
