Chapter 243

Emmeline swallowed hard. “I didn’t mean for us to have a child together under our current circumstances. I was speaking hypothetically...about the future. About what might happen if - when - our relationship is finally able to step out into the light and become something permanent and stable.”

Zavian exhaled a low, ragged sound. Dropping his hands from her body, he turned away slightly.

“I feel utterly unworthy of such an honor,” he confessed in a hoarse undertone laced with shame. “A man who managed to lose his own daughter through sheer negligence and inattentiveness...how could I ever be trusted with something so precious again? The thought of potentially repeating those same horrific mistakes is enough to wake me from my sleep, drenched in a cold sweat and shaking like a fucking leaf.”

Emmeline felt her heart clench. She could feel the steady thrum of his heartbeat beneath her fingertips - a reassuring cadence that she clung to like a lifeline as she gave his t