He's quiet for a moment. "I have a moment of doubt."
"Tell me."
"I'm giving up everything I've worked for. Everything I've built toward for five years. Everything I thought I needed to be safe. And I'm giving it up for—for what? For a woman I bought at an auction two months ago? For someone who might wake up one day and realize she never really loved me, just trauma-bonded to her captor?"
The admission hangs between us.
"You think I might not really love you," I say quietly.
"I think it's possible. I think Stockholm syndrome is real. I think trauma bonding is real. And I think it's possible that what we feel right now might not survive once you're actually free. Once you have real choices instead of just the illusion of choice."
"So, you're scared."
"Terrified."
I roll over to face him. "You want to know how I know this is real? How I know I really love you?"
"How?"
"Because I had a choice. When you offered to run away with me—to reject the Consortium and choose me instead—that was a choice. I could have said no. Could have told you to go through with the showcase, to take me there and perform, to join the inner circle and keep me as your acquisition. That would have been easier. Safer. Less complicated."
"But you didn't."
"No. Because I don't want you to have the inner circle. I want you to have me. Just me. And I want you to choose me over power. Because that's the only way I know this is real—if you give up everything for me. And I'm willing to face the consequences with you. That's not Stockholm syndrome. That's love."
He stares at me. "You're willing to face danger with me. Willing to fight the Consortium. Willing to risk everything—just to prove this is real?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because I spent twenty-three years at the Sanctuary being told what to want, what to feel, what to be. And then I spent two weeks with you being trained to respond, to submit, to perform. And now—finally—I get to choose. Really choose. And I choose you. Not because I'm conditioned or traumatized or too broken to know better. But because I actually, genuinely love you. And I want to fight for us."
He kisses me then. Deep and fierce and full of something that feels like hope.
The morning of the showcase arrives too quickly and not quickly enough.
I wake up with Vaughn's arms around me and the knowledge that tonight, everything changes.
Tonight, we walk into the Consortium's spring showcase.
Tonight, Vaughn tells them he's choosing me over the inner circle.
Tonight, we find out if love is worth more than power.
I'm terrified. But also—strangely calm.
Like I've been preparing for this my whole life.
Like everything—the Sanctuary, the escape, the auction, the training, falling in love—has been leading to this moment.
"How do you feel?" Vaughn asks.
"Ready. Scared. Both."
"Me too."
"Any regrets?"
