Page 99 of Trapped with the Forbidden Duke
His patience was already worn thin, and the outright denial, the dismissal of what he had been through while living with his aunt and uncle only had him losing every shred of it.
His voice rose, no longer that broken whisper. “I never wish to see you again.”
“Lucien—”
“Leave!” he shouted.
Barnard flinched, hurrying back to the door before slipping out of the room.
But Lucien barely got a moment to compose himself before the door creaked again. He rounded on the intruder, only to find himself face-to-face with his wife, who looked insulted.
“What?” he snapped.
Edwina’s eyes narrowed. “Why are you so cruel to him? To all of them, in fact. I have met all three of your relatives now, Lucien, and I do not understand. None of them deserve your cruelty.”
Lucien could only stare at her for a moment, the last shred of his self-restraint slipping away.
He let out a laugh, one that was hurt and humorless, angry and withdrawn. “None of them deserve it?” he growled low in his throat, unable to help the fury that overtook him. “You have no right to tell me what to do, Edwina. How dare you stand there and judge me for my behavior when you know everything about me andnothingabout them!”
Edwina reared back but did not back down. She looked confused and hurt, her face contorting.
“That is the problem, Lucien!” she shouted back. “Because every time I ask, you tell me nothing. And now you expect me to understand? I do not know everything about you because you deflect every single time, and I am done pretending as though it doesn’t hurt. Not when you interfere in my family’s affairs yet you keep me at arm’s length when it comes to yours!”
“For good reason. Why can you not see that?”
“Because I care about you!” she snapped. “Do you not see that I care about you, Lucien? I know you think that nobody can, or nobody will, that you are the hero who swoops in when needed. But you know what, you can also have your own hero. I am supposed to be that person for you, but you do not let me!”
Lucien only barked out another laugh, his mind racing, hearing his aunt’s voice in his head.
“You know I love you like a son, Lucien. I know your eyes hurt from the sunlight, but here, drink this. It shall make it all better…”
He could see Allan desperately trying to please his mother while telling Lucien that he was his best friend. He saw Nicholas’s lies and the slammed doors, his uncle pleading for forgiveness while defending Katherine.
Everybody lied to him, and he could not stand it.
So many times, it had happened, leaving him feeling untethered. How was he supposed to think that Edwina could be different?
His voice low, he asked her, “How can you care for a man you do not even know?”
“Lucien,” Edwina said, her voice softer. “Do not ask foolish things.”
“This is a foolish thing?” he scoffed. “No, Edwina. What is foolish isthis.Us. The laughter, watching others have a perfect life and build a future because they truly care for one another.”
“And we do not?” she whispered, her voice breaking.
His heart turned heavy, a boulder in his chest. “No.”
I cannot believe that she could care for me. Not when she is good and I am rotten inside. Cruel and dismissive.
“No, for partners should not care for one another, only for what they could gain out of their agreement.”
“Partners?”
Her voice was cracking, faint, as hurt as Barnard’s had sounded.
She is just another thing I have destroyed, he mused, his fist clenched.
The scent of jasmine and rose tickled his senses, and he knew she had stepped closer. He flinched away, snarling.
