My Unchosen Ex Chases Reborn Me (Soren and Fiona) novel Chapter 89

89 Unforeseen Crossroads

Chapter 89 Unforeseen Crossroads.

Fiona recognized them at once. She lowered her lashes. “My apologies.”

Elijah stood in front. Beside him loomed Soren and Callum.

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Soren’s gaze dipped to where Fiona’s fingers still wrapped Landon’s. A simple touch, yet it radiated a tenderness that bordered on maternal. Perhaps, in our previous life, she must have held our child like that. Perhaps we did have a child in that other life.

The thought flickered across his mind, but his expression remained as remote as winter glass.

Callum’s feelings roiled harder. He had forced Fiona from his thoughts these past weeks, yet seeing her now tasted bitter.

Don’t covet Xavier’s chosen. A friend’s woman is off–limits.

Landon cleared his throat. “Ms. Fiona was teaching me the slingshot, that’s all. Sorry if we startled you, gentlemen.”

Soren bent over, picked up the errant stone, and strode over. “Let me teach you.”

Fiona stepped aside, wordless, creating space without fanfare.

Soren spared her a single glance, then pressed a handful of extra pebbles into her palm. “Kindly hold these, Ms. Fiona. “The chill in his tone made the spring air feel suddenly austere.

Fiona lowered her lashes and lifted both hands, accepting the items with a silence as light as falling snow. Callum’s brows knit ever so slightly. He could not recall when his younger brother, Soren, had begun showing such open warmth toward children, and the unfamiliar sight unsettled him.

“Landon can be a handful,” Elijah said, offering Soren a respectful bow. “If the boy has disturbed you, Lord Soren, the fault is mine.”

“Elijah, I’m not troublesome at all,” Landon blurted, puffing out his cheeks. “Mother says I was better behaved than you ever were. You used to raid birds‘ nests, stealing their eggs. The poor mother bird would swoop down and peck you every time she saw you!”

Rita’s smile was all porcelain edge and no warmth. “A direct–minded bird, that one. Whoever upsets her gets a sharp lesson. Some folk stir up trouble so often they earn every peck they

receive.”

Everyone present understood her barb was meant for Elijah; yet Soren and Callum kept their

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Chapter 89 Unforeseen Crossroads

faces as still as carved stone.

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Landon nodded in solemn agreement. “Then the troublemaker must be Elijah. He’s always stirring something up.”

A flush crept over Elijah’s ears. Being exposed so publicly left him mortified. He glanced toward Rita, and a dull ache gathered behind his eyes.She refuses to share a bed because of her ailment, and I visited my attendants only twice, yet she has ignored me ever since. Does she think any man in Jexburgh lives without concubines?

His gaze drifted to Fiona. The girl was beautiful–one of the city’s celebrated faces–and remarkably gentle. If I had married her instead, perhaps none of these headaches would follow me home.

Rita caught that wandering look. Her expression chilled, a tight band of pain closing around her ribs.

Worry flickered across Fiona’s eyes before she forced it down. Soren, catching the exchange from the corner of his vision, saw her avert her gaze at once.

“Sir, can you hit that new maple leaf up there?” Landon asked, pointing at the fresh greenery trembling in the breeze.

Soren slipped the emerald thumb ring from his finger and set it in Fiona’s palm–a cool, deliberate gesture. Taking Landon’s small hand, he adjusted the angle of the slingshot, pulled back, and let fly. The pebble clipped the leaf dead–center, sending it spinning.

“Wow! You’re amazing!” Landon cheered, his earlier fascination with Fiona forgotten as he clung to Soren’s sleeve. “Hit that flower even farther

away–please!”

Soren obliged, each shot flying straight and true. Every target fell as though destiny itself guided his aim.

Rita watched him coach the boy–skillful, endlessly patient–and her mind drifted. She pictured Soren as a father, impossibly tender with his own children. The Zonfrillo Estate prized its heirs. She pressed a hand to her flat stomach. Had he spared me a glance, I might never have been forced to marry Elijah and swallow humiliation. I married beneath myself, and yet, he still never cherished me.

“Fiona, you should learn too,” Landon insisted, generous in his delight. “If Lord Soren holds your hand the way he did mine, you’ll pick it up in no time.”

Callum’s frown deepened, a shadow passing over his face,

“It’s proper for men to stand this close while practicing,” Fiona answered, lowering her eyes.

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Chapter 89 Unforeseen Crossroads

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“With a lady, it would breach decorum. Rules exist for a reason.”

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Landon hesitated, then his grin returned. “Easy fix! Marry Lord Soren. Then nobody can gossip, and you’ll shoot better than anyone!”

Fiona’s lips parted, yet no sound emerged. A blush climbed from her neck to the tips of her

ears.

Soren waited until that crimson reached her earlobes before speaking. “Marriage, little one, isn’t meant to have a lesson in marksmanship.”

“I know people get married so they can have children,” Landon announced with all the solemn certainty of a boy reciting a lesson. “You and Ms. Fiona are both so handsome and pretty—of course you’ll have a beautiful baby. Mother told my sister–in–law that if they keep trying at night, a baby will come.”

He had no idea what those nighttime “tries” entailed; the phrase was nothing more than grown–up code to him, like the secret knock he had never learned.

Fiona’s cheeks flushed, her adult sense of decorum colliding with the boy’s blunt innocence. She half lifted her hand, as if to cover his mouth, then let it drop, fingers curling around empty air.

Soren merely wore a calm expression, neither amused nor scandalized.

Callum, however, felt the sting. The crease between his brows deepened until it looked carved there with a knife.

The adults shared an unspoken fear–should Xavier catch wind of such impertinence, he would not be pleased.