Page 77 of Betrayal (Corrupt Empire 1)

I pulled her up out of the cupboard and crushed her to me. She hadn’t come out. She’d stayed.

Fuck. Avery. Fuck.

The relief I felt crashed over me, melting my broken soul into a puddle at her feet.

“Aiden? Is he gone?”

“Yes. Yes, he’s fucking gone and you’re still here.”

“Did you forget I don’t like my uncle?”

“No, but you could’ve come out and then this would’ve been over. He’d have known it was me all along.”

“I told you I’d keep your secrets.”

She had. And I’d believed her to an extent. She’d proven right then she was willing to stay with me even though she could’ve exposed everything.

I stroked her hair. So beautiful. So fragile. So strong. And all mine. Her arms banded around my back.

“I don’t want to leave you,” she said. “I’m staying of my own free will.”

I was losing.

Losing myself to her.

And the connection we forged the day she’d walked into my life.

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