Page 178 of Wrong Marriage. Right Groom
Chapter 13
LORETTA
“Idon’t know.”
It was barely even a sentence.
But I couldn’t breathe past it.
Those three words settled between us like something fragile finally snapping.
And somehow, they hurt more than any confession he could have made.
I forced myself to speak, needing control back.
“Is this...” My voice came out smaller than I intended. I cleared my throat and tried again. “Is this your room?”
“Yes,” he answered simply.
I heard him shift again—fabric rustling, mattress dipping deeper as his weight adjusted beside me.
I shrank back instinctively, curling slightly toward the edge of the bed, as if distance could be created by will alone.
But he didn’t move over me.
He stayed beside me instead.
Warmth radiated from him, subtle but constant, wrapping around my side like an invisible barrier against the cold space I kept trying to build between us.
“It’s been weeks since we got married, and I have never once asked you for sex. Do you know why?”
I didn’t answer.
The reason felt obvious enough that speaking it would make it worse—his unhinged devotion to Zara, the ghost of her always standing between everything we were not.
He didn’t wait for me.
“It’s because you told me you wouldn’t be able to enjoy it,” he said, calm and matter-of-fact. “And given what you’ve been through... I understood. I wouldn’t risk triggering that trauma.”
Still, I said nothing.
My chest ached with everything I was trying not to feel—like something sharp kept striking the same fragile point inside me, over and over, until I could barely sit still in it.
Seeing my silence, he continued.
“And the surgeon who removed your eyes—”
My head snapped toward him instantly, blind gaze useless but fixed in his direction anyway.
Fear rose in me, immediate and suffocating.
“Please tell me you haven’t killed him,” I said quickly, my voice breaking despite myself. “Because I won’t forgive you if you do.”
A pause.
