All Chapters of Bound by Blood and Betrayal : Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

Paige's POVThe blood had long dried on my palm, a faint scar forming where Raymond’s blade had cut me. I traced it absentmindedly with my thumb as I stood near the balcony, staring at the horizon while the sun crept higher into the pale sky. My body still felt heavy, drained from the fire that had burst from me the night before. But my mind… my mind would not rest.Raymond’s vow echoed in my head, over and over, there is no side but yours.The words should have soothed me. Instead, they left me unsettled, like there was something unspoken beneath them, something he hadn’t told me yet. He was a man of secrets, and I was growing weary of being in the dark.The mansion was unusually quiet, the kind of silence that hums with hidden activity. I knew Raymond had left early for a council meeting. He hadn’t said as much, but I had seen it in his eyes when he kissed my forehead before dawn. There had been tension in his touch, a storm brewing behind his calm façade.I couldn’t go back to slee

Paige's POVI locked the door the moment Raymond left, pressing my back against the cold wood as if that single act could keep the world out. My breath came in sharp, uneven gasps, my chest tight, my skin clammy.The silence in the room was deafening. It pressed against my ears until I thought I might scream just to shatter it. But no sound came. Only the echo of the physician’s words rang in my head over and over.No sign of infertility. No damage to the womb. Perfectly capable of conceiving.Those words had stripped away the last piece of certainty I had clung to. For years, Ethan’s voice had been the truth etched into my bones. He had told me I was ruined, broken, incapable of giving life. And I had believed him.I sank to the floor, my back sliding down the door, my knees pulling up to my chest. My arms wrapped around them like a child clinging to a fragile shield. The tears wouldn’t stop, hot and endless, as memories rose in jagged f

Paige's POVThe chamber felt colder than usual, though the fire in the hearth blazed high. I sat curled on the edge of the bed, my knees drawn tightly to my chest, my arms wrapped around them as if I could hold myself together. The soft fabric of my nightdress clung damply to my skin, my breath catching in uneven gasps. My body wasn’t broken. The words echoed over and over in my mind, a cruel litany that made my stomach churn.For years, I had lived with the crushing belief that I was incomplete, that something vital had been stolen from me the day I miscarried. Ethan had told me I’d never bear children again, had looked me in the eye while I sobbed in his arms and swore he was speaking the truth. I had mourned not only the baby I’d lost but every child I would never have. That grief had hollowed me, shaped me, left me feeling like less than a woman.And now, with a single test result, that entire truth had crumbled into ash.I buried my face agai

Paige's POVThe firelight danced across the walls of my chambers, painting shifting patterns that refused to settle. I sat on the edge of the bed, staring at the flickering glow and feeling the weight of the past pressing down on me. It was strange, how memories could feel heavier than stone. For so long, Ethan’s voice had been a chain around my throat, choking me, reminding me of what he claimed I couldn’t be, couldn’t have, couldn’t become.But tonight, something in me shifted.I was tired of living as though his lies were my truth. I was tired of feeling small and powerless, tired of letting a ghost dictate the rhythm of my heartbeat. The council’s sneering faces, their talk of heirs and other women, had only sharpened the realization that I couldn’t keep living in silence. I couldn’t let Ethan’s poison keep spreading through my life.I straightened my spine, pressing a trembling hand over my stomach as if to remind myself that it wasn’t broken

Paige's POVThe night was heavy and still, the kind of quiet that seemed almost unnatural, as if the world itself was holding its breath. I lay on the bed, my eyes open but unfocused, staring at the intricate patterns carved into the wooden ceiling above me. Sleep had been elusive for days, every time I closed my eyes I was pulled back into the nightmare of memories I wished I could bury forever.Raymond had been different since he read my account of Ethan’s cruelty. He was quieter, more dangerous, like a storm coiling on the horizon. I could feel his rage simmering beneath the surface even when he spoke to me gently. It scared me, but what scared me more was the shadow that had begun to creep back into my mind, a shadow I had thought long gone.Tonight, it pressed closer, whispering Ethan’s name in a voice I couldn’t ignore. I wrapped my arms around myself and sat up, the silk sheets pooling around my waist. My chest ached, not just from the memories but