He Called Me A Stone And Chose Her Pearl Chapter 26
That night, lying in bed, my heart refused to slow down.
Theo’s honesty made me, for the first time, truly look forward to a life with him.
At first, marriage had been a means of escape.
Now, I was starting to believe it could be a new beginning.
I began training in royal etiquette, inter-pack affairs, and Royal Council procedures, going out less and less. Aside from my closest circle, I no longer received the sudden stream of visitors who had appeared after the announcement.
For impersonating a royal marriage candidate and making false accusations against the Crown, Vanessa was formally disciplined by the Greenvale Pack Council. She was ordered to attend behavioral correction classes and submit a written statement of apology.
This time, my father didn’t dare protect her, checking in person each day to ensure she completed her punishment.
She sent Nolan countless messages. Every one was either blocked or returned unread.
The rejection hit her hard. She fell silent, wandering the house as if she finally couldn’t comprehend why her tears and tantrums were no longer working.
Nolan tried to see me, too.
I refused.
He was a stranger to me now. There was no reason for us to meet.
Later, a staff member delivered a rare, out-of-print book I had been searching for for years. At first I thought it was a wedding gift, but when I opened it, I found familiar handwriting inside.
On the blank pages meant for annotations, Nolan had filled every line with his regret.
He wrote that he had been blind.
He wrote that the person he had truly admired, the one he had wanted to spend his life with, had always been me.
He wrote that he was willing to break his engagement to Vanessa if only I would forgive him.
I had the staff return it, unopened.
What meaning could those words possibly have now?
He had fallen for a mind on a page. When he thought that mind belonged to Vanessa, he excused all her flaws as innocence. When the truth came out, he simply tried to transfer that same fantasy onto me.
The truth was, I had never really known him.
And he had never bothered to know me.Â