Page 98 of Bound to the Heartless Duke
Nathan hadsoldher. Not just manor, but her.
Impossible. She refused to believe that.
Noticing her state, Magnus turned sharply to Mr. Bailey.
“I said, enough.” He took a deep breath. “You will speak calmly, or you will leave.”
Mr. Bailey burst into derisive laughter. “Speak calmly?” He scowled. “No, Your Grace. I won’t speak calmly amidst this madness.”
Magnus took another menacing step forward, his voice dangerously low. “Then you have my full attention, and my patience, for now.”
Lily looked at the two men, but she couldn’t focus on anything other than the fact that Nathan had betrayed her in every way.
“Nathan… sold me,” she stammered, her voice barely above a whisper.
Mr. Bailey’s face flushed a deep red, his nostrils flaring.
“You don’t understand,” he hissed. “Nathan—the brother you’ve been waiting on—didn’t just lose the manor. He… he agreed to give me his sister.You, Lily.” His words hit her like a hammer to the chest. “For a price higher than any man should pay. I gave him the money. I trusted him! But he vanished—disappeared like a ghost the moment the transaction was done.”
Lily couldn’t breathe. The room suddenly felt too cold, the ornate walls closing in on her. Her mind spun.
“He sold me…” Her voice trembled, barely audible, as if saying the words aloud made the betrayal more real. “Like I was some… prize to be handed over. Not a sister. Not a woman.”
Magnus’s gaze softened, and he stepped back toward her, silently offering support.
“You never knew this?” he asked quietly.
“No,” Lily choked out. “I knew he bet the manor, along with everything. I knew he was reckless. But I never thought… that he would sell me. That he would—” She shook her head.
“Treat you like a possession,” Mr. Bailey cut in.
Magnus shifted his gaze to the man, his voice steady yet commanding. “And you—you simply believed him? Did you think this would be a simple exchange? That the deal would hold?”
Mr. Bailey’s eyes flickered with resentment. “I believed Nathan because I had no choice. I gave him a sum that would make most men’s blood run cold, hoping it would secure the woman I was promised.”
“And yet, Nathan vanished,” Lily whispered, more to herself than to anyone else.
“Yes.” Mr. Bailey hung his head in defeat for a brief second. “For almost a month now, there has been no word. No sign. Nothing but silence.”
Lily’s hands clenched involuntarily. Her temper flared. The brother she’d been yearning for, who was supposed to save her, who was supposed to show up for her, vanished after handling her fate like a token in a losing game.
Did he start another life after selling her off?
Even that thought made despair twist in her chest.
Magnus’s voice cut through the silence. “This is why you’ve come here, then. To claim what you were promised. To take her back.”
Mr. Bailey’s gaze hardened, but beneath it lay a glimmer of desperation. “I want her safe. I want what I was promised. But more than that… I want answers. What became of Nathan? Why would he abandon her so completely?”
Lily swallowed hard, bitterness coating her tongue. “I thought… I thought my brother would come back. I hoped he would fight for me, for us.
Magnus studied her carefully. “And yet here you stand, not sold, not lost. That means something.”
The weight of his words made her look up at him, knowing there was a faint warmth amid the cold truth.
Mr. Bailey looked at Magnus then, a question burning behind his anger. “And what of you, Your Grace? You’ve given her your name. Are you her protector now, or her captor?”
A faint shadow crossed Magnus’s features. “I’m no captor.” He lifted his chin. “Come with me, Mr Bailey. Let us discuss, shall we?”
