Chapter 166: The Choice Is Yours, Lumina

LUMINA   I stared at him through my tears, seeing something in his expression I'd never seen before -- complete, unguarded honesty mixed with deep, genuine remorse.   "I came here to bring my family home," he said quietly. "But sitting in that hospital room, watching you with both boys, seeing how happy and natural you looked when you weren't walking on eggshells around me... I realized I never gave you a choice. Not really."     The truth of his words hit me like a sledgehammer to the chest, that made me barely able to breath. I don't know how he noticed all this but he was right -- I'd never had a choice. I'd been forced into marriage to avoid exile or execution, forced to live in a territory where I was barely tolerated, forced to pretend I was happy in a relationship that had been built on suspicion and obligation rather than love.   "You were forced to marry me," Xenois continued, his voice growing quieter with each word.   "Forced to stay in a loveless marriage, forced to pretend