Status Updates From Sophia White and Her Seven ...

“Simply and honestly, I love her. I am not the exact same man that I was when I was with Mary so I feel that the love I have for Sophia will only ever belong to her.”

I cannot imagine anyone else loving her the way I do. I cannot guarantee your daughter's happiness. All I can guarantee is that if she chooses me, I will love her the way she deserves to be loved.

Faine hadn't been able to be there for Mary's last moments. He hadn't been there for her at all and the misery of knowing she had gone through all of that alone still tore at him. There was no way in hell that he was going to leave Sophia's side while she straddled the line between life and death.

“I forgot that you were incapable of being helpful without also serving up a good side dish of asshole.”

He huffed and said, “She needs a physician.”

Dylan covered Sophia, swearing some more. “You. You mean that she needs you.”

He had spent years working in crisis situations, perfecting his clinical mind to handle the chaos and uncertainty of saving a human life. But this wasn't anybody, this was Sophia and his mind couldn't focus on anything but the paralyzing fear that dripped from him like filthy river sludge.

She remembered her charities but, as a lady, she had always been a step away from those she helped.

Faine could be that connection she was missing. They could work together to accomplish so much.

Spoiler?

Irregular heartbeat. Yellow. Foxglove.

“Were you a soldier, Mr. Stokes?”

“Ah, I see you do remember a bit about me.” She shook her head.

“Perhaps I am proficient at making educated guesses.”

No wonder she had never remembered any of her past life. A part of her had probably been happy to be rid of it.

That was the part that bothered her the most. No one, for all their speculation, had guessed that she had lost her mind. Everyone was worried about how she could be physically disfigured, but no one was concerned with what they couldn't see.

He couldn't freeze his children in time, no matter how much he wished he could. And he had Lady Sophia to blame for making him realize that.

By God, Faine's father outranked this earl...

With you I am not just a father. I am not just a physician. I am all of me, even the parts I forgot about.

Whenever I have all the children in the same room, I feel as if my own thoughts must shout at me inside my head to be heard over everything else.

Lover? That word was so close to meaning something profound. He had not said he loved her, but to be someone's lover, a person had to care about them deeply. It was something beyond friendship. It was love, but not quite. Just a lover.

Every time I think I remember something, it leaves me with more questions. I remembered a name and now you want to know twenty more things about it. Do you think this is fair? Do you think I do not also want those answers?

He had wanted to remain closed off because he thought he was protecting himself but he couldn't protect himself from the love he felt for his children. Today, the love didn't feel like a vulnerability.

It felt beautiful.

If his family needed him, then he needed to be there. And they deserved all of him. Even the vulnerable parts.

the Earl paid his people enough that should she ask them to jump from the roof, they should strongly consider it. Demanding privacy was not beyond her expectations.

She didn't want her past to matter. Whatever had happened to her wasn't more important than calming down the child in front of her. The child was part of the here and now.

Dad always has an answer for something.”

She said, “I think he likes to believe there is an answer to everything. But sometimes, an answer is not expected.”

glancing over the names and dates on the stones. Some of them sounded impressively ancient and others heart-breakingly recent.

“I want you to stay with me. But you can only stay if you promise to stay forever. I need to protect myself and my children because we have already lost so much. I can't do that again.”

he thought the husk in his chest wasn't capable of beating for another wife.

“You do not want me to touch you because you actually want me to touch you?”

Ever since you found me, I have felt as if pieces of me were missing but when I was helping Daisy, it felt like I was putting a piece of myself back where it belonged.

He had tended soldiers during battle, severed limbs, and encountered every form of the body's insides on the outside in the most nauseating conditions.

Faine was used to crying. He was used to screaming and pleading and all sorts of inhuman screeches as well as many other bodily functions that could accompany copious amounts of pain. Fear often accompanied the pain and it was often as difficult to treat that as it was the actual body.

“She is so different from the little girl I remember. I do not understand her half as much as I used to.”

“That is not entirely her fault. You do not try to understand her. You tell her what you want from her and then you are flabbergasted when what she wants and what you want do not align.”

Your children are not toys that you can hoard away in your room.