All Chapters of The Lie Behind His Devotion : Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Nora kept up appearances as usual. If anything, Grant had grown even more attentive, though she knew exactly why. It wasn't for her. It was for the child.Grant carried a rare condition, one that made fatherhood something doctors had told him to give up hoping for years ago. So when Nora turned up pregnant, Marcus had been right, it really was something close to a miracle.Grant didn't love her. But he wanted this child more than anything, and until it was born safely, the vessel carrying it couldn't be allowed so much as a scraped knee.He settled her into a chair himself and turned to the housekeeper. "Mrs. Doyle, my wife is expecting now. Every detail of her food, her clothes, her comfort, her transportation, I want it handled perfectly. No mistakes."Mrs. Doyle nodded quickly and hurried off to start on the morning's meal.Grant leaned down, pressed a kiss to Nora's forehead, and rested a hand lightly against her stomach. "Nora. I never thought I'd get to be a father. Thank you fo

A flash of irritation crossed Grant's face. "Nora, don't make this harder than it needs to be. This is complicated, and I have to go."She couldn't see his expression, but she didn't need to. She could hear it plainly enough.For once, Nora didn't back down the way she always had. "The company employs hundreds of people. Are they all just sitting there doing nothing? Does everything have to go through you personally?"Grant yanked his hand free, jaw tight. "Nora. Don't be unreasonable about this. It's a genuine emergency. And don't use the pregnancy as leverage."He was rattled. She could hear that too.In their rush, neither of them had managed to keep the mask fully in place.She heard the engine start downstairs a moment later, and something in her chest cracked clean down the middle.She'd known exactly why he'd married her. She'd known, for longer than she wanted to admit, that he didn't love her. And it still hurt like this.About ten minutes later, Nora made a decision she coul

Nora's face went bloodless, shock flickering behind her eyes.She wanted me to hear that. All of it.Of course she had. Why else leave the door cracked open, why else let the sound carry that far, that shamelessly?Nora let the recording keep running.Vivian laughed softly, leaning in close to her ear, voice dripping with mockery. "Nora. I'm going to take everything that's yours, your father, your mother, your brother, your fiancé, and now your precious husband too."Her smile widened, radiant and cruel all at once. "I want you to understand something. Anything you worked hard for, I can take without even trying. You will always be something I scrape off the bottom of my shoe."The soft moans from moments ago echoed in Nora's mind, refusing to fade.She thought of what Grant had said outside that hospital room how far he'd gone for this woman. Three years of marriage, and what had Nora ever actually been to him?Grief curdled into something sharper, hotter. Before she could stop herse

The coat was a shade of brown Grant had never once worn. There was no version of this where it belonged to him.Something about that fact sat wrong in his chest, a feeling he quickly chalked up to nothing more than territorial instinct. He didn't love Nora. He just didn't like the idea of another man's hands anywhere near what belonged to him.He looked at her one more time, asleep in the sunlight, and felt his throat tighten with something he refused to name.He almost woke her right then to demand an answer. Almost. In the end, he talked himself out of it.---Nora woke around noon, stomach growling, and made her way out of the bedroom. "Mrs. Doyle? I'm starving. Is there anything ready?"It wasn't Mrs. Doyle who answered."She stepped out. What do you want? I'll make it myself."Nora froze, turning toward the voice. "What are you doing home?"Logic said he should still be with Vivian. His being here at all set off a quiet alarm somewhere in the back of her mind.Unless...Something

Something in Nora's chest ached at the mention of the baby.She let the silence sit for a few seconds, gathering herself, before answering, barely above a whisper. "I already... lost it."Her voice came out so level it almost sounded indifferent.But Miles had watched what she'd put herself through over the past three years, trying to give Grant a child. Folk remedies, acupuncture, herbal treatments she'd tried everything. Eventually Bea had developed something that actually worked, though the process itself had been brutal. Nora had never once complained through any of it.She'd finally gotten what she wanted. And then she'd let it go entirely, on purpose.You don't do something like that to yourself and to him unless both of you're completely done. Unless there's nothing left to hold onto.Miles could only imagine how much that decision must have cost her.He softened his tone, trying for humor. "So what if it's gone? Grant doesn't deserve a kid with you anyway, a man like that shou