“I—”
His voice failed, the rest collapsing in his throat.
“You’re back—” the words slipped out shakily.
“I know you told me to leave—” he managed.
Then she moved.
She reached for him in a sudden, desperate motion, fist curling into the front of his jacket, pulling him over the threshold.
The door swung shut behind him with a soft click he barely heard over the pounding in his chest.
Her voice broke open.
“You left,” she choked, tears gathering instantly. “You left and I thought—”
A strangled sob escaped her.
“I thought that was it. That you were gone. That I had lost you for good and I— I couldn’t—”
“Violet—”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, the words trembling out of her.
“I shouldn’t have pushed you away like that. Everything I said was true—every fear, every reason—but the thought of you gone…”
She squeezed her eyes shut, shaking her head as if the thought alone hurt to speak.
“I don’t know how to bear that. I don’t know how to lose you again.”
He caught her hands gently, carefully, holding them as though they were the most fragile things in the world.
“You won’t,” he said, voice rough. “Not this time.”
“But Lily—” she began.
“Her future, William, her place in the world, everything stands against us. I can’t let her be less than. I can’t—”
“Violet.”
The quiet weight of his voice stopped her.
He reached for the satchel at his side, feeling her gaze sharpen in confusion.
His hands shook as he opened the flap and drew out the sealed documents, every mile he’d traveled, every fear he’d carried, bound in parchment and wax.
He held them out to her.
Violet stared, eyes wide, tears slipping to her chin before her shaking hands reached for the pages.
“What… William, what is this?”
He took a slow, controlled breath because he could not afford to falter now.
“You told me,” he said quietly, “that our future was impossible.”
His throat worked.
