Chapter 13 - Starting Over Without Going Back
Cassidy refused to call it reconciliation.
They dated.
Coffee.
Dinner.
Walks.
No mansions.
No expensive gifts.
Declan learned to enter Cassidy's world instead of dragging her into his.
He attended school events.
He learned how to braid hair badly.
He discovered that Emma needed the hallway light on.
That Lily loved astronomy.
That Grace secretly fed vegetables to the dog.
Cassidy discovered things too.
Declan had left Hawthorne Capital's daily management.
He had started funding environmental restoration projects.
Not for her.
Because listening to her had finally taught him why the work mattered.
One evening he said, “I spent my whole life thinking success meant owning things.”
“And now?”
“Now I think it means being invited back tomorrow.”
Cassidy looked at him.
“You're invited back tomorrow.”
For Declan, it meant more than every property he owned.
But happiness had one final test waiting.
Cassidy received an offer to lead a yearlong international project.
May you like
Five years earlier, Declan would have demanded she refuse.
Now she waited to discover what the man beside her would say.
