EPILOGUE
MAXIMUSAND ANNICKbuilt the most beautiful life out of the broken pieces they’d been given. It was not less. It was not secondary. It was everything. And when they welcomed their first child into the world, a boy, and Annick named him Marcus after her brother, Maximus felt joy like he’d never known before.
“You know,” Annick said, looking at him as he held his son, “you were never dead inside, Maximus. You were just protecting yourself.”
“Yes. To an extent. But I also didn’t know. There was nothing in me that could ever have been prepared for the joy that was coming.”
“Thank God for chloroform, eh?”
He chuckled, looking down at that tiny perfect life they had created, and all around at the beautiful, glittering life they had created in this world that was their own.
“Yes, Annick. Thank God for chloroform.”
And for the small, determined woman who had believed in love, happy endings and kidnap, who had been strong enough and determined enough to redeem him and to save them both.
*****