Page 157 of The Hunter's Empire

I place the plate in front of her anyway. "Eat."

For a few seconds, I think she's going to argue. Instead, she picks up her fork with obvious reluctance, taking a small bite more to satisfy me than herself. We eat in silence.

Eventually, she sets the fork back down.

"I've never been that humiliated before." Her voice is barely above a whisper.

"I've stood in front of shareholders worth billions without feeling nervous. I've negotiated with criminals. I've buried my father. None of it felt like tonight."

"When those photographs appeared..." She swallows. "It felt like hundreds of people stopped seeing me as a person. I became entertainment."

I tighten my arm around her. "They weren't looking at you."

She gives me a tired look. "They were."

"They were looking at a scandal. There's a difference."

"It doesn't feel different."

"No." I admit quietly. "It never does."

She leans further into me, her forehead resting beneath my chin.

"Sebastian made me feel filthy."

A familiar anger settles somewhere deep inside my chest.

I tilt her face toward mine. "Listen to me. What he called you says everything about him and nothing about you."

She doesn't answer.

"I mean it." My thumb brushes away the faint trace of a tear she hadn't realized escaped.

"He wanted you to feel small because that's the only way he could make himself feel whole again ."

She studies my face as though searching for any sign that I'm simply telling her what she wants to hear.

"I don't know how to carry all of this anymore." She admits, her voice barely audible.

"You don't have to." I say quietly.

Her gaze drops to her lap. "The empire..."

"It'll still be there tomorrow."

"My engagement..."

"It ended the moment he stopped respecting you."

Her eyes lift to meet mine, filled with uncertainty. "And us?"

The question hangs quietly between us.

I don't answer immediately. Instead, I reach up and tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

"We'll figure us out tomorrow too."

For the first time since I'd found her, the tension in her shoulders eases.