Sold To The Cruel Pr Chapter 74: An Apology Too Late

Chapter 74: An Apology Too Late

"I’m here to talk," Theron said.

He didn’t like the way she looked at him—guarded, distant, as though he were soone she had already decided to leave behind. But this ti, he wouldn’t walk away. Not again.

Once, she had pushed him away when she had nothing. Now she stood there with a fire-breathing creature at her side and a will strong enough to keep him out entirely.

So he forced himself to be careful. Painfully careful.

Against every instinct, every shard of pride and status he had been raised with, Theron admitted sothing he would never say aloud...

He needed her more than she needed him.

And sowhere beneath all that distance, all that hurt, he knew she didn’t truly hate him. She couldn’t. She still felt too much. But that hurt he had caused... it sat between them like sothing sharp, sothing she couldn’t touch without bleeding.

He wasn’t going to lose her because of it.

Not this ti.

"About what?" Aveline asked.

She hadn’t moved. She still held Hamilton back, though her gaze flickered to Theron’s face, lingering, just for a second, on the faint trickle of blood beneath his nose.

Her heart stuttered.

He was hurt.

It was nothing serious. Just a nosebleed. He would be fine.

Still...

She folded her arms across her chest, as if that could contain the strange pull inside her—the one that had her body rembering his warmth far too easily, far too eagerly.

Even now, even with Hamilton at her side, she still wanted him.

That was what unsettled her the most.

How could she crave soone like this? How could she let herself depend on him so completely, when she had spent so long learning how not to need anyone at all?

She couldn’t allow it.

Not with who she was. Not with what she had to beco.

"About you coming with ," Theron said.

"No."

The answer ca instantly, sharp and unyielding.

"I’m not going anywhere with you."

Her fingers tightened against her arms. What was his intention, really? To take her back as if nothing had happened? To return to the sa place where he hadn’t even been honest with her?

To the place where he had been willing to give her away to soone else?

She turned, ready to leave.

"I’m sorry I didn’t rescue you, Aveline..." he gulped. "I- I was selfish."

The words landed behind her, quieter than she expected. He should have started there. Once again, he had almost made it about himself first.

Aveline stopped.

Her back was still to him, but she didn’t take another step. This—this was the heart of it. The root of everything that had been festering inside her. She couldn’t walk away without hearing it.

Not when she had spent so long wondering why.

"I..." Theron hesitated, the words heavier now that they were finally being said. "I’m from Greenvale. I couldn’t afford to create trouble in Aurelmont. I thought... if I kept things quiet, if I gave them what they wanted and then took you with

afterward... it would draw less attention."

His jaw tightened slightly.

"I thought I was helping you, but I only thought about myself."

The admission sounded hollow, even to him.

"I hurt you," he said, more firmly this ti. "And, Aveline... I’m sorry."

Aveline’s hands curled into fists.

Her vision blurred for a mont, her eyes stinging as sothing fragile threatened to break loose, but she forced it down, swallowing hard.

She wanted to reject it. To tell him it wasn’t enough. That it didn’t excuse what he had done. The humiliation and the doubts it had planted in her. He could have explained so many tis, but instead let her suffer alone.

But...

It made sense.

And that was what made it worse.

Theron continued, his voice quieter now, stripped of its usual certainty.

"But when I learned how much you’ve suffered... I stopped thinking about my position. I didn’t care anymore. I just wanted to get back at them."

Aveline’s fingers curled tightly into her palms, her nails pressing into her skin as she held herself together.

It was true.

He had gone after every single person who had hurt her.

The pieces fell into place now—the absurd rchant’s clothes he had worn at Willowgrave, the way he had never once revealed who he truly was, even when she had casually lied about his status in the market. He had stayed hidden. Careful. Calculated.

Even at the slave market... he had waited.

He had only destroyed it because she asked him to.

Because they were leaving anyway. Because by then, it no longer mattered if he was discovered.

"Why did you co to Aurelmont?" she asked softly.

The question lingered, heavier than the ones before it.

He had gone there for the creatures he had caged... hadn’t he?

Had she just been... an addition?

Theron’s chest tightened.

He couldn’t see her face, and that alone unsettled him more than anything she could have said. Aveline had always been transparent in her expressions, with every flicker of her emotion written clearly for him to read.

Now she stood turned away, and he was left with nothing.

It was unbearable.

He stepped forward and reached for her hand, his fingers closing around it before she could pull away.

"Aveline... look at , please."

There was sothing in his voice... that was raw, almost fragile, that made her pause.

She had ant to leave. She really had. But when he said her na like that...

She tried to pull her hand back, but his hold tightened. She felt the trembling of his hand on hers. Her heart squeezed for him, and then... she turned.

And her breath caught.

His eyes were red, glassy with unshed tears. His lips trembled ever so slightly, and his nose... it was still bleeding, only to make him look more disheveled.

For a mont, she forgot everything else.

She dropped to her knees in front of him without thinking, pulling out her handkerchief in a rush.

"Why are you still bleeding?" she muttered, gently but firmly pressing the cloth to his nose. "Look up."

Her hand tilted his chin upward, her touch careful, instinctive.

Theron knew it wasn’t quite right to tilt his head up when his nose was bleeding, and he should correct her, but he didn’t.

Not now. Not when she was this close. Not when she was touching him like she still cared.

"I couldn’t get permission to co to Aurelmont," he said softly, his gaze fixed on her face as if afraid she might disappear if he looked away. "So I said whatever I had to."

His voice faltered, then steadied.

"I wanted to see you, Aveline. That was the only reason I went there."

A small breath escaped him.

"Everything else... stopped mattering to ."

Aveline lowered her gaze, her thoughts tangling.

She turned his words over carefully, searching for cracks, for hesitation, and for anything that might tell her he was still holding sothing back.

But there was nothing.

Just truth. Simple, unvarnished truth. And that unsettled her more than any lie could have.

Maybe she was too easy. Maybe she should have fought harder, questioned more, held onto her anger a little longer.

Even she felt ashad of how quickly her resolve wavered.

"I ca to see you," Theron continued, his voice quieter now, almost pleading. "To bring you back with . I... I want you, Aveline..."

Aveline lifted her head slowly.

Their eyes t.

And there it was again... that look in his eyes. Open. Vulnerable. Waiting.

How was she supposed to refuse him... when he stood before her like this, with nothing left hidden between them?

But him wanting her... didn’t matter.

"No," she shook her head. "I cannot go with you."