"You said a month." His chin comes up, and he looks at me with clear eyes. "She fell in love with me once when I was nothing, Torgan. A second son with no title coming. She picked me out from my brother’s shadow and decided I was worth something before I believed it."
His voice drops.
"She can do it again. Or she won't. But I'll be at the gate when the door opens in a month, ready to take her back."
I stare at him.
And he's standing outside a Hall that holds a woman who has refused him twice today, planning to court a locked door for a month with no promise anything waits behind it. No leverage. No grand strategy.
Only himself offering himself for when she can feel her heart again.
They love each other like the stories tell. They don’t need big promises or a castle or grandiose plans.
They only needed each other.
It never occurred to me that could be enough.
"Stay with us, for that month,” I say softly. “So that you’ll be there for when Mirelle is…herselfagain. She’ll need you when the fog lifts.”
Caden looks at me without the same disgust.
It’s not forgiveness. Not yet. But it’s a start.
Caden looks down at his hand. "Why would you do this?"
"Because I guarded her from the wrong brother. Helping you is the only piece of this I can put back where it belongs."
I hold out my hand.
He looks at it, then at me.
"Take the month, Caden. I'll take care of your brother and father. There's proof somewhere in your family's books, and I intend to drag out and deal with them the way they deserve."
He takes my hand.
"Then you'll want the warehouse on Tanner's Row," he says.
I tighten my grip once before letting go. "What warehouse?"
"The one that isn't in the ledgers the clerks keep. My father calls it the archive. Princeton has the only key, and he checks it every week like a man visiting a sick relative."
There it is.
A door.
A key.
Proof.
"When you move on him,” Caden says softly, “you'll need me. I know where everything is kept."
"You'll be there?"
"I wasn't asking."
"I know."
Another twitch at the corner of his mouth.
