Chapter 2

Callum's POV

My hand trembled as I reached for him. His skin was already cold. Whatever strength had been holding me together vanished. I collapsed against his chest.

"Dad… Please open your eyes. Please, just look at me one more time…" I clutched his hand, shaking it desperately as the tears came harder.

"You said you'd be there when I got married… You said you'd help me raise my kids someday… You promised me. How could you just leave?"

Eventually, I cried until my throat was raw and all that came out were broken, breathless sounds. My knees gave way, and I sank onto the freezing hospital floor.

I didn't remember how I made it through all the paperwork that followed. I didn't remember how I walked out of the crematorium either, carrying that small wooden urn in my arms.

The sunlight outside was painfully bright, but I couldn't feel any warmth.

The urn seemed impossibly light, as though my father's entire life had been reduced to nothing more than a handful of ashes. And yet it was so heavy that it felt like the weight of it could crush me.

The funeral was small and quiet. Dad had lived a simple life. He'd never had many friends, and over the years, most of our relatives had drifted away.

So in the end, I stood alone before the new headstone. The photograph showed him wearing the same slightly awkward smile he always had whenever someone pointed a camera at him.

I stared at it until the last bit of strength holding me upright seemed to disappear. Then my phone suddenly vibrated in my pocket.

Numbly, I pulled it out. Sabrina's name flashed across the screen.

I declined the call. Then I opened my messages and saw she'd left me a voice note.

Her irritated voice came through the speaker. "Callum Wren, what is your problem now? You won't answer my messages, and you won't pick up your phone. Do you have any idea how much I've had to deal with over here?"

She kept going, too wrapped up in her own frustration to notice my silence.

"Rowan's been having stomach problems again, and he's been miserable, so I've been here taking care of him. Once I've got him settled, I'll come find you. Tell your dad to hang on a little longer and wait for me."

A faint smile crossed my face. Wait for her? It was too late.

For reasons I couldn't explain, I opened Rowan's social media page. He'd posted more than ten updates in the past few days alone.

The first was a complaint about his hospital stay.

The caption read, "Who knew a minor procedure could be this miserable? Good thing I've got you here, @Sabrina."

Attached was a photo of Sabrina sitting beside his hospital bed, her back to the camera as she peeled an apple for him.

I kept scrolling. Another post was far more smug.

It read, "Someone once swore she'd never cook for a man. Guess rules really are made to be broken."

The photo showed Sabrina in an apron, busy at the stove in Rowan's kitchen.

Then I reached his latest post. A brilliant blue ocean stretched beneath a cloudless sky. In the foreground, two hands were clasped tightly together.

The caption read, "To the person who ditched an important meeting just to sneak away to the coast with me for the afternoon, thank you. I'm so lucky to have met you."

The comments from their mutual friends were even harder to look at.

"Okay, you two are ridiculously sweet. So when's the wedding?"

"Didn't someone once say her hands were made for legal briefs, not cooking?"

And Sabrina had actually replied to that one herself. Her answer carried a warmth and indulgence she'd never once shown me.

She replied, "He's different."

Different. Of course he was. When Dad's life was on the line, she'd been cold and calculating enough to help the other side get away scot-free.

But for Rowan, she could skip an important meeting and break every rule she'd ever set for herself.

My phone rang again before I could close the page. It was Sabrina. I stared at her name for a moment before finally answering.

"Callum, can you please be reasonable?" Her voice was calmer this time. "I know you're angry about what happened with your dad, but you need to understand the position I was in.

"I knew from the beginning that the defendant in that construction accident case was your dad's employer. But Rowan needed that case. If he'd lost, he wouldn't have made it through his probationary period at the firm."

A bitter laugh escaped me. "So you were willing to sacrifice my dad just to help your junior associate keep his job?"

"Callum, don't put it like that." Sabrina sighed. "Your dad was injured at work. That's terrible, and I'm willing to compensate him myself. I'll cover whatever he needs, so you don't have to worry about the money. I can afford it."

She paused. "But Rowan is different. His entire career was riding on that case..."

My fingers tightened around the phone.

"So every argument you made in court was deliberate," I said, my voice beginning to shake. "Every piece of evidence you challenged, every claim you got thrown out… You knew exactly what you were doing."

Silence ensued.

For several seconds, Sabrina said nothing.