(Sanya's POV)
"And you told me you just wanted a simple life," Aaron says. "A little house with a garden where you could grow vegetables and flowers, and maybe a few chickens running around, and someone who loved you for who you were, not for your family name or your father's position."
"I still want that," I whisper, and it's true, despite everything I've been through, despite the abuse and the chains and the public humiliation, what I want hasn't changed—I just want to be loved, to be safe, to have a place where I belong.
"You'll have it," Aaron says with quiet conviction, and when I look at him, his eyes are fierce with determination. "Maybe not with me—I wish it could be with me, God knows I wish that more than anything—but you'll have it, Sanya, because you're strong enough to buil
