Chapter 30

Chapter 30:

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Andrew’s fingers stilled mid-motion. He had expected her scars to be bad, but seeing them in the light had shaken him to his core. Her back was a map of suffering, each welt crossing another until they seemed endless, grotesque.

Karl had told him she’d been beaten by Richard for no reason since she was five. The whipping had continued until the day she married. How on earth had she survived it all?

Though suspicion had been his first instinct, pity was slowly overtaking it. She hadn’t come seeking favors or leverage—only a way to survive. Without him, Richard and Zoe would have stripped her down to nothing, leaving her with nothing but scars.

Sensing the shift in his mood, Cathryn stiffened and pushed herself upright, one hand pressed to her chest. She snatched the vial from his grip. “I’ll have Margaret help me. You don’t need to trouble yourself, Mr. Brooks.”

Yanking her clothes back up over her shoulders, she all but shoved him toward the door, desperate to drive him away. She had always known the truth—no man could truly desire a woman marked like her. Jordyn had proved it, and she was no exception.