“Dante found forged signatures and backdated papers, but the most damning evidence was a bank account.”
"What kind of bank account?"
"One that Blackwood opened under a false name, routing stolen funds through it. He got sloppy. He used his own address for the correspondence. It was all there in the old records, but no one looked closely enough because they already thought they had their man.”
She stares at me for a long moment, as if trying to absorb the magnitude of what I've told her. "My papa. All these years he's been living with that shame, and he was innocent all along? The man I believed to be a criminalwas telling the truth?" She covers her face with her hands, and my heart aches for her.
“It’s a lot to take in.”
She lets out a laugh. “You’re telling me.”
“As the person who exposed Romano, Blackwood was put in charge of financial oversight to prevent future incidents. This gave him perfect cover to continue stealing while appearing to be the solution. He’d positioned himself as the hero who saved the Crown from a traitor.”
“People don't suspect their saviors.”
“There's more,” I say softly.
“More? How could there possibly be? Max, finding this out, you’ve already done so much for me, for my family.”
“He was the one who worked out who you were. He told Miranda Thorne to investigate you.”
“Lord Blackwood is the villain,” she says, her face a study in shock.
“Dante and I presented all the evidence to my parents yesterday. Lord Blackwood has been arrested, and your father's name will be officially cleared. The palace is issuing a full public exoneration.”
“My father is…vindicated?” she asks, her voice thin.
“He is.”
She lets out a whimper, her eyes filling with tears, and I pull her against me.
“You’re free, my love.”
She pulls back to look into my eyes. “I don’t know what to say. I am so incredibly grateful to you and what you’ve done.”
“Perhaps you don’t need to say anything at all.” I smile at her, and she slides her hands around the back of my neck.
“I have one thing to say.”
“If it’s ‘I love you,’ then I beat you to it,” I say in a murmur.
She lets out a gurgling laugh. “I love you, too.”
And then I pull her against me, and I press my lips to hers, showing her exactly what she means to me. This woman I once thought I despised but now cannot imagine my life without. The woman I love.
Epilogue
Valentina
Two Months Later
I find Max in the gardens at Belladonna Palace, throwing a ball for Toffee on one of the lawns. Now six months old, she’s growing into those huge puppy paws of hers, but is just as full of life as she always has been.
I watch as my handsome boyfriend—aka Ledonia’s most eligible bachelor—crouches down to pet his dog, ruffling her fur, and telling her what a gooddog she is. His sweater pulls just slightly across his broad shoulders as he moves, his forearms flexing, his face lit up in an affectionate smile that always undoes me whenever I see it.
Really, it shouldn’t be possible for a man to look that handsome while covered in dog hair, but somehow, he does.
He looks up at me, and his smile deepens as he rises to his feet. “My love,” he says, pulling me into an embrace and brushing a kiss across my lips. “I missed you.”
