Gwh had lost control, her entire body trembling with rage and heartbreak. Hawthorne finally looked at her, and for a moment, he wanted to exin, but the words wouldn''te. The truth was nothing like what she was imagining.


    "Gwyn, if I wanted to hurt you, I wouldn''t have gone to such lengths," he said, his voice strained. “When you were in Greenvale, I could have easily had someone..... take care of you. The pain of losing a loved one is worse than anything else. As powerful as the Langford family is, they couldn''t have reached you in time. Don''t think so poorly of me." He had suffered, but for her, he had let it go.


    "And I don''t think so highly of you, either," she retorted, refusing to believe a word he said.


    "Let''s not fight," Hawthorne said, his tone softening.


    Gwh turned her face away, unable to look at him. He stepped closer and gently cupped her face in his hands. "We''re about to get married. I don''t want you to go into this with these misunderstandings between us.”


    Her expression was ice. "Fine. You want me to stop misunderstanding you? I have one condition."


    Hawthorne''s gaze darkened slightly. "Name it. If it''s within my power."


    She met his eyes, staring directly into their ck depths. “Fire Patti Yale."


    He hadn''t expected that. His hesitation was all the answer she needed. Her heart felt like it was bleeding, but she kept her expression carefully neutral. She had nothing left for this man to trample on.


    As she''d predicted, Hawthorne gave her the one answer that would shatter herpletely. "Anything else, but I can''t do that right now."


    His tone was firm. Gwh let out a coldugh. You can''t, or you won''t? Fine, Hawthorne. From now on, we''ll lead separate lives. As long as my grandpa is alive, we''ll keep up this charade. But you are you, and I am me. The day he''s gone, we''ll go our separate ways and our families will have nothing more to do with each other." As she spoke, tears


    shimmered at the corners of her eyes.


    Unseen by either of them, a flicker of movement passed over McNeil''s eyelids.


    Hawthorne didn''t respond to her ultimatum. Instead, he asked, "And what about Leonie? Are you nning to cut ties with her, too?"


    Gwh stiffened, her face paling. "That''s between her and me. It''s none of your concern." She angrily wiped a tear from her cheek. "I need some time alone with my father."


    She was ordering him to leave. Hawthorne looked at her for a long moment, then turned and walked out of the room.


    With him gone, theposure Gwh had fought so hard to maintain finally crumbled. She copsed onto her father''s bed, sobbing uncontrobly, her body shaking with grief. "Daddy," she wept, "I love him so much. Why is he doing this to me?"


    As a child, she couldn''t understand the world of adults. Now that she was grown, she no longer wanted to. If this was what it meant to be an adult, she would rather be a na?ve little girl forever But then she remembered all the pain she had caused her family when she was just that.


    Her tears soaked the nket where shey. The father who had adored her most was now lost to her forever. The man she thought was the love of her life, her partner for eternity, had turned out to be nothing more than a cruel joke. What was the point of any of it?


    In front of McNeil, Gwh let her emotions pour out like a bursting dam. Her mind flooded with memories of her parents'' heated arguments her mother''s pain her father''s she coldness Back then


    hadn''t understood. Violet had


    seemed so kind. Why had her


    mother been so determined to keep


    them apart?