When Her Death Couldn't Break Him (Cecilia and Nathaniel) novel Chapter 2303

Cecilia couldn't make sense of him.

Why did Nathaniel keep bringing up this thing about not protecting her?

"I already told you, that whole thing was nothing. I just got a small injury on my neck, that's all. It's already over," Cecilia said, sounding helpless.

At her words, a flash of surprise crossed Nathaniel's face.

From that one sentence, he suddenly realized he seemed to have misunderstood something.

"Ceci, when you said back then it was only your neck that got hurt... nothing else happened?" Nathaniel asked.

Cecilia gave a hard nod.

"Yeah. What else would there be?"

Only then did Nathaniel realize Nicholas had played him.

That was why it had never made sense to him. If Cecilia had really gone through something like that, how could she still be this calm about it?

Before this, he'd thought she was hiding it because she couldn't bear to face it.

Watching Nathaniel's face change one beat after another, Cecilia suddenly understood.

"Don't tell me you thought Nicholas had... done something to me?" she said, putting it as mildly as she could.

Nathaniel's mouth twitched.

A long moment passed before he finally nodded.

"Yeah."

Cecilia looked at him and wanted to smack him on the head.

"How did you even come up with that?"

This time, Nathaniel didn't hide it.

"Nicholas told me."

"He said it, and you just believed him? Why didn't you ask me?" Cecilia said.

Nathaniel looked even more awkward.

"How was I supposed to ask you something like that?"

He'd been afraid it would drag up something painful for Cecilia, so he had never dared bring it up.

For more than a year, he had been deliberately avoiding anything that had to do with Nicholas every single time, all because he was afraid Cecilia would be dragged back into those bad memories.

"Even though he didn't succeed in laying a hand on you, the fact that he had that thought at all means I won't let him come back."

"But Mom's been looking for him this whole time. We can hide it for now, but we can't hide it forever," Cecilia said with a sigh.

A year had already passed. Cecilia had mostly put that dangerous moment behind her, but every time she thought back on it, a chill still ran through her.

After hearing that, Nathaniel soothed her. "Don't think too much. I'll handle everything."

He paused, then added, "On this matter, remember this. You didn't know a thing. I did it all myself."

Things between Cecilia and Elena had eased up some by now.

But in the end, they weren't related by blood, and that kind of relationship between a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law was the hardest to manage.

Nathaniel didn't want Cecilia put in a spot by Elena.

Cecilia understood what he meant and nodded.

"I know."

Once everything had been made clear, Nathaniel took Cecilia's hand again.

This time, she didn't pull away.