Chapter 149: Everything I Have

Louis took Freya to the old apartment building on the anniversary of the day she woke up.

The unit now belonged to another tenant, so they did not enter. They stood across the street with coffee instead.

"Romantic," Freya said. "Nothing says anniversary like staring at someone else's apartment."

"You complained when I suggested dinner."

"Dinner is predictable."

"Dangerous word."

She smiled.

Louis handed her a small envelope.

Freya immediately became suspicious. "More money?"

"No."

Inside was a copy of the original lease.

Louis had kept it.

On the back he had written the date Freya told him she did not want a divorce.

Her throat tightened.

"You remember the exact date?"

"Of course."

Freya looked toward the building.

She remembered Louis sitting across from her, believing he had lost everything, offering her nearly all the money he supposedly had left.

At the time she had stayed from duty, sympathy, and practicality.

Love came later.

Louis seemed to read the memory on her face.

"I used to think you stayed because you felt sorry for me," he said.

"At first, partly."

He winced theatrically.

"You asked for honesty."

Freya folded the lease carefully.

"Then I stayed because I liked our life. Then because I trusted you. Then because..."

She stopped.

Louis waited.

"Because I loved you."

His expression softened.

Freya pointed at him. "Don't make that face."

"What face?"

"The one that makes you look like a romance-novel male lead."

"I was literally written as an antagonist."

"Former antagonist."

Louis stepped closer.

"Freya, you stood by me when you believed I had nothing."

She recognized the shape of the words from the ridiculous scenario she had once imagined: the rebuilt tycoon cornering his wife and declaring everything belonged to her.

Louis continued, "I could give you every account, every property, every share I own, and none of it would explain what I actually mean."

Freya's eyes warmed.

"Then don't give me everything," she said. "Just keep coming home."

Louis smiled.

"That I can do."

He kissed her beneath the ordinary streetlight outside the ordinary apartment where their impossible marriage had truly begun.

Freya had once wanted a breakup fee.

Instead, she had received something far more inconvenient.

A husband she had no intention of leaving.

They kept the old lease copy in a small box at home beside Freya's first royalty statement from this world and the receipt from the supermarket where she bought their early household supplies. None of the objects were expensive. That was precisely why Freya valued them.

They kept the old lease copy in a small box at home beside Freya's first royalty statement from this world and the receipt from the supermarket where she bought their early household supplies. None of the objects were expensive. That was precisely why Freya valued them.

They kept the old lease copy in a small box at home beside Freya's first royalty statement from this world and the receipt from the supermarket where she bought their early household supplies. None of the objects were expensive. That was precisely why Freya valued them.

They kept the old lease copy in a small box at home beside Freya's first royalty statement from this world and the receipt from the supermarket where she bought their early household supplies. None of the objects were expensive. That was precisely why Freya valued them.

They kept the old lease copy in a small box at home beside Freya's first royalty statement from this world and the receipt from the supermarket where she bought their early household supplies. None of the objects were expensive. That was precisely why Freya valued them.