Forbidden Fate (Crowne Point 3)

She smiled. “Nothing. Bleeding during the beginning is perfectly normal.”

I exhaled. Normal.

Normal.

As the doctor talked about how her pregnancy was progressing and what she needed to do, I listened, committing to memory everything.

When she left, I looked down and found Snitch staring at me.

I took my seat next to her bed wordlessly, eyes still locked. I grabbed her hand. This felt routine.

Normal.

I wanted that.

“You should go back to your wife,” she croaked.

I flinched and dropped her hand. Barely perceptible. But I knew Snitch would notice, notice how I’d been slammed back to reality.

“I’ve been thinking about that,” I said after a moment. “I see no reason why I can’t be there for you.”

She blinked out a scoff.

“Am I supposed to just let you go, Snitch? Let you live married to my brother-in-law with my baby. How the fuck do I do that?”

“You did this to us. All I can think is that I wasn’t good enough to marry. I wasn’t good enough to have your child—”

I gripped her face tight, but not enough to bruise. “Stop saying that. This world is not meant for you, Story Hale. It’s not meant for our child.”

She’s perfect. She’s innocent but has miles of depth. She can’t be bought. She’s everything they want to destroy.

Then as easily as I had been trained to do my entire life, I mopped my emotions away and sat back, shoulders straight, and said, “I have a proposal. I’ll be there for you. Take you to the doctor. Do everything you need. Be everything you need.”

She stared at me for so long, her mossy eyes gleaming under the fluorescent lights.

“West can be that for me.”

I saw black. Fucking West taking care of my child? I didn’t realize I was clenching my jaw until the muscle ached. I leaned forward until I could see the flecks of green in her stony hazel eyes.

“West can never be that for you.”

“How is this going to work? You cross lines, Grayson. We cross lines. It won’t work.”

Snitch wanted to be free, to not hide. To be with me, I’d have to hide her, hide the baby.

I couldn’t give Lottie a happy marriage. In the end, I had wed her as she cried under her veil.

But I would do this, I’ll give Snitch a happily ever after.

Just without me.

She would live far away from Crowne Hall with its darkness and ghosts. She would live someplace sunny and bright.

I will fight for her.

I will save her.

From me.