Page 159 of Her Collateral Bride: A Lesbian Age Gap Romance

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flicker of heat cut through the icy cold agony slithering

through her veins.

“Something my own father did. In my family, in a family of

old money and men who rule with an iron fist, you don’t tell

anyone that you’re gay. My father found someone for me to

marry. He wanted the deal done. It was basically a business

transaction, because, yes, the rich still do that. I did have a

choice. If I didn’t marry Henry, I would have been disowned. I

needed my family’s money to back the restaurant. We were

just opening it and my dad knew that. He knew he had me in a

position where if I refused, I’d lose everything. He never

wanted me to be a chef. That was demeaning to him. Beneath

our family. We were bankers and businessmen and investors.

We didn’t work in kitchens. People cooked for us, not the

other way around.”

Haley groaned, but she didn’t say anything. There was no

smart comment coming, no daggers of doubt to dig into her

back. Claire kept her head ducked because she couldn’t bear to

look at Haley.

“I married him. It was…it was hell. As hellish as anyone

could imagine. Henry didn’t know about me. He tried to be a

good husband, but in his world, he was raised to believe that

he’d take over the family business. He was raised with more

money than he knew what to do with. An oldest son complex.

He hated that I worked. He hated that I wasn’t the model

trophy wife. The restaurant was the one concession I made to

the marriage. Henry knew that if he tried to ever take that

away from me, I’d tell the world all of his family secrets. I

learned them fast. Soaked them up because I needed to in

order to protect myself. Henry wanted children, but I’d sneak

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