Never Mistake a Queen for a Lapdog novel Chapter 949

"These feelings just keep ambushing me. When I think about the injuries he suffered, the hell he went through, and everything he sacrificed... it breaks my heart."

"But the second I remember everything that happened between him and Bianca, I instinctively put my walls back up."

It was a giant, tangled mess.

If they were keeping score, she undoubtedly owed Seth way more than he owed her.

But you couldn't quantify love with fairness.

You couldn't sit there calculating who sacrificed more, or who owed who what.

Claire shook her head softly. "What you're experiencing is trauma. You've been brutally hurt, so whenever your emotions start to spike, your self-defense mechanisms kick in. You push away anyone who holds power over your feelings, whether their intentions are genuine or not."

"But honey, if you're too terrified of getting hurt, you'll never find happiness."

Claire glanced back at Beau, still whining by the glass doors.

"Look at Beau. If he's too scared to ever step outside, he'll never get to see the sky. He'll spend his entire life trapped in a perfectly safe, perfectly boring glass box."

"He'll be safe, but he'll never be free."

She poured Noreen another glass. "Happiness and pain always come in a package deal."

They drank deep into the night.

Even Beau gave up his vigil, curling up against the glass to sleep.

Driven by her chaotic thoughts, Noreen drank far more than Claire and had to be half-carried back to her bedroom.

She passed out, aided by the alcohol.

She slept deeply, trapped in a recurring nightmare.

She dreamed she was being thrown into the ocean over and over again. Freezing water flooded her nose and throat. The burning salt and the suffocating pressure dragged her down.

Her arms and legs felt bound by invisible chains, rendering every desperate struggle completely useless.

She tried to scream, but only a few pitiful bubbles escaped her lips.

Just as her consciousness began to fade and her body surrendered to the depths, a figure pierced the surface like a torpedo, diving straight toward her without a second of hesitation.

It was Seth.

Through the blurred, distorted water, his panicked expression remained vividly clear.

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