Page 67 of An Orphan for the Broken Duke

“You know what,” he said. “What if I…” He grimaced. “What if I accept my feelings and give them to Violet? What if I consider for even a moment that things might work out? And then, what if I… what if I do what I know I will.”

“You will not, Rhys. You are not that person.”

“What if I hurt her?” he said. “What if I do to her exactly what I did to Eleanor? No…” A shake of the head. “I cannot do that. As ironic as it is to say, I care for her too much to take that risk.”

“What then? What is the other option here? To continue to ignore her? To push her away? Will that not just do exactly what you fear in the first place? Hurting her.”

Rhys sighed and bowed his head.

He knew what he had to do… the only thing. In order to save Violet, there was just the single option before him, and while he knew that she would hate him for it, he prayed that she would understand, even if he did not fully understand it himself…

Violet raced through the manor as if her backside was on fire. Maybe it was? She had not been able to sit still for the entire carriage ride back to the estate, and she had leapt from the carriage less than a second after it stopped.

She still could not believe what she had learned. But the more time that she had to think about it, the more sense it made.

Of course it was Lucy! A girl who had no history, no known background, who had been shipped around various orphanages as a baby so that nobody could ever possibly know where she had come from. Even Rhys had said that she looked like his sister, and while that had seemed like a mere coincidence, it now made perfect sense!

I cannot wait to see the look on his face.

Violet no longer cared about how she had been treated this last week. She knew the reason for it, so she knew it was not personal. More importantly, she knew that when Rhys learned the truth, all that would be in the past.

Oh, she was excited! To see Rhys officially reunited with his niece was one thing. But that this would also see their relationship get back to where it had been that night in the garden. It was more than Violet could have hoped for, and she positively vibrated with excited anticipation as she looked to the future and what might happen.

Her marriage with Rhys would become a real thing. They would have a family together. And most importantly, they would be happy.

She practically sprinted up the steps in the foyer, and she had to control herself as she hurried down the hallway. She knew where Rhys would be, as it was where he had been all week. And sure enough, when she spied the door to his office, she knew that her instincts were correct.

The door was ajar, and Violet was just about to throw it open when she heard voices coming from within.

She stopped immediately, one hand reaching for the doorhandle, surprise catching her. Rhys should have been alone, as was his way. But she listened closely, and she recognized the second voice within seconds.

“What do you mean to do?” Lord Eastmoor asked; his voice was soft, as if even he did not want his question to be heard.

“The only thing that I can do,” Rhys said. “I will continue to distance myself from Violet—if she tries to stop me, I will tell her the truth.”

“And which truth is that?”

“The only truth that matters,” Rhys said. “That I do not care for her and that I never did. I lied about it for Lucy’s sake, and whatever she feels for me is irrelevant.”

“Rhys…”

“And if that does not work, then I will take further action. I will send her away if I must. She cannot stay here if she insists on trying to turn me into something that I am not, and the sooner that she is gone, the better.”

“Are you sure about that?”

A pause, and Violet leaned in closer…

“I am,” Rhys said. “Never have I been more sure about anything.”

Violet heard the words like a knife plunging through her chest. She stumbled back, gasping and writhing in pain, the likes of which she had never felt.

Suddenly, all the excitement, all the joy, it vanished as if it had never been. Had she been wrong about everything? Was she really so blind?

She considered what she had just heard… ran through the words… and was left feeling even worse than before. All week, Violet had been so certain that Rhys was lying to himself about his feelings, just as she had known that all he needed was to be shown that he was not the man he believed himself to be.

But she was wrong. He was that man. He had never cared for her. And if she tried to change him, if she dared to believe that there was a future with him, she would be made out to be a fool.

How could I be so blind?