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“Yes,” he sighs, and I glance up at hirief flickers in his eyes before disappearing “When she first arrived, she wasn’t happy with the arrangeed her mind”

“A week?” I find that hard to believe “Had you already been visiting her like you did with me?”

“We had no Thursday night dinners, if that’s what you mean”

“Still, you built the house for her” I’ back to what Koa told me “Why did you do it?”

“The house wasn’t for her She orried about leaving her family”

“You didn’t care about them?”

“I only cared for her happiness” He stops and looks away from ive him for it”

“But you built a mansion for him to live in A luxurious, palatial mansion”

“I built it for her” His tone is sharp, as if he’s becoitated “She wouldn’t be happy unless she knew they were safe and cared for Your fa, but you can thank Cora for that house and the servants and the cars and whatever the hell else they wanted”

Thank you, Cora, I say internally, not that I wanted any of it “Why do you say they? I lived there, too”

“I wanted you to have those things” The warmth in his voice unsettles me

“You never answered ht dinners, how did you see her before?”

“We would meet in the woods”

I look around these frozen, grey woods Twisted tree lion’s heads, and dareen ivy “You met in the woods on Earth, and she was happy with this?”

“She liked the lake She liked… being with me”