A separate court order barred him from contacting her at all.

He had come to that room to purchase her disappearance.

He left having funded, instead, her freedom, and having been forbidden by law from ever speaking to her again.

Chapter 14 — A Door Opening

The wedding was supposed to have happened that autumn.

The venue was booked, the deposit long paid, a grand ballroom held for a marriage that was never going to occur.