“And now?” she asked.
“Now?” He furrowed his brow.
She smiled. “Now that Mr. Ramsay has been dealt with, what I want from you is the truth. No more lies. No more worrying about what the right thing to say is. Tell me the truth, Sebastian.”
“What—what truth?”
“What do you feel for me?”
He grimaced. “Does it matter? If you wish to hate me, I will understand. And if you do not wish to forgive me, I will not?—”
“That is not what I asked.” She looked right at him, an eyebrow raised. “Tell me, what do you feel?”
“Helena…” He retook her hands, refusing to look away from her for even a second. “What I feel for you is what I have felt from you since we first met. I lied to myself about it. I did my best to ignore it—I did not want to believe it. But when I look at you,when I am with you…” Slowly, he allowed himself to smile. “This marriage started as one of convenience, but it has become so much more than that.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“I care for you, Helena. In fact…” He squeezed her hands tighter. “In the interest of truth, I dare say that I love you.”
Helena felt his words piercing her chest. She gasped and caught her breath. Her stomach fluttered, her heart leapt to her throat. And while she had not dared to consider such a thing yet, looking into her husband’s sorrow-filled eyes, she knew beyond a doubt that she felt the same way.
Sebastian was not like other men, and their marriage was not like other marriages. He would not try to control her. He would not force her to be someone she didn’t wish to be. He would not try to force a marriage on her like the one she feared.
But that is only a part of it. A truth I am just now starting to see.
It was ironic that all this time, Helena thought of marriage as a prison, when what she had failed to understand was that in denying her true feelings, she forced herself into a different sort of prison.
She had refused herself what she knew she wanted, trapping herself behind walls that kept her from the one thing she wished for in this world more than anything—to be happy.
And now that she knew this, now that she accepted it, it was time to tear those walls down and finally be free.
“I love you too,” she said, knowing it to be the truth. “And I am sick to death of saying otherwise. No more lies, Sebastian.”
“No more lies,” he agreed.
They gazed into one another’s eyes for a moment longer. They held that gaze, love pouring from them. And then, with nothing else to be said, they did the only thing that made sense at that moment. They closed their eyes, they leaned in, and they kissed.
The kiss seemed to explode from them. It sang from their lips and swept out of the room, across the city, beyond the country, and engulfed the world in the way only true love can do.
It was the type of kiss that the entire world deserved to know about, because it was a kiss free from lies, removed from public perception, done to seal the love felt in both husband and wife.
They held that kiss for seconds… minutes… hours, it felt like. May it never end. But when it did end, neither seemed to mind.
They held hands, they locked eyes, and they smiled because both knew that this kiss was not the end, but the beginning.
For so long, Helena had lived a lie, and now that the truth was spoken, she was free like she had never been before. And thatwas a happy ending better than any she could ever dream of, because it was real.
EPILOGUE
SIX MONTHS LATER
“There it is,” Sebastian said, hardly able to contain his excitement. “Go on, take a look.”
They were sitting in the back of the carriage. Sebastian on one side of the seat, Helena on the other, and Daniel between them.
Daniel had been nervous on the right over, unsure and scared. No doubt he was worried that this was some sort of trick, that it couldn’t possibly be real, and that at any moment the veil would be lifted, and reality would come and take him
“Go on…” Helena nudged the little boy. “There’s no need to worry.”
