When love is no longer denied—2

Thomas closed his eyes briefly, then opened them, and the look in them made her chest ache. "I'm in love with you. I've been in love with you since before I had the sense to realize it. Since before I destroyed us. Maybe even since the day you walked into my house covered in paint and broke my favorite vase."Piper couldn't move. Couldn't speak. Couldn't process the words coming out of his mouth."I know you don't believe me," Thomas continued, voice raw. "I know I have no right to tell you this now. But I came here tonight because I had to see you. Had to know you were okay. And I saw your work and I saw you and I realized—" He stopped, jaw working. "I realized that you're better than okay. You're extraordinary. And I had nothing to do with it. I don't get to claim any part of your success. But I need you to know that I see it. I see you. Finally. And...God! I miss you, I miss you so much."Those last words felt like he'd finally stripped himself and let her see him all vulnerable.

The Reckoning

Thomas sat in the back seat of the Car, staring at his phone.The screen was dark. He'd opened his messages three times in the last twenty minutes, typed Piper's name, and deleted it each time.What was he supposed to say? He locked the phone and shoved it in his pocket.The drive back from Oakland had been a blur. Forty-five minutes of streetlights and highway and the ghost of Piper's voice echoing in his head.Prove it.Not with words. Not with apologies. Prove it.He'd left her standing in that gallery, tears on her cheeks, looking at him like he was both the best and worst thing that had ever happened to her. And maybe he was. Maybe that's exactly what he'd become—the man who'd loved her and destroyed her in the same breath.The car pulled through the gate, the security lights flickering on automatically. The house loomed ahead, every window lit like someone was afraid of the dark.The driver killed the engine, but Thomas didn't move.His phone buzzed. A text from Margaret.Margar

Prove It

Thomas stood in the hallway long after Paige's footsteps faded. Her words echoed in the silence. 'I loved you. I stayed when anyone else would have left. I tried to help with your sons even though they hated me. I put my entire life on hold for you.' He pressed his palms against his eyes. Had he been unfair? She had stayed. Through the worst of his grief, through the custody battle preparation, through nights when he'd been so buried in work he'd barely acknowledged her presence. She'd reorganized his household staff, handled the boys' schedules when he couldn't, showed up to functions on his arm when he needed someone presentable beside him. And he'd given her nothing but money in return. No love. No future. No promise of anything beyond the hollow arrangement they'd fallen into after Claire died. Thomas dropped his hands, staring at the empty hallway. Maybe Piper had been the excuse he'd been looking for. A reason to end something that should have ended months ago.

The Explosion

Thomas gripped the steering wheel of his car so hard the leather groaned. Every mile marker flashing past on the way to Oakland felt like a lash against his conscience. He couldn't shake the images Martin had shown him in the quiet light of his study. The flickering blue glow of the security monitors was burned into his retinas, a looping nightmare of his own failure.10:43 p.m.He’d watched Paige move through his home like a ghost with a knife. He saw her slip into his study, shoulders hunched, eyes darting toward the hallway. She looked like a stranger—not the woman he had shared his life with, but a predator marking its territory.On the screen, she had been coordinating with Daniel Cross, a digital mercenary whose only loyalty was to a paycheck.Ninety seconds.That was all it took for her to ruin Piper’s life. She slid the diamond-encrusted weight into Piper’s handbag while she was in the nursery putting the kids to bed with the quiet grace that had come to define his home

The Journey Home

Piper’s hand was already yanking her jacket off the hook before Thomas finished speaking.“I’m coming with you.”“Piper—”“I’m coming.” Her voice cracked like a whip. “Don’t you dare argue.”She was through the door and halfway down the hall before he could draw another breath.They made it back to Beverly Hills in thirty-eight minutes.Thomas drove like the devil was riding shotgun—swerving between cars, slamming through yellow lights, knuckles white on the wheel. Piper sat bolt upright beside him, phone crushed to her ear, her free hand gripping the edge of the seat so hard her nails left crescents in the leather.“Nana, I need you to check the bus routes near the Anderson estate,” she said, words sharp and fast. “Toby, recently turned five. He has a backpack and money. Where would a scared little boy go?”Thomas barely registered her voice. His mind kept flashing the same brutal pictures:Toby lost in the dark.Toby hurt.Toby snatched by some stranger who spotted a rich man’s kid

Just For Tonight

Leo was already asleep.The boys Nanny met them at the door before they were fully inside, hands clasped, voice low. "He fought it until eight. I think he exhausted himself crying."Thomas said nothing.Piper pressed her lips together and looked away.Toby went up without much argument.The kind of quiet that only followed a child who had scared himself badly enough to want the safety of his own walls. Piper took him up, pulled the covers to his chin, and did the voices for exactly four pages of Where the Wild Things Are before his eyes gave out completely.She sat with him a moment longer than necessary.Her hand rested on his back, rising and falling with his breath.I missed you every single day, she thought.She pressed one quiet kiss to his temple, turned off the lamp, and slipped out.Thomas was at the table when she came downstairs.He'd put something together — garnished pasta, two glasses of water. Nothing elaborate. She sat.He sat across from her.The clock on the wall rea