When Her "Death" Couldn't Break Him (Cecilia and Nathaniel)

"I wanted to wait until the time felt safe," Sven said. "I didn't expect everything to happen so fast."

"If you're truly a Lindberg heir, why did you become Boss' bodyguard?" she asked, still bewildered.

Long seconds passed. "Because I'm an illegitimate son," he finally confessed. "My father named me heir only after discovering my brother can't have children."

Another revelation slammed into her; she gripped the rail as though the night itself tilted.

"That's also why I hid the truth," Sven added. "I feared you would recoil from someone born on the wrong side of a scandal."

The phrase "illegitimate child" had cut him like glass his entire life.

The Lindberg household tolerated neither his mother nor the boy she bore.

Survival had meant living on the blade's edge, exchanging fists and favors in alleyways most heirs never see.

Fortune shifted when he met Calvin, then Cecilia; working as their bodyguard gave him years of rare, uncomplicated peace.

Perhaps that peace lulled him; returning home, he nearly mistook his brother's polished smile for affection and almost paid with his life.

Charlotte could hardly fathom that he had kept silent for fear of her judgment.

"Do you honestly think I'm with you for your pedigree?"

the other end he went quiet,

barreled on. "I'm a shameless fangirl. I fell for your face, your shoulders-fine, your

a knot inside his chest; he laughed, softly, for the first

he had chosen her in the first

all those power struggles dissolved; all that remained was the steady, human pulse of two people believing

the single word hanging

once, tight with sudden concern.

You're

There were no buried titles trailing after her name-of that she was

of the call, Sven chuckled an actual, out-loud laugh Charlotte

through her. Sven was normally all sharp lines and sealed lips,

she

just... adorable," he

alertched teeth ed through

the laugh hau

cruelly at the

s

his breath. "Your voice

fine," Sven lied, forcing steadiness into the