Elena let out a long breath she felt like she had been holding for years. A sense of profound peace washed over her, followed by a strange, new realization. The revenge was over. But her life was just beginning.
She looked at the man next to her. He was still a mystery, a dangerous enigma who had used her just as she had used him. Yet, during the gala, when Becerra had stepped toward her, Matthew’s instinct to protect her hadn’t felt like business. It had felt real.
“What happens now?” Elena asked, turning her body to face him. “The contract is fulfilled. You have your revenge. I have my freedom. Do we file for divorce?”
Matthew turned his head, his dark eyes locking onto hers. The coldness that had defined him for years seemed to have melted, replaced by something deep, intense, and undeniably possessive.
He stepped closer, closing the distance between them until Elena could feel the heat radiating from his chest. He reached out, his hand gently cupping her jaw, his thumb brushing against her cheek where the bruise had finally begun to fade.
“The contract may be fulfilled, Elena,” Matthew whispered, his voice sending a delicious shiver down her spine. “But I have never been a man who lets go of his most valuable assets. And right now… I don’t think I can ever let you go.”
Elena looked up into the eyes of the stranger who had saved her in the storm, the man who had changed her destiny forever. She smiled, leaning into his touch, realizing that the rain had finally stopped, and a beautiful, dangerous new dawn was breaking.
