Chapter 10 - The Light in the Dark
By midnight, the Hawthorne estate was silent again.
The local police—bribed long ago to ignore events at the estate—arrived only to carry away four body bags and escort a sobbing, hysterical Victoria Kensington away in handcuffs. Damian Cross was gone, dragged into the deep pine woods by Dominic’s loyalists who had arrived from the city the moment the Zurich accounts were unlocked.
The power was restored. Warm, golden light flooded the grand halls of the mansion once more.
Dominic stood in the center of the library, his dark suit slightly dusty, his gun resting on the heavy mahogany desk. His hands were steady. His breathing was calm.
The heavy steel door of the panic room clicked open.
Meline stepped out into the bright light. She didn't look at the mess. She didn't look at the blood splatters on the carpet near the doorway. She looked only at him.
Dominic turned toward the sound of her footsteps. He held out his arms.
Meline ran across the Persian rug and threw herself into his embrace. Dominic caught her, lifting her off her feet, burying his face in her dark hair, holding her so tightly that the rest of the world dissolved into nothingness.
"It's over, Meline," he murmured, his voice thick with emotion. "The snakes are gone. The syndicate is mine again."
He set her down gently, but he didn't let go of her waist. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, heavy velvet box.
He didn't open it by sight; he opened it by touch, feeling the hinge yield beneath his thumb. Inside sat a platinum ring set with a brilliant, clear diamond—a ring he had ordered from Paris three months ago, designed specifically with raised, intricate textures that could be felt rather than just seen.
Dominic took her left hand, tracing her delicate fingers until he reached her ring finger.
"I don't offer you a quiet life, Meline," Dominic said, his blue-grey eyes looking down into hers with absolute devotion. "I am a dangerous man, and the world I rule is violent. But I swear to you, on my life, on my soul, that no one will ever hurt you again. You gave me my humanity back when I was a monster in the dark."
He slid the ring onto her finger. It fit perfectly.
"Will you marry me, Meline? Will you be my voice, my queen, my home?"
Meline looked at the diamond shining on her hand. She looked up at the blind king who had built an empire, lost it, and reclaimed it all because she had served him a warm cup of coffee on a cold winter morning.
She didn't reach for her notepad. She didn't look for a pencil.
She took his large, scarred face between her hands. She stood on her tiptoes, pulled his head down to hers, and pressed her lips against his.
Then, for the first time in five years—through a throat tight with tears, through a heart overflowing with love—she forced a sound through her vocal cords.
It was raspy. It was quiet. It was a single, trembling whisper against his mouth.
"Y-Yes."
Dominic froze. His breath hitched in his chest. He felt the vibration of her voice against his lips—the most beautiful, precious sound he had ever heard in his life.
May you like
Tears slipped from his unseeing eyes as he let out a choked laugh, pulling her into his arms and spinning her around in the bright, sunlit library of the mountain house.
The blind boss had lost his vision, but in the deepest dark, he had found his light.
