Reborn to Flee My Fiance's Obsession (Fiona and Soren) novel Chapter 322

He had wanted her to know who he really was.

But reason kept pressing the same answer on him.

He could only be Xavier.

"That bracelet was strung by an old woman on the road back to Jexburgh. In the last life, Lord Soren didn't have anyone in his heart, so he never bought it," Xavier said.

That explained how he knew about the bracelet. He must have been with Soren back then. With that thought, Fiona let some of her guard ease.

And the fact that Xavier was even speaking up for Soren could only mean one thing. Maybe he was only being objective.

But the more calmly he explained it, the clearer it made something else seem—that what he felt toward her was gratitude, nothing more.

No man would explain things for a rival in love.

He treated her differently because he was grateful. He was willing to give for her, willing to marry her, and maybe even he himself had not fully sorted out what was in his own heart.

Fiona sat with that for a moment, then put herself back in order and said, "I see."

Xavier looked at her for a while. He knew exactly where her thoughts had gone, but he did not explain himself.

People's hearts were tangled things. He had once hoped she might carry some fondness for him, yet now he wanted even less for her to feel that way.

Off to the side, Naomi was thinking hard. Looking at it this way, the two of them did not seem all that close after all. Mr. Xavier looked pretty restrained, pretty steady, not like a man who had fallen too deep.

Her own brother had not been like that at all. Back when the marriage proposal had been rejected, he had nearly lost his appetite for both tea and food. Out in front of others, he had not shown much.

But when he was alone in Radiant Lodge, nobody knew how much wine he had gone through.

Naomi was still quietly taking Fiona's side when she saw Fiona say her goodbyes to Xavier. Then Fiona got into the carriage and left.

After she was gone, Xavier's gaze changed. It turned deeper as he kept looking in the direction Fiona had left for a long while, and there was something empty in his face, as if something had just been taken from his hands.

It looked a lot like her brother after he had been rejected.

Naomi froze.

Xavier was already engaged to Fiona, so why was he putting on that calm, self-controlled act in front of her?

Could it be... Vincent had forced him into it?

A strange look crossed Naomi's face.

Going by Soren's temperament, it wasn't even impossible.

There had always been something overbearing in him, right down to the bone.

The second she thought of Soren, something in Naomi eased.

Now that he had made it back safe and sound, nothing mattered more.

But when the day came for Soren to arrive, Naomi looked at her own brother and was met with a sense of distance she hadn't expected.

He sat tall on horseback, and the thin, cold cast on his face looked nothing like the Soren she remembered.

He wore a black brocade robe threaded with gold, a carved silk belt at his waist, and a white jade crown set in gold on his head.

The whole thing made him look noble, and untouchable.

Even the horse moved in steady, measured steps, as if everything around him sat easily in his hands.

The Soren from before had never carried this kind of pressure.

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