Isabella turned her gaze back to her mother, stunned by the quiet confession. She had always known her parents’ relationship had been complicated, but this was a side of their history she had never heard before. “What do you mean?”
Celia’s eyes grew distant as if she were staring into the past, reliving memories long buried. “Your father… he didn’t pick me out of love. It started as a contract girlfriend, but soon we fell in love with each other but your father, he chose wealth, power, and a beneficial alliance, just like the men in this world do. I could have walked away. I could have left when I realized love wasn’t in the cards for us. But I didn’t.”
Isabella felt a pang in her chest as she watched the emotions flicker across her mother’s face. There was pain there, deep and raw, but
