(CORRINE)
"Not in the way you thought or I implied in the beginning." I see the shame in his eyes. "I admit I said some things, but the idea of having a fated mate wasn't to my liking. However, the practicality of gaining a mate was also something I couldn't ignore. Your existence was convenient, but you were not a substitute."
My hands start to tremble, and I clasp them together in my lap. "I should be insulted by your calling me convenient."
"That's not how I meant it," he says quickly.
"Yeah, I get it." My smile is weak and strained. "All that time, in the beginning, when you said such cruel things to me—"
"My parents were fated mates, Corrine. The woman my father discarded for my mother happened to be a close friend of my mother's. Her life was ruined, and my parents never cared. They claimed the strength of the fated mate bond was all that mattered. I found it despicable."
"How cruel," I murmur without thinking.
