Page 114 of Vengeful Union

She smiles weakly. “I will be. And in the meantime, I hear I’m going to have a strong female boss in Bree.”

“You will.” I look at her a moment longer, and she doesn’t have tears in her eyes anymore.

It feels all right to leave her alone.

I hurry down the hallway into the forbidden wing, stepping over crates and boxes of God knows what.

Niall had made a mini-barricade, I guess to dissuade people from entering. But now he’s dead, and he can't hurt me.

And something tells me that Rory needs me, needs someone.

I know that his relationship with his father was complicated, but I also know he loved him once.

The greenhouse is at the very end of the hall, built out from the mansion.

I’m surprised to see that it's well kept-up. I thought this entire wing was shut off to everyone, including staff.

I peer in the door first to see if I can catch sight of my husband, but it’s not until I walk further inside that I do.

“Rory?”

He’s just staring at a few different-colored rose bushes.

He doesn’t even look at me as I approach him, not even when I take his hand.

“Why did he keep it?” he asks, as if speaking to himself more than to me. “Why would he do this? This was her favorite place. She was here every morning, checking on her flowers.”

I don’t respond, just waiting because it doesn’t seem like he’s finished.

“I went into her sewing room, too. Everything’s just as she left it, but it’s been dusted like she’s still working in there every day. Even the book she was reading the day she...” His voice cracks.

I watch his throat working, and I lean against his shoulder, squeezing his hand.

“Maybe he did love her,” I say softly. “People are complicated.”

“You don’t murder the people you love.”

“This lifestyle changes some people. Maybe when he met her, he did love her. In the only way he could love.”

Rory runs a hand through his hair, which I notice is damp from a shower even though I’d bathed him just last night.

I bit my lip, wondering how hot he’d let the water run when I wasn’t there to turn the cold water on.

“Do you think he loved me that way, too?”

Rory’s voice is so quiet I can barely hear him.

“I do. I can’t see how anyone couldn’t love you, Rory.”

He finally turns to me, leaning down to kiss me softly, putting his arms around me to hug me.

I hug him back tightly.

For the next half an hour, we walk around the greenhouse, and Rory points out his mother’s favorite flowers,

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Chapter Thirty-Two

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