?Chapter 934:


    Ste’s thoughts drifted to her own childhood. Her mom had died giving birth, and she’d been taken in by adoptive parents. Those were the only warm memories she had.<fnd33a> For more chapters visit findnovel</fnd33a>


    And when they passed, it was like her entire world had flipped upside down. William must’ve felt that same kind of emptiness back then—like life had lost all its color.


    Her chest ached for him. She leaned in, arms sliding around him in a tight hug. She buried her face in the curve of his neck, her voice soft and thick. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked. I didn’t mean to drag up all that stuff for you.” She realized now—she’d basically forced him to reopen old wounds.


    William lifted a hand and gently ran his fingers through her hair, voice tender. “It’s all behind me now. Alonzo’s locked away, I’m grown, and I’ve got the power to protect myself—and you.”


    He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Don’t worry about me.”


    Just the fact that he’d made it this far, still standing in the middle of the Briggs chaos, proved that none of those old nightmares had any power over him anymore.


    Ste nodded against his chest, fiercely. “He got what wasing to him. And I swear—nobody’s ever gonna hurt you like that again.”


    There was so much warmth in her voice, the kind William had never really felt before. And it sank into him like sunlight.


    For a beat, the room fell quiet. But then her thoughts shifted—to someone else entirely.


    She leaned back to look him in the eyes, hesitated, then bit her lip. “What about Amon? He’s Alonzo’s son. How was he with you when you were kids?”


    She remembered something Amon once said to her—clear as day. That he and William could never be like real cousins. Not in this lifetime.


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    Amon had been blunt. In the Briggs family, it was survival of the fittest. Either he schemed first, or William did.


    Now she wanted to hear it from William himself—how he remembered it.


    Just hearing Amon’s name brought a flicker of somethingplicated into William’s eyes. He paused for a long moment before finally speaking, voice low and unreadable.


    “He’s a few years younger than me. Back then… there was a time we actually got along okay. Things weren’t always this bad.”


    That caught Ste off guard.


    “After my mom passed, I kind of shut everyone out. Just stayed in my room for days. Amon was just a little kid back then—didn’t understand any of it. But he used to follow me around.”


    There was a faint warmth in William’s voice now, something soft and faraway. “He’d offer me his favorite candies, even though I never ate that stuff. And when I locked myself away, he’d sneak in, stay quiet, just sit near me ying with his toy cars.”


    Looking back, William hadn’t expected to feel such a sharp sting of nostalgia for that version of Amon.


    Back then, Amon’s big eyes had only held innocence. None of the cunning, none of the coldness they held now.


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