Waiting.
My father helped me out of the car.
For a moment, I stood in the driveway and looked at the mansion I had once left in anger and pride. I had thought marrying Julian proved I was more than a billionaire’s daughter. I had thought love meant choosing someone even when it cost you comfort.
But love that required self-erasure was not love.
It was disappearance.
Inside, the staff greeted me with tears and careful smiles. People who had known me since childhood bowed their heads and welcomed me home as though I had returned from war.
Maybe I had.
Evelyn remained in the study with my father, taking calls until the sky began to pale.
I sat alone in my old bedroom.
Nothing had changed.
The books on the shelf. The pale green curtains. The framed photograph of my mother laughing beside the lake.
I touched the photograph lightly.
