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My head spun with lightheadedness. From the toxin’s effects. From his kiss.

His lips moved over mine with desperate tenderness, with pained hunger, with crazed relief. Our hearts collided against each other, drumming the same beat, as they had always done. If there was a way to draw him all into me—his scent, his taste, everything—I would.

I couldn’t believe it had worked. The Father’s plan had worked. The drug had worked, thank you, God. The Father warned me that the toxin was dangerous. He warned me that it could actually kill me. Or that I might never wake up.

I hadn’t cared. I was dead anyway if I couldn’t find a way to be with Roman.

Now that I was “dead”, I was released from the shackles of my previous life. I could go with him, anywhere, be anyone…

“Julu?”

I jolted away from Roman, lips swollen, breath caught in my windpipe. I spun towards the familiar voice. My father, the chief, stood at the doorway in a black suit, tie askew, purple shadows under his red-rimmed eyes. “You’re…alive?”

Oh my God. We’d been caught. So close to freedom and stopped just before the line. We were so screwed. Roman broke his immunity deal by coming back to Verona. I knew what this meant. He was going away for life.

Screw this. Screw the system. I did not come this far, risk this much, to back down.

I stepped forward, shielding Roman from my father. “Don’t you dare blame him. Don’t you dare make this his fault. We wouldn’t have had to lie if it weren’t for you.”

My father just stared at me, an incredulous look on his face. “You… You were going to let me think you were dead.”

“It’s nothing you didn’t do to me,” I said coldly.

My father gave me a pained look, a look that squeezed in through the gaps of my shield. “I guess I deserve that.”

I glanced past my father. The only way out of this room was through him. How far was I willing to go for Roman?

All the way. I was prepared to die for him. If I had to shoot my own father to get us out of here, I would. We’d have to go on the run. But at least we’d be together.

I turned my eyes back to my father, trying to calculate my next move. He started forward and I flinched, making him pause.

“I won’t let you take him,” I cried. “If you try to arrest him, I’ll?—”

“I won’t.”

“You…won’t?”

My father’s gaze settled on Roman standing at my side. “You look at her the way…” he cleared his voice, “the way that I used to look at my wife. You really love her, don’t you?”

Roman’s hand slid around my waist and he pulled me close. “With everything that I am.”

My father turned his gaze to me. “You really love him too, don’t you?”

I nodded, my throat too closed with emotion to speak.

My father deflated, his shoulders falling. “I have been…an old fool. A short-sighted old fool.” He looked at me. “Can you ever forgive me?”

I flung myself into his arms and he hugged me back. “I already have,” I said to him. “I love you.”

“Oh, Julu,” he muttered into my hair, “you’re alive.”

“I’m alive,” I repeated as I laughed, my body filling with warmth.

My father pulled back and faced Roman. “I’m… I’m sorry for forcing you to lie to her. I’m sorry for trying to keep you two apart.”

Roman nodded. “You were just trying to protect her.” He shot me a look. “I understand the impulse.”

“But how did this happen?” my father asked, staring at me. “How are you not…?”

“Dead?”

“I’m afraid I am responsible,” Father Laurence stepped in from the doorway, joining us.

“The Father knew Roman was really alive,” I said quickly, in case my father turned on Father Laurence with anger.

Roman nodded. “He had to help fake my funeral.”

“So, when I begged him for something to end my life…”

“You what?” Both Roman and my father snapped their heads towards me, a mirrored image of shock and horror on their faces.

“I gave her Atropa Belladonna instead,” injected Father Laurence, “otherwise known as Sleeping Nightshade, an herb when prepared properly, mimics death.”

Roman grabbed my shoulders. “You were going to die for me?”

“You came here to die with me,” I reminded him.

His grip loosened. He lowered his forehead to touch mine. “Don’t ever die for me again,” he whispered.

I broke into a smile. “We will live for each other instead. I’ll come with you, we’ll leave Verona and go back to where you were sent under witness protection.”

“Julu,” my father exclaimed, “you don’t have to go with him.”

“Where he goes, I go,” I said firmly.

“But your job?—”

“You’ve suspended me,” I said. “Besides, I quit.”

“You can’t just throw away everything.”

“I’m not throwing away everything.” I turned to look at Roman. Once again, he left me breathless with his dark, intense stare and the midnight hair that curled over his collar. “I’m grabbing on to what’s important with both hands.”

My father sighed. “I’ve never been any good at telling you what to do, have I?” My father shot Roman a stern look. “You better take care of her.”

Roman straightened up. “I will, sir.”

“It is best that you stay ‘dead’, at least until the trials. The extradition request for your brother from Colombia is underway. The Tyrell empire will soon be dismantled piece by piece. I will try to expedite the court process, see if we can’t get you both back here any quicker, but it’ll take time.

“How much time?” I asked.

“A year. Maybe more.”

“A year?” We’d have to stay hidden for an entire year. We couldn’t come back to Verona for a whole year.

“A year is fine,” Roman said.

I snapped my head toward him. Was he crazy?

Roman smiled at me, a glint in his eyes. “I know just where we can go…”