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William stood numb, frozen in place. The words that would have melted his heart only a few days ago crashed against the ice around it. For the first time in his life, William didn’t believe her.

“Maybe I am tired,” he rasped. “Maybe I have fought for the wrong things my entire fucking life. Chasing butterflies when I should have lived in the gutter covered in flies.”

She swallowed. “It is not a weakness to get tired sometimes, William. You’ve fought and scraped your entire life in order to keep your head above water. Did you shoot for the stars? Perhaps. But guess what? Only because you could reach them. Everything you ever desired you got! Do not tell me you aimed too high when you married me because you were reaching for the stars long before I ever met you. It is normal, acceptable even, to get tired, especially when you’ve been fighting for breath for years. But do not sit here and tell me that you’re giving up, because that’s not the man I married.”

He scoffed. “The man you married tricked you into this union, locked you in a tower, demanded your kisses, and threatened anyone who dared to come close to you. The man you married stole and lied, abducted and blackmailed all for his own benefit. The man you married would have kept you forever entrapped in this marriage. Don’t you see? I can set you free now.”

“By dying?” she cried.

“There is nothing we can do, Victoria. I am going to die in two days. You should accept that and start thinking about what’s best for you.”

“You know what’s best for me?” She bristled. “You! You are the only person in the world who can make me so angry that I am ready to kill you myself, but I will also fight anyone who attempts to do the same. You are the only person who can get me so frustrated that I want to stomp my foot and throw things at the wall. But in the next breath, you make me laugh. I admire you more than any other person in this entire world. You are talented, quick-witted, and resourceful. There is no duke in the world, no prince or king, who I would rather be with. I don’t want a title. Hell, I’ll throw mine away. I will live with you in that tiny tower, baking bread for you every morning if only it means I can be with you. Do not stop fighting for me now. I need you to fight.”

He shrugged, melancholy spreading to his bones, “What if I can’t?”

There was a brief pause. “Then I’ll fight for you.” Victoria confidently extended her hand to him, her fingers curled into a loose fist.

William moved closer, as much as the shackles allowed him, and took her hand in his. He rubbed her soft skin between his calloused fingers and caressed her knuckles. The touch of her hand, the look of certainty in her eyes, awakened something within him that he’d thought was forgotten.

A will to live.

“I’ll fight for you, William,” she repeated, her voice hoarse. “And I’ll work tirelessly to convince you that I do love you, just the way you did. Even if I have to lock us in the tower for another three months. I will not let you die. Because I love you. I always have. I was just too stubborn and too stupid to realize that.”

William’s heart squeezed at her words, and his breath caught in his throat. “You can’t love me. You can’t trust me, Victoria, I am a thief, a liar, a manipulator!”

“Yes.” She nodded. “I know all that. I know you. I know you like my four fingers!”

William chuckled, his lips slowly curling in a grin. “Wasn’t it five?”

She bit her lip and shook her head. “No, I know you even better than that. And I love every part of you.”

He leaned forward and kissed her fingers.

Kensington appeared by her side then and threw William a brief nod. “Hello, brother,” he said with a wink, before turning to Victoria. “Caroline is in position. We have about ten minutes.”

“Good.” She nodded, and he disappeared behind the door.

Screeching sounds came from somewhere below, and William frowned. “What is going on?”

“We are breaking you out,” Victoria said with a twinkle in her eye. Then she opened her palm, revealing a hairpin. “Now take this pin and undo your shackles. We don’t have a lot of time.”

William’s eyes widened, and he carefully took the pin from her hand, grazing her soft skin. “I belong here. Even though I didn’t kill Porter, you know that I belong here, right?”

“Perhaps. But I am selfish and hypocritical.” She shrugged. “And I want my husband back.”

William chuckled earnestly. “And I want to kiss you.”

Victoria beamed at him. “Then you better get your shackles off and do it.”

William immediately started undoing his shackles. Before he was done, the door creaked, as a slight opening appeared on the side of the door where the hinges used to be. Kensington pushed the door open even more until it was open just enough for William to slip through.

William quickly shed the shackles and slipped through the crack. And the first thing he did as a free man was kiss his wife soundly.

Victoria wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back, her fingers sifting through his hair, her body molding against his. William slipped his tongue inside her mouth, pouring all his love, all his longing into that kiss.

A loud clearing of the throat jolted them apart. “We need to move,” Kensington reminded them.

“Right.” Victoria wiped her puffy lips, her cheeks rosy, her gaze suddenly timid.