Her Reluctant Wife: A Lesbian Age Gap Romance

and wanted, even though it was all wrong and she knew she

shouldn’t. “You don’t have to be like this. I thought you were,

but you weren’t. Aren’t. Not really. Not deep down. When you

hit your head, you were nice. You were vulnerable. It was

okay to just be you. You don’t have to pretend—”

“It’s not an act,” Giana responded, nearly feral. “This is my

life! My. Life. You meddled and schemed, and you didn’t once

consider the cost.”

“That’s not true.” She’d definitely considered it. And she’d

known that this would happen. That this would be the

outcome.

“Oh. So you did.” It sounded so much worse that way.

She needed to explain, even if it was far too late. “You saw

the ring,” Coralyn stammered. “You asked if we were

engaged. I saw an opportunity to find the necklace if I brought

you back here. I was desperate. I wasn’t thinking clearly.” She

couldn’t say that the pain ebbing and flowing through her was

an unnatural tide that she didn’t understand. How could she

feel like she was losing something that she’d never wanted?

How could she feel any more loss than what she’d already

endured? How could she live through it when she was so

certain that one more droplet of grief into that overflowing

bucket would kill her? “I was drowning in grief and I’m so

sorry. It was never supposed to get this far.”

“So you came here to rob me blind and in the process we

got married. Must have been your lucky day.”

It was true that when it happened, Coralyn had very briefly

thought that she’d been handed an unexpected weapon. A

blade she could sink in deep in retribution. She hated that

she’d even had those thoughts, had even entertained them. She