To what end?

When Cillian Dawson was twenty-six, he met the woman he thought would change his life. And she did. Not with love—but with the brutal realization that ambition and affection do not always hold hands.

Isla Hale was fire and elegance wrapped in silk. A woman whose smile held secrets, whose affection was always just out of reach. She came from a family richer than his. Not entirely wealthy, but with enough connections to make her look down on a man like Cillian. At first, she was entirely uninterested in someone like him. So he worked. God, he worked. He burned through sleepless nights, climbed ladders no one invited him onto, built a future brick by aching brick—because he thought it would make him enough.

But he was never going to be enough for Isla Hale. After two years, she left.

She didn’t leave with a slam or a scream. She left with a sigh. Like she was letting go of a bad idea. And he, foolishly, called it heartbreak.

Years later, she returned. Suddenly appearing like she had ne