Page 71 of The Billionaire's Accidental Legacy

It was also...strange. Now that she had opened herself up to the possibility of feeling, it all seemed muddled. Intense beyond the rational.

But she supposed that was the issue. She had moved beyond rational. She had gone to another place entirely.

She had opened up her heart. And that was the thing she had always been the most afraid of. Because her heart wasn’t full of files.

She had all this knowledge in her head, and yet it wasn’t any use to her when it came to this. To feelings.

She didn’t know what to do with all of this.

She didn’t know what to do with herself.

But she was there with him, and they were married. But it was nothing. For nothing except the protection of the baby.

Suddenly, she felt like she couldn’t breathe.

But he was there. He looked at her and squeezed her hand, and it was easy for her to believe it was because he felt something, too.

It was easy for her to believe that it was because he was swept up in the same tide of emotion. In the vows they had just spoken as strangers clapped for them.

He wasn’t, though; she could see it. In his eyes.

Because she had clear memories of those eyes. And she knew what it was like when they were filled with passion. She knew what it was when they were filled with emotion. Vulnerability, as they had been when he had told her about his mother.

It made her ache. Tremble. She felt as if she was having an episode.

Because it was like a wall had come down within her and suddenly, she was just so aware.

She had been pleased that she was hurt for him that night in Paris, as it had been evidence to her that she wasn’t a sociopath.

But it was beyond that now. She wasn’t pleased that she had feelings. She simply had them.

It was like all of her self-protection was gone.

All of it.

And all she could do was cling to him, the object of this pain, and let him walk her back down the aisle.

She smiled, because she was very good at playing a part, above all things, even when everything inside her was eroding.

They got into the car that was waiting for them, and she began to breathe a little bit better. They would go back to the estate; they would...

She realized they were driving away from the estate.

“Where are we going?”

“To the airport.”

“What?”

“We are going on a honeymoon.”

“I don’t understand. Even if we were doing that we could fly out of the estate.”

“Too private. I am ostentatiously taking you on a honeymoon.”

Of course he was. Because this was all about the show, and she had to remember that. Before she let her tender heart begin to beat in response to the idea of him taking her on a romantic trip, she reminded herself that this was about showing her father that he cared for her, so that her father would believe that the hammer would fall upon him were he to make a move toward her.

“Oh. But Maren...”

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