Love's Eternal Way

CHAPTER 1 CHASING THE HANDSOME CARPENTER

Chatrine Madison officially ruined her perfect life at exactly nine o’clock in the morning, in the heart of New York City.

“This is my resignation letter.”

The forty-second-floor conference room of Denton Tower fell into silence.

Three Denton Global directors stared at her as if they had just witnessed an angel voluntarily fall from grace.

Someone nearly dropped their coffee.

Because the woman standing before them was Chatrine Madison.

Personal secretary to Aron Loghan.

The most disciplined woman in Denton Tower.

A cold, precise mind capable of managing a billion-dollar empire without ever showing a trace of panic.

A woman who always had an answer for every problem.

And now…

That same woman had just quit her job… for a carpenter.

“Miss Madison,” one of the directors finally spoke, his voice careful. “Are you joking?”

“Unfortunately not.”

Chatrine offered a faint, controlled smile and slid a red folder across the table.

Her resignation letter.

Five years of flawless career.

Over.

“And if you’ll excuse me,” she said calmly, rising to her feet, “I have somewhere more important to be.”

The directors looked even more stunned.

Summer draped Canterbury in a clear blue sky, warm wind rolling through endless stretches of green countryside.

Chatrine’s car moved slowly along quiet English roads that looked almost unreal in their peace.

Old stone houses.

White wooden fences.

Golden fields stretching into the horizon.

Sunlight so gentle it felt almost insulting to someone currently suffering a full-scale crisis of identity.

She wore dark sunglasses, fingers tight around the steering wheel.

Beautiful.

Elegant.

Stressed.

Deeply, irrationally stressed.

Because the closer she got to Liam Conelli’s world, the louder the voice in her head became.

You left New York for a country man who might not even remember your name.

Brilliant decision, Chatrine. Truly Ivy League-level reasoning.

She exhaled slowly.

Then her eyes caught a small wooden sign by the roadside.

WELCOME TO CANTERBURY.

Her heartbeat shifted.

“Oh no…” she murmured softly.

It was real.

She was actually here.

For Liam Conelli.

The arrogant carpenter who insulted her more often than he acknowledged her.

A man with rough hands, a sharp jaw, a low voice, and an infuriating gaze that had taken permanent residence in her thoughts.

And it had all begun that night in the storm.

Her car stranded on a rural road after a massive fallen tree blocked her path.

Rain falling like chaos.

Lightning tearing through the sky.

Then a battered pickup truck had stopped behind her.

Liam stepped out carrying an axe over his shoulder.

Soaked.

Silent.

Cold.

Unreasonably handsome.

He barely even looked at her.

Instead, he assessed the fallen tree, took his axe, and started splitting wood in the middle of the storm like a lead character in a dark romance film with emotional damage.

And ever since that night…

Her life had been quietly falling apart.

“This isn’t love,” Chatrine muttered quickly.

She nodded to herself as if confirming a legal document.

“It’s just… a temporary biological reaction. Nothing more.”

Silence.

Two seconds later, she exhaled sharply.

“Oh God… I don’t even believe myself.”

The car continued through the narrow Canterbury roads.

And for the first time in her life, Chatrine Madison was doing something with no logic, no ambition, no measurable success—

Only a man.

A rough-handed carpenter with a dangerous stare who had broken her sense of professional stability without even trying.

Stupid?

Maybe.

Crazy?

Definitely.

Regret?

Not yet.

Not even close.