"Penelope!" Nathaniel's voice echoed off the stone walls that still stood, and he ran toward her weary form, collapsed on the cut marble steps of what might have been an medieval altar in the old ruins.
"What did he say?" Nathaniel put his arm around her back and she threw herself into his embrace.
"I'm so sorry," she began, crying into his chest, "I had no idea."
"What did he tell you?” Nathaniel asked frantically. “How much do you know?"
"Enough," she sobbed, and he held her while she cried.
"I couldn't let him die, Penelope," Nathaniel said. "If that happened I couldn't ever justify coming back to you. He is your father, and no matter what he did, if he'd died…” She loved this man who loved her enough to save her father’s life. He loved her so much that he’d made sure the only othe
