Into the night air that feels like freedom.
Callum is waiting with the car. He takes one look at our faces and opens the door without questions.
We get in. The door closes. The car starts moving.
Away from the estate. Away from the Consortium. Away from everything I thought I wanted.
Toward something new.
Something unknown.
Something that starts with us.
Eden is crying. Shaking. Clinging to me.
"You did it," she whispers. "You actually did it. You chose me."
"Of course I chose you. How could I choose anything else?"
"What now? They'll come after us. They'll?—"
"Now we run. I have accounts they don't know about. Properties in other names. We disappear for a while. Let things cool down. And then—" I stop.
"Then what?"
"Then we live. Actually live. Not as owner and acquisition. Not as captor and captive. As two people who chose each other. Who fought for each other. Who survived the Consortium and came out the other side."
She kisses me then. Desperate and fierce and full of everything we've been through.
When we finally break apart, she's smiling through her tears.
"Where are we going?"
"I have a house in Montana. Middle of nowhere. No one knows about it except Callum. We can go there. Stay as long as we need to."
"Montana."
"Yes. Is that—is that okay?"
"It's perfect. Anywhere is perfect as long as I'm with you."
The car drives through the night.
Away from Virginia.
Away from the showcase.
Away from the Consortium's reach.
I look at Eden beside me.
At the woman who was supposed to be my entry ticket to power and became the only thing that actually matters.
The woman I bought at an auction and fell in love with despite every plan, every intention, every reason not to.
The woman who survived everything I put her through and came out the other side strong enough to walk into that room with me and let me burn it all down.
"I love you," I say.
