“I love you, Zeth. I love you.”

He closes his eyes and nods, as though suddenly overcome with relief. When he opens his eyes again, staring straight into me, into my heart, into my soul, he says something I never thought he would. His words are so quiet, so softly imparted, as though they’re the darkest of secrets, that I can barely make them out.

“And I love you, angry girl. I really do.”

I don’t get a chance to react. Zeth Mayfair, the man I’ve been terrified of and lost without and a million different things in between…he does as he promised he would. He picks me up, and he carries me inside the house that will now be our home, and he fucks me until his name is echoing off our bedroom walls.