Her heart stopped.
"I asked you to live," Sebastian continued, his voice breaking. "I asked you to let me become a memory so you could have a future without the guilt of loving the man who helped you destroy your husband."
Aliena's tears spilled over.
"You asked me to forget you?"
"Yes."
"And I agreed?" She asked shaking her head.
"No."
His answer came immediately, his voice as thick as ever.
"You refused."
A sob escaped her.
She could see it now.
Not clearly. Not completely.
But enough.
She remembered kneeling beside him as blood soaked his clothes. She remembered his hand trembling against her cheek. She remembered telling him that she would rather live one day with him than an eternity without him. She remembered every single detail.
She remembered kissing him.
Not like a queen kissing her brother-in-arms.
Not like a woman comforting a dying friend.
Like a woman who had loved him for so long that death itself had become an insult.
