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reading is done, please take a moment to talk about the things I’m telling you. I won’t make it a condition of the will. I will appeal to your decency and to your commitment to each other.

    G lory looked at Dane . How the hell did Frank Forester know about them?
    Dane shrugged.

    I always knew the two of you were fated for each other. It makes what had to be done that much more heartbreaking. Dane, when Glory was still a toddler, her parents made a commitment. They agreed to an arranged marriage for their daughter to the son of a leading ivy shifter family. I’m not one who understands the ways of the ivy shifter clans. But I do respect them. I respect their taboos and their laws .

    A frown made its way to Dane’s face, drawing his brows down in a V , pulling a set of lines above the bridge of his nose. He had a question in his eyes.
    Glory didn’t want to contemplate that question. She looked away.
    So when I told you she was promised to another, and when I showed you the contract her parents showed me, I did what I thought was right.
    I don’t think I was now, but it is too late to change the past. And I feel responsible for the loss of her parents and her sister Honor. So how can I possibly bring to light my role in this?

    M r. Shelby cleared his throat . He paused. Was it Glory’s imagination or did his eyes seem a bit more watery than when she’d first walked in?
    “Frank Forester was an honorable man. His role in this didn’t sit well with him.”
    Glory sat back in her chair, trying to absorb. She needed a moment before he continued reading. “Mr. Shelby, could we take a small break?”
    “Certainly.”
    What is he saying? My parents colluded with his uncle to tell Dane that I was promised to Perry?
    She glanced at Dane.
    His gaze was steady.
    Is that’s why he left? Without asking me anything about Perry or the agreement or how I felt about something that was drawn up before I could even read?
    She wanted to get up. To walk around, to do the things one does when one was in shock.
    No. I want to run out of here.
    Dane shook his head. “Don’t.”
    How did he know what she was thinking? How could they still have that connection, where he knew her better than anyone else, and often better than she knew herself.

----
    D ane couldn’t have ripped his eyes from her if he’d wanted to. He knew what she wanted to do. She wanted to escape. To sink away from the world — including him. She wanted to hide in her garden like she did when he’d first met her.
    “Don’t do it, Glory.” He reached his hand out toward hers but kept it inches away. When she didn’t pull her hand under the table, he covered hers with his. “Please, don’t run.”
    Where his flesh touched her, an energy field buzzed, running throughout his body.
    How can she still affect me this way?
    Glory shook her head, shock was clearly setting in.
    She hadn’t known what drove him away.
    Hell, he hadn’t even know all that. He didn’t know her parents had talked to his uncle. He only knew that one day his uncle had told him Glory belonged to another man.
    Dane hadn’t had the hutzpah to tell his uncle he’d already made her his, that he’d taken her virginity. It didn’t seem to matter anyway, if she was already promised to another.
    Crushed, he’d packed his bags and struck out on his own. He couldn’t have said goodbye if he’d wanted to. He would have choked on the words. And then when he learned her family had been attacked by shifters, there hadn’t been much point in life. He’d gone through the motions. Made a life — such as it was.
    One fact repeated itself in Dane’s head, over and over again. If he had been told the full story, maybe there’d have been a different outcome.
    No, this isn’t the time to give headspace to that.
    “Please continue, Mr. Shelby.”
    Dane kept his hand on top of hers, hoping it would keep her distracted, keep her there, something.

    I n the course of the last few years, I’ve