It took me two tries to find my voice. “How?” I blinked back tears as I met his pretty eyes. “How did you do this when…” No one else had cared was what I’d almost said.
No, they had, but not as much?
“I made it part of the deal for my help and your deal when I talked to the shark,” he told me gently. “They were holding it as an ace in their back pocket to try and—enough. Your father had papers about voiding your original marriage contract when they came to collect you. Your marriage was voidedcenturiesago. It was all—”
“Control,” I whispered, wiping my eyes. “Father to control me and try and get Theresa—a bargaining chip so I would sell her for myself—Kenneth’s control now.”
“The government now that they know you have information—any of the fuckers, yes,” he confirmed.
Alexis grabbed the papers from my hand and read them over, giving a sigh of relief. “I tried, Aurora. I really did. This was… Iarguedthat if the original marriage contract was voided, then there wasn’t a marriage to divorce from.”
“As did I,” Theresa grumbled as she moved over to Alexis to read over her shoulder. “This is smart. I wouldn’t have thought of looking through the old laws of France when they were signed in another country.” She raised her head and met my gaze. “You said your father’s aide came and signed as his proxy. The Reed coven wasn’t in France.”
“That’s what I was told and his role there,” I promised.
“They pulled a fast one,” Creed told us as he held my hand. “An elder of the Reed family actually came and signed the marriage contract in France and verified Aurora was as beautiful as the painting they sent originally. A few months before her menstruation and she was shipped off. The aide went with to verify she wasn’t…”
“Besmirched or made impure along the journey,” I said with a dark chuckle, sighing when Creed nodded. “That fucking man.”
“It’s unnerving to hear you curse,” Ellie muttered.
“Too fucking bad,” Creed told her. “She can do whatever she wants.”
I squeezed his hand and wiped some more tears. “Thank you, Creed. Really.” I let out a slow breath and let go of my resentment as well, meeting Theresa and Alexis’s gazes. “Thank you for fighting. It did hurt me that you—I saw it as simple given what I knew, and it upset me that no one saw how I needed it.”
I was shocked when Theresa looked wounded and affected.
“No, I really did—it became political and—I spentweeksfiling more motions for the original documents and more so I could get whatever was needed to finalize it,” she told me. “I really did.”
“You just didn’t tell me that because you didn’t want to seem like you cared enough to do all of that and instead looked like you were trying to intentionally hurt me,” I told her, trying to… Make her see how easily things could get twisted around?
It was probably laughable coming from me, but I was also the reason she should listen before she ever risked becoming me.
Then I decided to just get the decision over with. “Yes, Creed and I are going to mate.” I met my doctor’s gaze. “He agreed to the full list of what I need including a few things I didn’t think to ask for that are smart. Yes, counseling and the prenup—all of it. He asks for one session a month with you for how he can handle my triggers and needs best.”
Shock flashed in her eyes before she smiled at him. “I know you’re scared, cub, but that makes you better suited than you think.” She shot Theresa a disapproving look that surprised all of us. “And I’m glad you’re looking at the full picture and putting Aurora first unlike others here.”
Theresa ran her tongue over her teeth and met the challenge head-on. “I’ve established myself enough that my birth mother coming out of nowhere, even with the headlines she’s made helping others to then mate a mob lawyer, won’t mean anything for my career. I could give a flip about my own mating prospects or whatever you’re implying.”
“I actually didn’t think it was anything so petty like that, but the fact that you’ve spent hundreds of years with Aurora as the villain in your story makes it so you cannot accept she wasn’t,” my doctor countered. “Yes, she was in Ellie’s. Undoubtedly, even if you both know not as much as you understood. But she was not in yours.
“She was the shield even if she couldn’t keep being one as she’d wanted. You still see her as the one who makes nothing but mistakes and assume this is another one instead of taking the new information as it comes. Your narrow view of the situation is a problem, and even if you’ve pulled yourself out of your own traumas—”
“Enough,” Theresa snapped as she stood. “I don’t know where that all came from, but it was highly unprofessional when we’ve not had a conversation, andyoudon’t know what’s been going on in the background either. I might not be articulating it well, but my concerns are valid, and I’m annoyed that I’m the only one whohas them.”
Ellie sighed when Theresa gave her a look to back her up. “I know Creed better and he’s a good guy, Theresa. His manager is—”
“I don’t care if you all forgive him for what he’s done even if that’sinsanewhen I’ve seen his court history,” she bit out before focusing directly on Creed. “You were adopted into one of the most powerful mobs in this country. Do you think that goes away because you say so? That if you undo their binding, they won’t befuriousabout it and come for you?
“And who would they use to hurt you? Oh, lovely, you now have amateto use against you. Are you having a laugh? You just gave them a living, breathing way to control you and willtortureher if they think it’s the right day because they’re sadistic gits from everything I’ve read.” She snorted. “You’re freeing her from Kenneth? And shackling her to your past.”
Everyone was silent for several beats and my doctor sighed. “You’re right, that is valid, and I apologize for completely misjudging the situation. My only objection was a better way of handling this and before Aurora made the decision. All the work we’ve put in when she’s never had the chance to make such decisions herself and…” She shook her head.
“There’s more going on than you know, and no one is dismissing your concerns,” Ellie told Theresa, shaking her head when Theresa opened her mouth. “Icannottell you when you’re a citizen of another nation. Ha-joon has to be out of the loop too.”
“It’s bloody infuriating, but given how often Creed and Ellie have talked with the president’s people, I have a feelingourconcerns won’t be concerns much longer,” Ha-joon told Theresa. “But Da is planning to make it clear to the Alpha—New York to London that Aurora is family and it would be war if he went for her. So yeah, we share the worry.”
Theresa bobbed her head and let out a few slow breaths before meeting my gaze. “I think this is too much of a risk. You’ve had such a hard life and you deserve easy. You deservetimeto do nothing and heal, and—this isn’t what I want for you because you’renotthe villain of my story nor a villain, Aurora.”
