Chapter 289

"Thank you f-for staying alive!" Vetta cried. "You have no idea h-how...how you have helped m-me now."

He continued. "All these years, I get flashes of our time in that cage...and my last moments. I felt so much hatred towards you," he admitted. "My memories were all jumbled up. I remember a betrayal from a woman that had taken punishments for the king. I remember the woman stabbing me." Declan pulled back then and looked at her. "But as I stepped into the boundaries of Salem, and my memories welcomed me, my heart set you free. I remembered fully then that it was the maid—Talia—who owns that rage and hatred."

"It would have been a disaster for me if your memories didn't return..." It was a joke, but it came out tearfully.

"It would have been. Because you would not have explained." He stepped back.

"There was nothing to explain. I stabbed you. You died." She shook her head. "There was nothing to explain."

"Now you can allow that guilt to let you go. You