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Chapter forty
publish date:
2026-09-27 07:00:49Elowen POV
Caspian told me we were going out for dinner, nothing more specific than that, and something in the careful vagueness of his answer should have tipped me off days before it actually did.
"You've been weird all week," I said, watching him fuss with his tie in the bedroom mirror, a task he usually handled with effortless precision. "Weird good, I think, but weird."
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Uh huh." I crossed the room, batt
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one night to steal my heart Chapter fifty
Elowen POVWillow's second birthday party sprawled across the estate's back lawn with the particular chaotic joy of a celebration planned by people who'd learned, through hard experience, exactly how much they valued the ability to simply gather everyone they loved in one safe place without fear shadowing the occasion.Balloons in every shade of pink and gold bobbed from the porch railings, a small bounce house dominated one corner of the lawn against Caspian's initial skepticism, and long tables groaned under the weight of a spread that had clearly been catered by someone determined to feed an army rather than a modest gathering of twenty."You went overboard," I told Caspian, watching him direct the final setup with the same focused intensity he once brought to board meetings."She's turning two exactly once. I intend to celebrate it properly." He pressed a kiss to my temple, watching Willow toddle unsteadily across the grass in pursuit of
one night to steal my heart Chapter forty nine
Caspian POVI found the letter tucked into my desk drawer while searching for something else entirely, a habit I'd developed over the past three years, writing things down I wasn't yet ready to say aloud, addressed to a version of Noah old enough to eventually read them.I'd started the practice shortly after his adoption was finalized, some instinct telling me that certain truths deserved to exist somewhere permanent, waiting for a future moment when he might need them more than he did as a small boy still learning to ride a bicycle without training wheels.I sat down that evening and added to the growing collection, the words coming easier now than they had in the earlier letters, when grief and uncertainty still shaped most of what I had to say.Noah,You're seven now, and completely unaware that I'm writing this, tucked away for some future version of yourself who might need to hear it more than the boy currently obsessed with din
one night to steal my heart Chapter forty eight
Elowen POVNoah came home from school unusually quiet, dropping his backpack by the door without his usual chatter about the day's events, and I felt the small alarm bells of parental instinct ring immediately."Bad day?" I asked, crouching to his level in the entryway.He shrugged, avoiding my eyes in a way that wasn't like him at all. "A kid at school said I only have friends because my dad's rich. He said nobody would actually like me if I wasn't an Ashford."Something protective and fierce flared in my chest immediately, though I forced myself to stay calm, understanding that whatever I said next would shape how he processed this moment far more than any outburst of maternal outrage would."That sounds like it hurt your feelings.""It did." His voice wobbled slightly. "Is it true? Do people only like me because of money?"I sat down properly on the entryway bench, pulling him into my lap even though he was getting a
one night to steal my heart Chapter forty seven
Elowen POVThe email from a firm in Milan arrived on an otherwise ordinary Thursday morning, and I read it twice before calling Farrah into my office, uncertain I was interpreting the offer correctly."They want to open a European office," I said, sliding the laptop toward her. "Under our name. A full partnership, not just a licensing deal."Farrah scanned the email, her eyebrows climbing steadily higher. "Elowen, this is enormous. This isn't just growth. This is an entirely different scale of business.""I know. And I don't know if I actually want that scale." I sat back, turning the decision over honestly for the first time since the email arrived. "I built this firm to have control over my own life, not to trade one kind of consuming pressure for another.""I get that. I remember what those first years looked like, before any of this. You barely slept, and you were terrified every single month that we wouldn't make rent on the offi
one night to steal my heart Chapter forty six
Caspian POVThe letter arrived on a Tuesday, unremarkable in every way except for the return address, and I sat with it unopened on my desk for nearly an hour before I finally worked up the nerve to slide my thumb beneath the flap.Julian's handwriting had changed over the past two years, steadier now, less like the frantic scrawl of a man justifying himself and more like someone who'd settled into the slow, unglamorous work of genuine reflection.Caspian,I know I don't have any right to keep writing these letters, and I know you're under no obligation to keep reading them. But I wanted you to know that I've started working with the prison's literacy program, teaching other inmates to read. It's not much. It doesn't undo anything. But your father used to talk about legacy constantly, back when I was young enough to still think he was simply a stiff, humorless man rather than someone quietly building something meaningful. I think I finally u
one night to steal my heart Chapter forty five
Elowen POVTwo years laterThe orphanage looked smaller than I remembered, though I supposed that was simply what happened when you returned to a place after growing into an entirely different life than the one you'd once been trapped inside its walls.I stood at the entrance with Caspian beside me, Noah's hand clasped in mine, his little sister Willow balanced on Caspian's hip, barely eight months old and blissfully unaware of the significance of the day."You okay?" Caspian asked quietly, reading the tension in my shoulders the way he'd learned to do so effortlessly over the past two years."I think so. It's strange, being back here as someone who actually has the power to change something, instead of just a kid who used to sit by that window wondering if anyone would ever choose her.""Someone should have chosen you decades ago.""Maybe. But I think everything happened exactly the way it needed to, even the hard parts
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