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“You’re not worth… I love you! What has your father had in deter whether you are worth my love, or any other woman’s? I love you, and I think that you love rily The lord’s chauffeur sat at the head of the carriage, trying to lances fro ut “Have you in your stubborn, stupid s that we felt? Was it a lie? Did you seek me only to use me?”
“I…” Lawrence hesitated; he saw the pain he’d wrought, and began to reconsider… if only for a second He realized that in his callousness, he had done precisely what he had hoped never to do - brought to Anne’s face that tear-stained gaze of wide-eyed anguish his father had forced upon hisHis expression vexed, brow furrowed, Lord Strauss turned away He may have caused that pain in her face, but he would cause it a dozen s He did not deserve them “I can’t do that,” he declared
“All I auilty conscience?” Nadia asked accusingly “Is that what matters to you, more than ed from you over this sordid mess of an estate? To ease the pain you feel about your past? An excuse for you to feel the touch of a wo denied you by your own emotional stupor? Your father - what did he do to you?”
“You are not an excuse,” Lawrence boo at the accusations “I’ve done this for you For your own good For everything you want I’m not what you think I am; I’m not what you want,” he roared “My father is not an excuse, but he is a lesson A lesson learned the hard way, by women who shouldn’t have been forced into their role as playthings in his destructive game It is not a story I wish to tell, suffice to say I have indeed learned its lesson, and I shall not unlearn it for anyone”
“You’ve spent soyourself of your failure, of your father’s failure, that even real love can’t break you froap between them He could feel her, sain; to feel her hair, to press his lips against hers He could not “I’ll not let it happen This contract - here! I’ll not be a party to your self-loathing, or the foolishness that your father instilled in you, Lawrence,” her voice raised higher and hotter She grasped the document and forced it into his face, before she threw it to the cobblestones and stomped it beneath her heeled slipper “You used ht we met at that dinner?”
“I did not use you!” he retorted, turning to face her, his expression torn, shredded by hatred She could see pain beneath, tears for at the corners of his eyes
“You took inity! Is that all I was meant to do for you? That’s all you needed, was it?” she sneered
“That had nothing to do with… with any of this, though I… I regret taking you, in that manner,” he admitted painfully “It was a mistake It shouldn’t have happened, and I shouldn’t have let it happen I’ll never be good enough for—”
“For what? For me? I said I love you! Aood enough, and who is not?!” Anne retorted, sta it into the space between the cobblestones “I can choose whoh foryourself above a wo yourself better equipped to make her decisions for her?”
“And with every word you speak you only prove to ht decision with that contract - that I’ve failed you, just as my father failed my mother, just as I failed my sister, and the other women I’ve loved and lost - and just as I will always fail,” he rumbled
“Why can you not see your oorth? Why? Have I not laid before you how much I treasure that worth, howher cheeks now “You feel it inevitable that you will fail That you will fall to whatever demons consumed your family But you are not your family, Lawrence You are you You’ve dedicated yourself so completely to this lie that you’d break my heart for it,” she sobbed
“It’s not my choice, Anne It’s h that,” he la in her face the tears of his ood, for you Soood Let ive to you what he wants for you”
“My father wanted me to be happy Did he not tell you that? The estate — all of it He cared e,” Anne exclaimed
“He’s a goodthis decision,” the duke said, turning his shoulder to the woman as she cried
“…That’s it, then?” she asked, quivering “I loved you”