Rebirth: The New Bride Wants A Divorce-Chapter 293: I love you, Anna

"I used to stargaze when I was a kid," Daniel said quietly, his voice breaking the silence in a way that made Anna still. "My parents made every weekend special. We would lie on the terrace wrapped in blankets... my mother would point out constellations, and my father would tell ridiculous stories about them."

Anna’s throat tightened. She felt the lump rise but forced herself to swallow it down. The soft curl at the corner of Daniel’s lips showed her that the memory still carried warmth... yet the shadow in his eyes revealed the pain stitched through it.

She reached up slowly, cupping his face. "Daniel... how were you as a child?"

He turned to her, his gaze meeting hers with a gentleness she rarely saw. The stars reflected in his dark eyes, making them look softer, deeper. He leaned in and kissed her, a slow, lingering kiss that carried gratitude more than desire.

When he pulled back, Anna nestled against him, resting her hand lightly on his chest. His heartbeat thudded steadily beneath her palm, grounding both of them as they looked up at the glittering sky together.

"I was not like the man I am now," Daniel murmured. "I used to feel things deeply. Happiness... love... excitement... everything came easily. It felt natural."

Anna’s fingers brushed along his jaw, her touch feather light.

Daniel exhaled, his voice growing quieter. "But when everything flipped... when my world burned overnight... I became incapable of feeling anything at all. It was like someone switched something off inside me. I could not cry. I could not laugh. I could not care."

Anna lifted her head slightly, watching the vulnerability seep into his expression with every word he spoke.

"But you care now," she whispered.

Daniel blinked, his gaze flickering to hers with a tenderness that stole her breath. He lifted his hand and traced the outline of her cheek with his thumb.

"You changed that," he said. "I do not know when it happened, or how, but you did."

Anna’s chest tightened, her breath catching as she moved even closer, their foreheads touching. "Daniel..." his name slipped from her lips as she recalled the man he used to be in the past life, the one he was describing now, distant, cold and most important ignorant.

"I used to think numbness was safer," he continued, his voice turning low and honest. "People cannot hurt you if you feel nothing. Loss cannot break you if you never let yourself hold anything close."

His fingers slid into her hair, gently tucking a strand behind her ear. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

"But then you came... and suddenly the numbness was gone." He paused, voice trembling slightly. "And that terrified me more than anything."

Anna’s heart clenched.

She pressed a soft kiss to his jaw, her lips lingering for a moment. "It is alright to feel, Daniel. You do not have to hide from it anymore."

Daniel breathed out a shaky breath, as if her words loosened a knot inside him he hadn’t noticed he was holding.

He pulled her against his chest, holding her as though grounding himself in her presence. Anna rested her ear over his heart again, listening to the steady rhythm, feeling the warmth slowly spreading through him.

In that quiet moment under the stars, with candlelight flickering around them and the night breeze brushing over their skin, Daniel let himself be vulnerable—truly vulnerable—for the first time.

And Anna held him through it, gentle and patient, as if she had always been meant to be the one who heard his broken pieces and stitched them back together.

"So thank you for making me feel, Anna. If you had not done that, maybe I would still be the same man I was when we first spoke on our wedding night."

Daniel’s voice dropped to a quiet confession as memories pressed against him. He remembered how he had pretended to care for Katrine, how he had worn a polished mask and presented a perfect illusion to everyone around them. He had convinced others that he was devoted to her and that she was the only woman meant for him.

But when Katrine fled and Anna stepped into her place, something inside him cracked open. Pretending suddenly felt impossible. It was Anna who stripped the mask from him without even trying. Anna who made him confront the man he truly was beneath the armor of pride, power, and cold precision.

He had tried to hide from it at first. He had used his influence against the Bennetts, hoping Anna would remain a scapegoat. In his mind she was a pawn he could use whenever he needed her. Yet everything shifted, and now he could barely breathe without her.

She had never been his enemy. Deep down he realized he had never wanted to hurt her, not even in the beginning when he pretended otherwise. Still he had refused to acknowledge the pull between them until he saw the courage in her eyes. She had been bold enough to threaten him with divorce despite knowing the storm her family would face if she followed through.

Only now did he understand why she fought so fiercely. Only now did he understand that she had been trying to protect herself from a man who refused to feel anything. And he could never blame her again. Because he finally understood his own heart, and he was not ready to let her go. Nothing would come between them now.

"I love you, Anna," he said suddenly.

The words struck her still. Her lips parted in disbelief, her chest rising as uncertainty washed through her. Daniel let out a soft, breathless laugh as unshed tears shimmered in his eyes, and the sound jolted her out of her trance.

For a moment she thought he was teasing her in the middle of a serious conversation. But he stopped laughing, though the faint smile remained on his lips, steady and sincere. Then he spoke again, clearer and stronger this time.

"I love you, Anna. I love you to the point that I cannot imagine my life without you."

Silence stretched between them, thick and heavy, and the longer Anna remained quiet, the more Daniel felt his confidence crumble. He had not planned to confess. He had not intended to drop his heart at her feet without warning. But now that he had, her silence cut deeper than he expected.

He shifted uneasily, his throat tightening as uncertainty clawed at him.

"It is o... okay if you do not..." he tried, but the words tangled in his mouth. He swallowed hard, feeling foolish and exposed. "I mean... you do not have to say anything. I did not want to overwhelm you."

Anna still said nothing, her wide eyes fixed on him, and Daniel felt panic rise in his chest.

"I did not mean to scare you," he whispered, looking away for a brief moment. "Just forget it. Pretend I did not say anything."

Her voice broke through the air, quiet but sharp with emotion.

"Are you telling the truth?"

Daniel froze.

Slowly he lifted his eyes to hers, his breath catching when he saw the uncertainty and vulnerability swimming in them. Anna was not rejecting him. She was searching for honesty. She was asking if this moment was real, if his confession was something she could trust.

His voice came out low and earnest, stripped of every defense he once relied on.

"Yes, Anna," he said. "Every word I said was the truth."

Anna’s breath hitched as she searched his face for any sign of hesitation. She found none. Only truth. Only him. Her fingers curled slightly, as if steadying herself before she spoke again.

"Then why do you look like you regret saying it?" she asked softly.

Daniel blinked, taken aback. "Because you went silent. And I thought... maybe I misread everything. Maybe you do not feel the same, and I pushed too far."

Her heart squeezed at the raw fear in his voice. It was strange seeing him this way, stripped of all the power and control he usually carried. He looked almost boyish in his uncertainty, vulnerable in a way she never imagined he could be.

"I went silent because it felt unreal," Anna admitted.

Daniel stepped closer, his hand lifting hesitantly before settling against her cheek. His thumb brushed her skin with a touch so tender it made her chest tighten.

"It is real," he murmured. "I did not plan it. I did not rehearse it. It simply... happened. Because holding it in any longer felt impossible."

Her eyes softened, and she leaned slightly into his palm. The warmth of his touch seeped into her, melting the last of her doubts.

"I needed to be sure," she whispered. "People say things when emotions run high, but I needed to know you meant it."

"I meant every bit of it," he said, his gaze locked with hers. "I love you, Anna. I love you in a way that scares me, in a way that makes me want to be a better man. And I will not take those words back."