Maxim

The phone fell from my numb fingers and smashed against the cold hallway tiles with a ringing sound. The world narrowed to a single phrase, spoken in a strange, soulless voice: "His car went off the road. There are no survivors. "
Time stood still for her. For a week, she existed as if in a thick, suffocating fog. A closed-casket funeral, a sea of ​​flowers, the sympathetic glances of friends, and an endless, ringing emptiness in her chest. He had been her support, her universe. Now all that remained of him was the cold earth of the cemetery and the wedding ring she wore on a chain near her heart.
Exactly forty days had passed. Autumn rain pounded the windows of the empty apartment when the front door lock clicked softly in the darkness of the bedroom. The girl, curled up on the sofa, didn't even flinch—she was no longer afraid of dying herself.
Steps. Heavy, painfully familiar steps.
She froze, afraid to believe her own eyes, when a figure stepped out of the shadows of the corridor.
“Princess…” a hoarse, familiar voice, so trembling that it made the air in the room sparkle.
Maxim emerged from the darkness into the lamplight. Alive. Pale, with dark circles under his eyes, but alive.
The girl didn't rush into his arms. Her eyes were a mixture of wild horror, disbelief, and flaring rage.
“You… You’re dead!” she whispered, stepping back. “I buried you! How could you…?”
Maxim knelt down in front of her, trying to take her hands, but she pulled them away.
"I had no choice, my dear," his voice trembled. "Arthur's men intercepted me a month ago. They gave me an ultimatum: either I disappear forever, faking my death in a car accident, or they destroy you. I had only one night to plan everything—a burned-out car hulk on a cliff, false documents... Anything to keep you alive."
Tears streamed down the young beauty's cheeks. The anger instantly melted, replaced by searing pain and the understanding of the hell he had gone through, playing the role of a dead man to save her.
“But what now?” she sobbed, finally pressing herself against his chest and feeling