While My Husband Cheated I Married His Powerful Brother novel Chapter 178

Chapter 178: Chapter 178 A Broken Veyra and Dorian’s Tormented Heart

​Dorian stood motionless in the open bedroom doorway.

​His leather travel bag was still clutched in his right hand, and his dark suit jacket remained draped over his left arm. He had only just stepped into the manor after finishing a grueling week-long business trip abroad. He was bone-tired, mentally drained, and frustrated. All he had wanted was a hot shower and a quiet bed to fall into.

​Then he had heard her agonizing scream echo down the quiet corridor.

​He had heard her voice, completely broken, desperate, and calling out for her deceased mother in the dark.

​Without giving it a second thought, he had rushed straight down the hallway to her private room. He had pushed the wooden door open without knocking and found her sitting up in the middle of the large bed. Her hair was tangled across her shoulders, her pale cheeks were soaked with fresh tears, and her entire frame was trembling uncontrollably.

​Something deep inside Dorian’s chest cracked wide open.

​He couldn’t maintain his cold, indifferent mask any longer. He couldn’t pretend that her pain meant nothing to him, nor could he simply turn around and walk away from her distress.

​He set his travel bag down on the floor, placed his jacket over the nearby armchair, and slowly crossed the room toward the bed.

​"Veyra," he said softly, keeping his voice gentle. "What happened?"

​Veyra raised her head and looked straight at him through her blurred vision.

​Her eyes were completely bloodshot, her cheeks streaked with tears, and her lips trembling as she struggled for air.

​She tried to form words to explain the nightmare, but her throat felt paralyzed. No sound came out.

​She tried a second time, but still, nothing came.

​The lingering terror of the dream was still gripping her mind. The overwhelming grief, the vivid memory of her mother, the pool of blood, the sinister clown mask, and the loud gun blast were all far too fresh.

​She simply couldn’t keep her walls up any longer.

​Abandoning all her pride, she threw herself forward, wrapping her arms around his waist and pressing her face directly against his chest. Her fingers clutched tightly into the fabric of his dress shirt as heavy sobs wracked her entire body.

​Dorian froze on the spot, his muscles locking up instantly.

​His entire body went rigid as a board.

​His arms hung stiffly at his sides, his breath catching tightly in his throat.

​He was completely lost on how to react.

​One strong part of him desperately wanted to hold her close, to wrap his arms securely around her shaking frame and whisper that she was safe now.

​Yet another guarded part of him warned him to push her away, to maintain a safe distance, and to protect his own guarded heart from getting involved.

​He forced himself to remember the strict boundaries they had set up. The legal contract. Their formal, distant arrangement.

​She was the mother of his child. That was supposed to be the absolute limit of their connection.

​He was supposed to be loyal to the memory of Iris, the mysterious woman who had saved his life years ago in the forest, the woman he had spent so much time searching for, and the woman he couldn’t push from his mind.

​Veyra was definitely not Iris.

​Veyra was not his to hold.

​Yet she was sobbing right in front of him.

​She was completely falling apart in his arms, her muffled cries pressing against his chest as her fingers dug deeper into his shirt.

​"Please," she whispered out desperately, her voice breaking on the word. "Please just hold me."

​Her body shook violently with every breath she took.

​"I can’t... I really can’t handle this alone."

​Dorian’s chest tightened so hard it felt painful. His throat closed up, and a burning sensation stung the back of his eyes.

​He tried to speak, but no words would come out.

​She pulled back slightly to look up into his face. Her eyes were wet with tears, and her face was deathly pale under the dim room lighting.

​"Please," she begged him again, her voice barely a whisper. "Just hold me."

​Whatever cold discipline he had spent months building up completely shattered in an instant.

​The rigid walls he had constructed, the safe distance he had tried so hard to maintain, and the strict rules he had imposed on himself all crumbled into nothing.

​He brought his arms up, wrapped them firmly around her back, and pulled her tightly against his chest.

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