Page 168 of When Hearts Surrender

The only reason I haven’t joined you in the great beyond is because of the devastation I would bring to my family, who are innocent in all of this.

Not a day passes by where I don’t think of you—your smile, your kindness, your laughter, your dreams of seeing the world—visiting my ancestral home in England, painting the canals in Venice. You’re the first face I see when I wake up in the morning, and the last image in my mind before darkness overtakes me at night. I’d dream of you—running in the garden, beckoning me to find you once more.

Do you still hate me? Do you still love me?

I will find you again, and again, and again. One day, I’ll make every one of your dreams come true and wipe away all the tears you’ve shed for me. Wait for me.

Yours eternally,

Silas

“Venice,” Belle whispers, “I’ve always been waiting to go there with the right person…” Her voice trails off.

Me. She’s waiting for me.My mind spins. The answers, however unbelievable, are battering me from all directions.They don’t have to make sense for them to be true, Maxwell.

Shaking, I turn the page, finding a crumbled letter tucked inside.

My Beloved Emma,

In the next few days, you will see me behave like the role I was born into, a coldhearted duke. But let me reassure you, the man you love is still here, still very much in love with you with all of his heart.

“Oh my God,” Belle whispers. She’s shaking like a leaf next to me. “This letter…”

“Belle,” I rasp, emotions clogging my throat. The letter, the dreams, the incomplete sketch by Silas in the gallery, the locket—all pieces of a tragedy from centuries ago.

A tragedy that kick-started everything.

“This was the letter I saw in my dream,” Belle murmurs, tears flowing down her cheeks. She shakes her head. “But it wasn’t a dream, was it?”

I don’t know how to answer her. All I can do is to hold her tightly to me as we finish reading the letter.

We will escape and start a new life together. We will be free. While I won’t have my wealth and influence, I know my life will be far richer because we’ll be together. Bear with me and forgive me for the hurt I’m about to cause you.

I love you most ardently and fervently.

Wait for me.

Yours forever, this lifetime and all the lifetimes thereafter,

Silas

29th of September, 1860

“The curse… This is how it all started. But she never knew he didn’t abandon her.” Her eyes widen and she whispers, “I-I don’t know what’s happening, b-but I heard him in my dream. She never got the letter because the duchess took it. She wouldn’t have killed herself if she’d known. She d-died thinking he didn’t love her anymore. She never found out!” Belle cries, her face mottled, clearly overcome with emotions.

I pull her to me and wrap her in my arms, my hands smoothing over her back as she trembles in my embrace.

“Belle,” my voice is thick and hoarse, “I think she knew. Maybe much, much later…butshe knew.” Perhaps Emma knew all those years ago when her soul lingered behind, looking after theman she loved, after she took her last breath on earth. Maybe that’s why Belle has these dreams…these visions. It doesn’t make sense and yet, it makes perfect sense.

Belle freezes, her sobs quieting. Her breath hitches as she pulls back and looks at me.

“I love you most ardently and fervently…this lifetime and all the lifetimes thereafter,” I rasp, my body thrumming with crackling electricity.

These vows—I feel them in the depths of my soul, words I’ll live and die by. Perhaps the impossible is possible.

“The words…” She shudders. “You said them the night you were shot and in the hospital.” And they’re the same words Silas wrote to his Emma.

“I remember. I remember it all.” I breathe, my eyes catching hers.

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