Never Again Yours (Isadora and Magnus)

Chapter 490

Victor simply wrapped his arms around her waist, his hand coming to rest over the gentle curve of her belly. His voice was low and rough, "Are you cold?"

Isadora shook her head.

"Victor."

"Yeah?"

She blinked slowly, her voice distant and wavering. “I'm not really that special. I don't think I'm strong. Sometimes I even cry... though not all that often."

Victor's dark eyes, deep and glossy as obsidian, softened with a gentle smile. "I'm looking for a wife, not an opponent. Why would I want someone who's tough all the time?"

"Isadora, listen to me. As long as it's you, you're the best there is for me." Isadora felt her eyes grow warm, a prickling heat threatening to spill over. Since when did this man become so good with words?

*

In a cramped, shabby apartment on the edge of town, Rowena's father, Keeley Blaine, and her mother sat hunched and grim-faced, their expressions haggard and worn. Though they were only in their sixties, they now looked decades older.

Never in their lives had they imagined things would turn out this way. Losing their savings was bad enough, but after returning to Capitolion, they couldn't even step outside without keeping their heads down, glancing over their shoulders, living like fugitives.

And when they asked their daughter what she'd gotten herself into?

Rowena would just snap: "Mind your own business! And for God's sake, be careful when you go out!"

She'd promised, not so long ago, to take them abroad, to enjoy the good life.

and burned. Instead, they were worse off

latest boyfriend had taken everything she had left, then turned violent. Even they, her own parents, hadn't been spared the

time they thought about it, their hearts ached

was better than everyone else,

sighed heavily. "You've already been divorced once. Wasn't Abbott Beaumont's mess enough for you to learn your lesson? You pick a new boyfriend

the room, her face mottled with bruises,

back. She'd planned to get money from

had other

tilt to his eyes and a jawline sharp enough to cut glass. She couldn't

lose, always smoldered with

Victor, a man like that? Why did she, Rowena, only get men

she met Alan,

she'd

found her own "Victor."

thrown everything

oblivious to the risks.

façade. The truth came crashing down, cold and

Alan

money, but when

bed

she wasn't

her filthy and

unable to survive abroad, she'd had no

to Capitolion.