Chapter 114

“You’re in love with him?” Marco asked as his voice whispered out of disbelief—like saying it out loud made it more real and more unbearable.

Grace’s eyes widened, caught off guard. She hadn’t thought that far. Hadn’t dared to. Segen was still a mystery... a man once dressed in rags and lies, a stranger she had named with no clue he’d one day feel like something she couldn’t quite let go of.

“I... am?” she echoed with a faint, confused chuckle that barely held its shape. Her voice trembled, not from certainty but from the sheer absurdity of the moment. She wasn’t laughing because it was funny, she laughed because it terrified her. Because part of her didn’t know, and the part that

might

know was too afraid to look too closely.

But that sound, her little breath of nervous laughter hit Marco like a blow to the chest.

His brows pulled together, and without thinking, he stepped closer and grabbed her arms. “No,” he snapped, “you do

not

lov