‘But you don’t actually want me.’ Sophia stared into his blue eyes and waited.
He stared back. Didn’t answer. Didn’t deny it.
Sophia drew a shaky breath. For just a moment, she’d hoped he might offer her his heart. But the heart he’d once had, had long ago turned to stone and all he wanted now was everything he felt he’d not had all those years ago—money, status, power.
‘You’ve done this before.’ She turned, hiding her desolation from his piercing gaze. ‘You once offered me marriage as a means of escape. I know you genuinely wanted to help me, but I was right to refuse. We were both kids. I needed to grow up and you had the world to conquer…’
And he’d certainly conquered it. He’d built himself the life he’d once professed to loathe.
‘I didn’t want your charity then,’ she said sadly. ‘But that’s not what you’re offering now. Now you’re treating me as a trophy.’ And it hurt. Badly. ‘You’re giving me as little meaning, as little value, as my father always did.’
She couldn’t believe Felipe had actually said that she’d been groomed for this her whole life. Did he really think that was all she had to offer? He was as awful as her damned whole family.
‘You’re offering me an existence where I’m to be nothing but a pretty decoration,’ she said. ‘An heir incubator. Not a person. Not someone you actually want or respect.’ Her anger finally erupted. ‘But I am not some other thing for you to simply acquire—’
‘That’s not what I’m—’
‘Yes, it is. Because you don’t really even see me.’ She dragged in a breath. ‘You don’t truly know me. If you did you’d never suggest this. I didn’t have the courage or maturity to fight for what I wanted all those years ago.’
Not to stand up to her family. Nor to reach out for him.
‘But I have it now.’ She whirled to face him. ‘I’m not making the same mistake. And you shouldn’t fall into that trap, either. Don’t buy in to their fake world. My extended family might have had money, but they were miserable. I want so much more than assets and properties and things. I want someone who actually cares about me. And you don’t.’ Not the way she needed. ‘You don’t love me.’
Felipe stared at her, his jaw clenched. But he didn’t argue. He didn’t say anything.
‘Believe it or not, I’m far happier to go somewhere new and start over.’ She stepped to her door and opened it. ‘I’ll never marry you.’
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