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?"

end he

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

inside his chest; he laughed,

he had chosen her in the first

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

word hanging in the air like

tight with sudden concern. "But

the one who should feel small is me. You're heir to the Lindberg fortune. I'm just a woman

There were no buried titles trailing after

call, Sven chuckled an actual, out-loud laugh

Sven was normally all sharp lines and

so funny?" she asked,

just... adorable," he managed,

alertched teeth ed through

the laugh hau

the

s

caught the hitch in his breath. "Your voice sounds strange.

fine," Sven lied, forcing