Chapter 7
Abigail took the tablet.
“Everybody finish breakfast.”
“Abby—” Bianca began.
“No.”
She turned the screen off.
“Someone who has never sat at this table doesn’t get to decide who belongs around it.”
She made it through the day.
Only that night did Leonardo find her alone in the kitchen reading comments on her phone.
He took the phone gently and placed it facedown.
“Why read them?”
Abigail’s smile was tired.
“Sometimes you keep touching an old bruise to see if it still hurts.”
He sat opposite her.
“Does it?”
“Yes.”
Leonardo looked at her for a long moment.
“Do you know what I see?”
She gave a humorless laugh.
“Apparently not what the internet sees.”
“I see the woman who stood between my son and a violent stranger before she knew his last name.”
Abigail looked up.
“I see the woman who made my daughter laugh again.”
He continued.
“The woman who convinced Theo that his mother’s death wasn’t his fault. The woman who gave Bianca permission to be fifteen instead of another parent. The woman who has done more for my children in one month than I managed to do in three years.”
His voice dropped.
“And now you’re saving their future from a man I was too angry to recognize as the real threat.”
Abigail’s eyes filled.
Leonardo reached across the table.
His thumb brushed one tear from her cheek.
“Don’t let people who can’t see your heart decide its value.”
For several seconds neither moved.
Then Abigail whispered, “That sounded dangerously close to affection.”
“It was.”
Their marriage contract sat unsigned upstairs.
For the first time, both understood it was becoming irrelevant.
Two nights later, the Costa estate lost power.
May you like
The backup generator activated within seconds.
Security teams searched the grounds.
