Chapter 17 - Five Years Later
Five years changed the mansion.
The formal dining room became a gathering space for foundation students.
Dad's study remained mostly untouched except for upgraded security.
The greenhouse became Maria's favorite place.
She planted tomatoes badly and blamed the soil.
Mateo graduated from engineering school and joined a company that was deliberately not Mercer Aerospace.
“Good,” Maria said.
I pretended not to be disappointed.
The foundation funded hundreds of scholarships.
Employee ownership expanded.
Mercer Aerospace grew.
I dated occasionally.
Slowly.
Carefully.
Then I met Claire Donovan.
Not at a gala.
Not through a matchmaker.
At a scholarship event where she disagreed with me publicly about an education proposal.
Maria loved her immediately.
Of course she did.
Claire never cared about impressing me.
She had her own career, her own opinions, and an alarming ability to detect when I was avoiding difficult conversations.
We dated for two years.
When I proposed, I didn't choose Paris.
I didn't rent a yacht.
I asked her in my mother's garden.
She said yes.
Then she looked toward the house.
“One condition.”
My stomach tightened.
“What?”
“Maria gets to approve the cake.”
From an upstairs window, Maria shouted:
“I HEARD THAT.”
Claire laughed.
I realized something then.
For years, I'd thought my happy ending would be finding a person incapable of betraying me.
That wasn't possible.
May you like
Love never comes with certainty.
The better ending was becoming someone who could love without abandoning judgment, boundaries, or himself.
