Page 105 of Dark Rebel's Fortune

"Will I see you again?" he asked, hope and hesitation warring in his expression.

"We have a daughter, Boris. Jasmine and I live in California now, but we will both make an effort to come visit you from time to time."

"I'd like that."

She would have to learn Eva's techniques of making herself look older.

"Goodbye, Boris," she said.

He hesitated for a long moment, his blue eyes boring into hers. "I never stopped loving you, you know. Not for a single day. That doesn't mean I don't love my second wife. I do." He put his hand over his chest. "But there will always be a place reserved for you in here, Kyra."

Her throat full, she nodded. "Take care of yourself, Boris."

He watched her and Max as they got into the rental, and as she looked in the rearview mirror, she saw him standing in the doorway until they turned onto the road.

They drove in silence for several miles, the mountains gradually giving way to gentler foothills. Kyra stared out the window, watching the landscape blur past as she processed the encounter.

"How are you doing?" Max asked.

"Sad and glad at the same time," she admitted. "I'm sad for what was, for Boris, for the pain he carried, for Jasmine, for her growing up with a distant father who was licking his wounds." She turned to look at Max. "But I'm glad I eased his burden and mine."

"He loved you very much," Max said. "Still does."

"He loved the woman I was," Kyra corrected. "That woman is gone. She died in that asylum in Tehran."

Max squeezed her hand. "You're still you, Kyra. Even without those memories. The core of who you are remained, even when everything else was stripped away. I could hear it in every word Boris said about you."

She considered this, feeling the truth of it settle in her heart. "You're right. And now I'm ready to move forward and build a life not defined by what I've lost or what was taken from me."

Max brought her hand to his lips, pressing a kiss to her knuckles. "We have eternity ahead of us, love."

Time stretched before her like an endless horizon, full of promise.

As the sun dipped toward the western sky, Kyra felt a profound sense of rightness settle over her. Her journey had been long, painful, and full of obstacles and detours, but it had led her here—to this moment, to Max, to her family, and to this new life.

And what a glorious beginningit promised to be.