She never wanted to be.
She was a plant, a forced bride.
She only married him to save her sister.
With a curse, he pulled away.
He couldn’t do this.
SABA
With a grunt, Mak picked Saba up by the hips and placed her on the side of him on the bed.
‘Get dressed,’ he muttered, standing upright and striding away.
With his back turned to her, he took a ragged breath.
‘Saba,’ he whispered, his voice husky with emotion. ‘I’m not ready for this.’
His admission hung between them, raw and unfiltered.
Saba slapped a hand to her mouth, trying to stop herself from crying out.
Mak’s broad shoulders tensed at her silent agony, shaking with the effort to control his internal struggle.
Sadness filled her as she crouched down for her blouse and slid it on without a bra, her mind too scattered to care for one.
She stared at his hunched vulnerability, something he never showed anyone, the cracks in the armor he wore daily.
Dressed, Saba stood as Mak paced the room, his internal war evident in every tense movement.
Was he rejecting her, or was he struggling with his demons, fears, and insecurities?
His face was savage, severe, and for a moment, Saba wondered if she had done the right thing by calling out to him.
His leonine gaze blazed. ‘I confess I struggled to understand why you did what you did,’ he rasped, laced with rough rage. ‘However, I know just how important family loyalty is.’
Tears welled in Saba’s eyes, but she blinked them back, refusing to let them fall.
‘Will you forgive me?’
Anger flamed in his eyes, and his hand reached for his chin and short beard, as if trying to control his wrath. ‘Regardless of your reasons, I don’t know if I can.’
His voice was strained, his words cutting through the heavy silence like a blade.
The force of his gaze bore down on Saba, filled with hurt and betrayal, sending a shiver down her spine.
She searched for the correct response, the balm of words to bridge the growing chasm between them. But they eluded her like wisps of smoke slipping through her fingers.
Instead, she stumbled and mumbled, ‘I never meant for any of this to happen. I was only trying to protect Shiloh, to shield her from a fate she couldn’t bear.’
Mak’s jaw clenched, the muscles working as he struggled to contain the storm of emotions beneath the surface. ‘What about me? Was my sacrifice worth it, too?’
The sting of his accusation hit like a physical blow, each word driving home the magnitude of her mistakes and their consequences. Saba’s heart ached with regret, knowing she had wounded him and possibly irreparably damaged their future. Or had she?
‘Nada, it wasn’t worth it,’ she choked out, the admission bitter on her tongue. ‘I never meant to hurt you, Mak. I never wanted any of this.’
The tears she had been holding back finally spilled over, tracing a path down her cheeks as she met his eyes, raw and unguarded.
