My bones disintegrated and refused to hold me upright anymore. Tears streamed down my face and I clawed at his shirt, babbling incoherently, “They said. They said you were…. I knew it wasn’t true. I saw you. Last night. I knew they were wrong.”

“God, I missed you.” He smiled that smile that warmed my heart, and then his mouth came down on mine, kissing the life back inside me. I wrapped my arms around his neck and held tight, wanting to crawl inside him and curl up into a little ball as long as it meant we wouldn’t have to part again.

The moment he released me, I pulled my hand back and slapped his face.

“Holy fuck,” he muttered, his hand covering the blooming on his cheek.

“That’s for scaring the life out of me,” I yelled, and then I fell against his chest, crying into it, so incredibly relieved that he was standing in front of me alive and well. I was barely coping living without him when I knew he was only a couple of hours away.

His arms wrapped around me like comfortable dream. “I’m sorry, duchess,” he whispered. “It was the only way I could do it.”

“Do what?” I pulled back so I could see his face.

With gentle fingers, he brushed the tears from my cheeks. “Get out.”

My heart jumped into my throat. “Out? As in out out? For good?”

He nodded. “But we have to go, duchess. We have to start again. That’s what you wanted, right?”

It was exactly what I wanted. But I’d never expected it, never dreamed he’d actually make it happen. I stood there with my mouth open, unsure of how to respond.

“You do still want this, right? You still want me?” The fear in his eyes almost broke my heart.

“Of course,” I answered quickly. “But go? Now?”

“Right now. Grab anything you can as fast as you can. Can you do that for me?”

“Wait. We’re leaving? You’re giving up your entire life for me?” I couldn’t wrap my head around it. He’d made it sound impossible to escape.

He placed his hands on either side of my face and kissed me before looking deep into my eyes. “No, duchess, I gave up my life the day I let you walk away. Doing this, it’s giving me my life back. It’s giving me you. As long as you still want me.” His eyes grew serious as he studied my expression.

Mine were wide as saucers. I couldn’t believe it. Nate had faked his death and given up everything just so he could be with me. If that wasn’t a declaration of love in the highest order, then I didn’t know what was.

“I want you,” I gasped, my eyes brimming with tears.

“My God, girl! Go get your things!” Aunt Maya interrupted. “You can ask questions later. Can’t you see the man is in a hurry?”

“Yes, but….” I looked back to Nate. “Are you sure about this?”

“It’s already done. The only thing I want in this world is you. The rest of it.” He lifted his hand. “It’s up in smoke.”

“OK.” I grinned, excited butterflies flapping in my stomach.

“OK?” he asked, looking at me closely.

“Yes, I’ll run away with you.” I stood there smiling like an idiot, stunned at what he’d done so we could be together.

He chuckled. My God, I missed that chuckle. “Then get your stuff, duchess.”

“Oh!” I snapped out of the trance and spun around to do exactly that. At the same time, Aunt Maya came rushing down the stairs with a duffel bag in her arms.

“I grabbed everything I could from your drawers, and anything else that would fit in the bag. I also got you this,” she gasped, out of breath from racing around. She held out a rolled-up wad of cash. “It’s only five grand, but I want you to have it. Go. Live. Be happy.”

I took what she was offering, caught up in the moment before the thought hit me. “But what about you, Aunty?”

She shooed me away. “What about me? I’ve already lived my life. And it’s been a wonderful one. Now go live yours. I’m fine here. I have my cats. I have friends. I’ll be fine. Just please don’t ever tell me why you had to make everyone think you were dead, young man. I’m too old to be like one of those Orange is the New Black girls. I want to tell them honestly that I had no clue what you were into, but I’m assuming it has something to do with my niece’s robbery?”

Nate opened his mouth, then closed it and smiled at her, shaking his head. “Best you don’t know,” he replied with a wink.

“He’s a thief like Pierce Brosnan in The Thomas Crown Affair, isn’t he?” she said with a whimsy in her voice I’d never heard before.

“How did you figure that one out?” I asked, stunned that she’d never said anything if she did. My aunt wasn’t one for tiptoeing.

“Because when you introduced him, I noticed that he looks a little like Hugh Jackman in your police sketch.”

“You never said.”

She ran her hand down the side of my face, tears in her eyes as she smiled. “That’s because you were so happy, and I could tell you loved him.”

I hugged her tight. “I’m going to miss you.”

“I’ll be glad to see the back of you,” she joked, wiping at her eyes as she smiled and blew kisses, then waved us both out the door. “I love you, caterpillar.”

I could barely see her through my happy tears, but I blew kisses back. “I love you too.”

“Ready?” Nate said as he threw my duffel in the back of the car.

Nodding, I climbed into the passenger seat and turned to get my last glimpse of Aunt Maya as we drove away.

“Will I ever get to see her again?” I asked once we were on the road and I couldn’t see her anymore.

“I don’t know, duchess. Maybe someday when all this has settled down.” He rested his hand on my thigh, giving it a light squeeze. “Regret leaving with me yet?” In response, I wrapped myself around his arm and pressed my face against his warm skin.

“I could never regret you, Nate. I’ve missed you so much.”

“I missed you too, duchess. So fucking much.” My entire body hummed with joy.

“And what about Goliath? Did he miss me?”

Nate chuckled. “You have no idea,” he responded, leaning over to kiss the side of my head. “I’ll show you how much he missed you when we get to where we’re going.”

“And where is that?”

“A little town at the very bottom of the country. It’s called Portland, and Nathan Duke and his wife just bought property down there.”

“Nathan Duke? That’s your new name?” My smile grew wider.

“Of course. Every duchess needs her duke.” I loved it.

“I still can’t believe you’re doing this for me,” I mused, biting at my lip in amazement as I looked out the window at the passing scenery. He was everything I wanted, and all that I needed.

“I’m not doing it for you, duchess. I’m selfishly doing it for myself because I can’t stand living another moment without you.”

“What would you have done if I said I didn’t want to come?”

“That wasn’t an option. I’d have gone caveman on you and slung you over my shoulder. You belong to me. You’re my wife.”

“Actually, I’m a widow, it seems.”

“No, you’re my wife.” He pulled out an envelope from the centre console and handed it to me. Inside, there was new identification for the both of us—Mr and Mrs Nathan and Hannah Duke.

“How did you manage to do all this?” I asked, astounded at the quality of the fake IDs as I sifted through them.

“I paid a lot of people a lot of money.”

“And what happens to everything you had before? Your house, my apartment?”

“Our house. It’s all being taken care off. Toby is helping out. We’ll be sitting pretty, the way a duke and his duchess should.”

“And when we get to Portland, we’ll work like normal people do? No more stealing, no more growing poppies or any other sort of drug farm?”

“Straight as an arrow. I was thinking maybe a bookshop would be nice.”

My eyes lit up. “Will it have a ladder that moves? Except this time, I think we should refrain from any sort of hard fucking on it. And maybe get an actual builder on it.”

“It can have anything you want—a coffee shop, a section for classic DVDs. We could even have a mini theatre—show old movies, put on plays. You’d be in your element.”

“That does sound like a dream,” I gushed, my heart so full and hopeful that I feared I was about to wake up from said dream.

“Sure does. My dream is to spend my life with you. Everything else is a cherry.”

“And kids. Will we have kids in this dream?”

He glanced at me and smiled, devastating me with how handsome he was. “Is that something you want now?”

“Yes,” I replied. “I’d love to have little Nates and Hollands, I mean Hannahs with you. There’s nothing standing in our way anymore.”

“Then we’ll get started on that right away.”

I squealed with happiness. “Pinch me, quick!”

“What?” He laughed.

“Pinch me.” When he wouldn’t, I did it myself. “Ow.” I blinked a few times and looked around.

“What the hell was that for?”

“I had to make sure this was real.”

“Oh, it’s real, duchess. But in about ten hours’ time, you might be questioning your reality while I rock your fucking world.”

“Promise?” I laughed.

“Goliath has really missed you.”

“And I’ve missed him. But I missed you more.”

“Me too,” he said, just as we turned to merge onto the highway that would pave the road to our new life. A life where we could have everything we ever dreamed and then some.

I turned around, watching Melbourne recede in the rear window.

“Goodbye, my old life,” I whispered. Then I took my husband’s hand and kissed his knuckles. “Hello, my world.”

As I settled into my seat, ready for the long drive to our new home, I couldn’t wipe the smile from my face. Some people would call me foolish for giving Nate a second chance after the way we met and the way we left things, but the man owned my heart, just as I owned his. And now that he’d given up a huge part of his life to start fresh with me, I didn’t feel foolish at all. I felt willing to do the same. Nate told me months ago that he didn’t understand what love was. Now he did. Truly loving someone meant moments of sacrifice. Moments of allowing the other to grow and flourish, rather than holding ties over them. My husband loved me, loved me enough to let me go, loved me enough to relinquish the ties that had bound us. He’d given me the fairy tale by setting us free. I felt hopeful for our future but most of all, I felt unconditionally loved.

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