My Unchosen Ex Chases Reborn Me (Soren and Fiona) novel Chapter 266

Naomi pushed through the departing guests, eyes rimmed with red. “Fiona, thank you for coming today,” she said, her voice thick.

“Lord Soren will come home safe,” Fiona answered, steadier than she felt.

Naomi nodded. Beside her stood a young woman who gathered her courage and offered a soft, “Ms. Fiona.”

Fiona recognized her at once–Gwendolyn Llewellyn, destined to be Callum’s wife. In the other life, their paths had barely crossed, yet she remembered that the couple’s affection had been genuine.

“This is Gwendolyn,” Naomi introduced. “Her engagement to Callum is already settled.”

“Hello, Gwendolyn,” Fiona said with an easy smile.

With a blush brightening her cheeks, Gwendolyn stammered, “You are truly lovely, Ms. Fiona. I have wanted to speak with you before, but feared it might seem forward.”

Those had been her very first words in the previous life as well, Fiona realized, and the symmetry drew a small smile from her.

“Come to me whenever you wish. I would be happy for the company.”

Naomi gave her hand a grateful squeeze. “I must help Mother greet the rest of the guests, Fiona,” she said, tugging Gwendolyn along. “Forgive me for leaving so soon.”

Fiona nodded in warm assent, watching the two women disappear into the drifting crowd.

Once the two had vanished down the dim corridor, Fiona gathered her silk skirts and stepped out from the shadowed arch, moving toward Xavier.

The rockery was extremely secluded, an alcove known only to a few. In her previous life, Soren had returned after a year and, beneath these same jagged stones, asked whether she would marry Zephyr.

Now Xavier waited there, hands folded behind his back, gaze fixed on the distant roofs of the Zonfrillo Estate. His expression was a quiet riddle.

“Among Lord Soren’s entourage today, the man stationed farthest to his right looked strangely familiar to me. Do you know who he is?”

“That is Spencer Sunderland, only son of the Minister of Works, Percival Sunderland. By His Majesty’s command, he rides with Lord Soren as they leave Jexburgh.”

Spencer’s lineage was glittering enough to turn heads. At court, Emperor Aldric prized three families above all others–the Zonfrillos, the Thankertons, and the Sunderlands. Sending the young man away might simply broaden his experience and prepare him for swift promotion, or perhaps the emperor wanted eyes on Soren.

Fiona remembered that, after her marriage to Soren in her previous life, calamity later swallowed the Sunderland Estate.

“I cannot shake the feeling that I have seen him before,” Fiona murmured.

“Soren will keep his guard up,” Xavier answered, turning to meet her eyes.

Fiona paused. Soren had returned unscathed in that earlier life. He must have understood the danger even then.

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Etiquette inside the Zonfrillo Estate allowed them only a brief moment alone. “I did not expect you to appear today, Ms. Fiona,” Xavier said just as she turned to leave.

“I did not come for Lord Soren,” Fiona explained, voice steady. She was troubled by Soren’s year–long disappearance and hoped the visit might reveal a trace of the reason.

More than that, she wanted to make sure Xavier knew nothing was lingering between her and Soren.

The sincerity in her eyes left no room for doubt. There was, indeed, no nostalgia in her heart for Soren.

“Of course, you feel no longing for him,” Xavier said after a long silence. “Had you faced the Soren of the previous life, you would have felt even less.”

“Truthfully, I find you quite admirable, Mr. Xavier. In many ways, you surpass Lord Soren. It is only unfortunate that I did not meet you in the previous life.”

Had they crossed paths before, Fiona might never have been drawn so deeply to Soren.

Xavier’s gaze flickered with complicated light, yet he said nothing.

“Do you dislike being compared with Lord Soren?” she asked after noticing the faint chill in his silence.

“Only a little,” Xavier admitted. “It is the comparison to the Soren of the previous life that irks me. Still, speak or act as you wish, Ms. Fiona.”

“Why specify the Soren of the previous life?” Fiona asked, curiosity lifting her brow.

“To me, the Soren of that life and the Soren who breathes now are different men. Perhaps it is because I, too, come from the past. I have never felt that I belong to this timeline. Most of my memories are still frozen back there, and I walk through this life like a borrowed shadow.”

“Since you are here now, Mr. Xavier, why not live the days in front of you well?” she urged, repeating advice she had offered more than once. Perhaps because their fates were knotted together, she felt a gentle, unspoken attachment to him.

Sometimes, Xavier felt an unexpected warmth whenever she trusted him so completely, placing such weight on his existence.

He studied her for a long moment, then nodded. “I will.”

He meant to stay beside her in the present lifetime until their hair turned silver, so long as he kept his secret locked away.

The thought dragged him back to that other ending.

He remembered lying on the cold ground, life draining fast, coughing up thick spurts of blood while staring at the figure looming above him.

“If the rumor is true, then try it,” he had begged, voice ragged. “I–I want her to live…”

Autumn returned, and–as in that vanished lifetime–news of Soren in Broadmoor faded to silence; not a single whisper drifted through Jexburgh’s gilded corridors.

The Zonfrillo Estate itself remained still, its ironbound gates shut like a mouth clamped over secrets.

Emperor Aldric, however, frequently invited Alexander to the palace for quiet games of chess.

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Both men moved their pieces–and their intentions–without allowing a single emotion to crease their faces.

Midgame, Alexander paused, set his rook aside, and bowed. “Your Majesty, I have rested many weeks. I believe the time has come for me to return to Broadmoor.”