Chapter 605

Vincent lifted his eyes to Hannah, his gaze deep,unreadable-like a locked chest that refused to reveal its contents. Oddly enough, he shared the same gnawing thought. Amnesia was a merciless thief; it stripped him of controI, and nothing unsettled him more than being at the mercy of uncertainty.There were answers he needed-fast-if he was to wrestle back command over his life.

He sat across from her, his very presence stretching across the space like an invisible wall of authority. He instinctively took charge of the conversation, his voice sharp as a gavel. "I'll ask, and you'll answer."

Hannah gave a small nod. "Alright.Go ahead."

His first question cut straight to the bone. "Why did we get married in the first place?" To him, marriage was a tiresome snare, a complication he would never willingly step into. He couldn't fathom why he had once chosen otherwise.

Hannah hesitated only a beat before replying,"Because you thought it was appropriate."

Vincent's brow tightened. That answer felt flimsy-almost absurd. He pressed on. "But from what l know, you only built up the Luminara Group after our divorce. And your parents... They're just high school teachers."

That much he'd gathered from his bodyguards.Nothing about her background fit his notion of "appropriate."

Hannah met his stare calmly and revealed the missing piece. "Because your grandmother liked me.You believed that marrying a woman your grandmother adored could make your life simpler.That was what made marrying me perfectly appropriate."

Her words struck true. They matched the weight his grandmother carried in his memory, and mirrored his own dislike for trouble, his craving for efficiency. His doubt thinned. He gave a small nod. That reasoning held water. Making concessions for his grandmother was exactly the sort of compromise he would make.

At once, another question rose in his mind-a sharper one, one that might explain why he had once clung so tightly to his ex-wife. He leaned forward."After all those years of marriage, did we have children?"

To him, the idea of a child made sense of everything.If there had been one, then his wish to reconcile was clear as day: he wanted to give that child a whole family.

The sudden question caught Hannah unprepared.Her body stiffened. A sorrow, raw and unhidden,flickered through her eyes. She lowered her lashes.After a pause heavy as stone, she whispered a single word,"Yes."

Vincent felt a flicker of hope creep into his eyes-an emotion he wasn't even awar e of. It aligned with his

assumption. "A boy or a girl?" he asked.

Hannah raised her gaze, catching that fragile spark of anticipation in him. It gripped her heart like a cold hand, squeezing the air from her lungs. Her fist clenched. "The gender was unknown. I... I lost the pregnancy after just over a month."

Vincent's brows snapped together. "How could you fail to protect even a baby?"

The words pierced her like a blade twisted in an old wound. Her long-buried grief and fury broke their chains, rushing out all at once. She lifted her head.Her eyes burned red, tears threatening but refusing to fall.

She met his gaze, her voice sharp and quivering."I couldn't protect a baby? Vincent, why don't you ask yourself what kind of father you were? How useless you were? You didn't even know I was pregnant.When I lay at home, bleeding from a hemorrhage,drowning in my own calls for help-you were abroad.Not answering your phone, not replying to a single message, lost to me completely. It was your absence,

assumption. "A boy or a girl?" he asked.

Vincent's brows snapped together. "How could you fail to protect even a baby?"

your failure as a father, that cost us this child. How dare you put the blame on me?"

Her voice rose to a near shout, years of silence exploding into sound. The storm of emotion made her tremble.

Vincent's instinct was to fire back, but the sorrow etched in her eyes stopped him cold. He frowned,lips twitching, yet no words emerged. He turned his gaze aside instead.Silence was his refuge.

The cabin thickened with a chill, tension hanging like frost in the air.

Only after a long stretch of quiet did Vincent gather himself. When he finally spoke, his voice was as calm and detached as if continuing a report. "Did we ever try to have children again afterward?"

Chapter 605

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