Chapter 56 #2
Both Victor and Dominic shifted in their seats on either side of Rayna as she blinked, both taken aback and confused by Sheun’s reaction. Wasn’t this the same woman who’d told her to let Dominic go if she really cared about him?
Dominic nodded stiffly. “Thank you.”
“I don’t know if Dr Johnson or Miss Faez have had the chance to tell you, but I’m sure you’ve noticed that Dr Pine is missing from the meeting,” Sheun then said.
“They informed me on the drive here that he had stepped down.”
“Officially, yes.” She tipped her head to the side. “Unofficially, he was presented with the evidence of his misconduct and tampering with research and was given little other choice but to resign to keep face. But he will no longer have anything to do with the project ever again.
“In the meantime, I’m temporarily standing in until the new, fairer process of electing a POTeM CEO is finalised.
” She lifted one hand off the table in a small gesture.
“I decided to inform the Board of what you, Dr Johnson, and Dr Harris were doing once Dr Pine resigned. Dr Johnson has since kept us informed of the progress you made over the eleven or so months you were gone. And after many discussions between ourselves, we—”
Rayna’s heart hiccupped in delayed realisation, and she sat forward. “Wait, what? Eleven or so months? What do you mean?”
Her gaze flew from the temporary CEO to Victor and Dominic, searching for an answer. Victor glanced tight-lipped over her head, and she followed it back to Dominic. His brows dipped either in apology as he squeezed her hand under the table.
“Lord Norland made a deal with me, Miss Faez,” Sheun explained. “If he couldn’t tell you what he was doing, then one month for him would equate to two weeks for you. So he has spent double the time in the past than the five, nearly six months that have passed here.”
For a long moment, Rayna couldn’t say anything, unable to figure out if the hot and cold sensation prickling her skin was caused by sadness, anger, or some guilty sense of relief.
“Rayna,” Dominic rasped thickly, placing his other hand over their clasped ones.
“Were you going to tell me?” There was a subtle accusation in her tone.
“Yes. Yes, I was.”
Rayna wasn’t sure she believed him and rubbed her teeth together as she glared.
You are in so much trouble, she warned silently.
She was pissed that he hadn’t told her, pissed that he’d let her complain about how hard it had been when he’d spent double the time away from her. Oh, she was selfishly glad he hadn’t made her wait eleven months, but she was fed up with being kept out of the loop.
Dominic opened his mouth, then seemed to think better of it, and pressed his lips together with a gulp. His chin sank and invisible ears drooped like a scolded puppy.
Rayna turned the same warning on Victor. “Is there anything else you need to tell me?”
Victor sat upright and nudged at his glasses. “No.”
She glanced between him and Dominic once more before taking a slow, deep breath. “I’m sorry, Dr Olabi,” she said to Sheun. “What were you saying before I interrupted?”
“I was saying that after many discussions, we as the Board have decided that while we do not ever want a repeat of this, nor do we want to change the rule forbidding Studies from staying, we are happy to allow Lord Norland to stay in the present now that we know his Rupture has been reduced to a safe and manageable level.” Sheun spread her shoulders.
“But only on the condition that you two remain a couple. If you ever break up, we will send Lord Norland back to continue his life in the past.”
The condition had been somewhat expected, Rayna supposed. But considering it was Dominic who it affected most, she glanced at him for his thoughts.
He gave Sheun a single, sure nod. “I accept your condition.” Then he dropped his gaze to Rayna. “I would rather not live in a world or time where the woman I love wants nothing to do with me.”
Rayna tightened her hand around his, the way her heart tightened.
There was no way that would happen. There would never come a point where she’d want nothing to do with him.
Rayna couldn’t explain why she was so sure of it, considering how she still wasn’t a hundred percent sure love could be trusted.
But after everything they’d been through, everything Dominic had done for her, so long as he never broke her trust, she was never ever, ever letting go of him.
“I would like to clarify,” Sheun added, “and make sure you understand, Lord Norland, that by agreeing to stay, you are giving up your past identity. And this time it’s not just for a few months. It’s for forever.”
“I assure you I understand, Dr Olabi.”
“He’ll still be Lord Norland,” Rayna interjected.
“Because we intend to travel back to the past yearly.” She pushed the red manila folder in front of her across the table towards Sheun.
“I have everything detailed here on how we would like to proceed. From Dominic’s identity to his work and our journeys to the past.”
Rayna could feel a flare of emotion flood out of Dominic as his fingers pressed into the back of her hand.
The same pride and determination that had followed his surprise when she’d shown him the folder in the car and asked him if he was happy with the plan she’d crafted for their life, work, and home in the time he’d been gone.
“He’ll still be Dominic Thorne,” she explained as Sheun read through the page inside.
“Part-time horse breeder and part-time project agent, hired after his work was highly praised as a contracted curator. He’ll work with me when necessary.
Otherwise, he’ll take care of the stable horses, and we’ll be paid as two separate employees, the way Winnie and Declan Griffin are.
“Saying that, I’ll take on one less project per year so that Dominic and I can spend a few months with his family in the past, allowing him to still be marquess, and so that Dr Johnson can continue monitoring his Rupture.
” She paused, watching Sheun’s eyes skim over the page as Lang leaned closer to peek at it too.
“That also means you’ll have to let Dr Johnson continue my mum’s research, because we currently still don’t know enough to make sure we go about managing Dominic’s Rupture properly. ”
Lang bristled. “That wouldn’t be wise, Miss Faez, after what—”
“It shouldn’t be a problem, so long as it’s on a theoretical level,” the older brunette woman said, glancing curtly along the table towards Lang.
“I agree,” Sheun said. “We know much more after Lord Norland’s experience too, and it’d be good to study it properly. But it’s something we’ll have to discuss further, Dr Johnson.”
“I would like those discussions to happen at the earliest possible date,” Victor said.
Sheun nodded once. “I’ll tell my PA to book something in.” She proceeded to continue reading the document in the silence of the room until she stopped again. “The farmhouse?”
“Yes,” Rayna confirmed. “Either we could purchase it off the project, or you could make us the new caretakers, allowing Winnie and Declan Griffin to retire, but we would like to make the farmhouse our home.”
Because what better place was there to turn into their forever home than the one in which it had all started?
Dominic
A weight lifted off Dominic’s shoulders as he, Rayna, and Victor stood up from the table once discussions of their future were mostly finalised.
His steps were lighter as they left the POTeM lab meeting room.
His pulse danced with excitement and anticipation as Victor closed the door behind them.
And his heart swelled to the point of bursting when, in the corridor, Rayna turned to him and audibly exhaled, a bright, beautiful smile spreading across her lips.
Relief, love, and elation compelled him towards her. She opened her arms with a fluttery laugh and locked them around his neck as he lifted her off the floor.
“It’s done,” she whispered into his hair as he buried his face in her neck.
“It is done,” he echoed with a croak.
It was over. There was no more fighting the impossible.
They’d done it. They’d struggled, but they’d succeeded.
They’d found a way to be together in the present and past, forever, and there was no longer anyone trying to take it away from them. No one to tell them they couldn’t have a home, a life, a future, a family together. They could have it all—would have it all.
Because they were no longer being weighed down by the burden of what history had dictated.
They were free. They were together.
She loved him. And he loved her. She was his everything. His happiness, his home, his freedom, his heart and breath and soul. He’d spend the rest of his life making sure she never once regretted trusting him with her heart, and he’d start it the proper way.
With the one thing he’d been dying to ask her since the moment he’d realised he loved her.
Dominic set Rayna on her feet before lowering himself onto one knee before her. He clasped her hands, lifting his gaze from his signet ring around her neck to her wide, charcoal eyes.
“I love you,” he rasped, bearing his heart in his voice.
“So much, Rayna. Beyond anything words will ever be able to convey. You have always had my heart, but I would like you to have my whole life too. All of it. From here on until forever. So will you do me the honour of becoming my beloved wife and allow me to be your husband?”
In her silence, he squeezed her fingers. “Please, my love. Marry me. Say you will. Tomorrow, the day after, before my heart perishes. Because I cannot go another moment without knowing you are my wife, and I your husband.”
Her lips twitched, then curled and widened until her smile reached ear to ear.
Euphoria bolted up his spine, and he stretched, broadened, puffed under the sensation.
Rayna was finally going to say yes after all the times of refusing him. She was going to make him the happiest man on Neves by agreeing to be his—
“I can’t,” she said, amusement teasing through her voice.
Dominic blinked, his lips parting.
He was beyond shocked but not hurt. More baffled by her laughter, and bloody damn frustrated that he was facing another one of her rejections.
“Why not?” he demanded with a frown.
She opened her mouth, but someone else cleared their throat.
Victor appeared to the side of Rayna, a step’s space between them. “Maybe you should discuss this back at the house.”
“No. No, I must know,” Dominic insisted and stood up. “Why can’t you, Rayna? Is it because I did not ask Victor and your father for their approval first? I did not think you would appreciate it if I asked them before asking you, but if—”
She shook her head. “No, Dominic. That’s not it. I don’t care about that. It’s you.”
“Me?”
“You don’t exist.”
He reared his head back. “What the deuces do you mean? Of course I exist. I am standing right in front of you.”
She rolled her eyes, grinning. “Not like that. But you don’t exist in the present.
You weren’t born here, so you don’t have a birth certificate, and you’re not registered anywhere, so you have no way of being identified.
The passport you had before wasn’t really real, but you need some real form of ID to get married.
You can’t register a marriage without one. ”
Oh…he hadn’t thought of that.
Dominic shuffled from foot to foot. “How long will it take to receive an ID?”
Rayna looked towards Victor, and he shrugged his slim shoulders. “I don’t know the answer to that,” he admitted. “But I doubt it’s going to be easy, so probably a month or two. Maybe more.”
“What?” Dominic rumbled. “That is far too long. I cannot wait that long. I will not!”
Rayna tugged on his hands. “Dominic—”
He bent into her, a pained, imploring weight falling on his brows. “Rayna, I cannot. Please understand, I am suffering already. I cannot wait months.”
She widened her eyes. “You’re acting like there’s something I can do to change how long it’s gonna take.”
Of course she couldn’t. But thankfully, his frenzied mind reminded him the people who could were still inside the meeting room, so he let go of her hands and ate up the two paces between him and the door.
“Dominic, no!” Rayna snagged him around the forearm with both hands.
She dragged him past Victor, further down the corridor, then drew him in front of her, keeping a hold of his elbows.
She gave him a slight shake. “What the fuck is wrong with you? Nobody said we’re not getting married. We just have to wait a bit, and honestly, I’d rather we wait.”
His heart dropped to his stomach.
Maybe he was embarrassing himself with his urgency to marry her, degrading his pride and masculinity in front of the woman who was only supposed to see the best of him. But he was afraid of exactly this. That if they waited, she’d change her mind, and he’d lose her. Again.
He sank towards her. “Do you still doubt whether you wish to marry me?”
Her expression softened. “It’s not doubt, Dominic. You are the only man I want to marry.” The fear clutching his chest vanished. “But am I still wary of marriage? Yeah, a little bit. Especially considering we’ve only really known each other for less than four months.”
“You know me, Rayna,” he whispered, cupping her jaw in his hands. “You know everything there is to know about me. And I know you. I do.”
“I know. And I love all of you, even when you’re pissing me off.
And I will marry you—I want to—but give me this month or two to just…
be with you. Without worrying or hiding or pretending.
” She huffed. “I mean we haven’t even been on our first date yet because we couldn’t act like a couple in public. So let’s do that.
“Court me as my fiancé and let me learn what married life for us would be like.” She arched towards him, wrapping her arms around his waist. “And then we’ll get married.
Properly. With my dad and his family, my grandparents, and all my friends there.
And then we’ll do it again for your family to witness too. ”
He stilled as a flood of aching warmth filled him from head to toe. “You would marry me twice?”
Rayna nodded. “Yeah. In the past and present. ’Cause that’s who we are.”
The warmth filtered up to his eyes, and he captured her in a crushing embrace. “I love you,” he croaked.
She cuddled into him with a chuckle. “I love you too, Dominic. But can we go home now?”
“Hmm.” He kissed her forehead. “Let’s go home, my love.”
To their home in the present.
And one day, hopefully soon, Dominic would show Rayna their home in the past too.