How Long Is 'You'D Be Home Now'?

Not even three years into their marriage could Gabriella Carrington capture Henry Toussaint's heart. Instead, following the return of Henry's first love, all Gabriella receives is a divorce agreement and a brutal slap from reality. "Will you still leave me if I'm pregnant?" Gabriella asks, in which Henry affirms adamantly. It was what it took for her to finalize the divorce and let her dreams die. Only, Henry seems to want a second chance now that she has finally given up.

He stood in front of me, held my face between his hands and stared down at me. I waited, once again, I did. For what? This time I didn't know. But the moment he spoke, I knew, the wait was over. "You waited." He said. I gasped. " You waited." He breathed.

Wren Michaels was seventeen the last time she kissed Theo Ashford. He promised to send her letters. She waited by the mailbox for years, and nothing ever came. Fifteen years later, Wren has stopped waiting, believing he forgot about her. Now she has a good job, a good home, and a boyfriend who never once makes her chase him. Then her company gets bought overnight, and the new CEO walks in wearing the face of the boy who broke her heart. Now Wren works beside Theo every day, and the years apart start falling away faster than either of them can stop it. But nothing about this is simple. Wren has a man at home who loves her. Theo has a woman his family expects him to marry. And someone is watching them fall for each other again, someone dangerous enough to make sure it never happens. As the truth about the letters begins to surface, so does everything else buried underneath it. Lies, jealousy, and a plan to make sure Wren never gets her second chance at all. She lost him once and told herself it was just heartbreak. This time, she might lose everything. But why didn't he send her letters? Did he really forget about her? Who is willing to destroy Wren to keep Theo for themselves? And after everything Wren has already survived, can she still let herself come home to him?

"You said you leave when there's nothing left for you to do so what if I gave you a reason to stay?"

She thought escaping him meant freedom. It only meant silence… before the storm found her again. Emily built a life from nothing, poverty, pain, survival, until she finally had something worth protecting: a home, a fragile peace, and a son who became her entire world. But peace is fragile when your past knows your name. A single knock at the door. And everything she buried comes back breathing. He’s not just a man from her past. He’s the man who never stopped owning pieces of her. Cold. Powerful. Impossible to outrun. Emily thought she survived him once. Now he’s back, and this time, he isn’t asking. Because some men don’t move on. Some men don’t forgive. And some obsessions… don’t end. They wait.

He didn't stop when he reached her but leaned forward and kissed her hard, on the mouth. The air left her lungs. Maybe it was because it was her first kiss or because he had kissed her, she didn't know but her lungs were burning, her lips were on fire. She was one fire. It ended in a second. She stared at him with wide eyes as he stared back. His hand traced her forehead, nose, lips and then chin as it stopped on her throat. She knew, by God she knew he could feel her pulse, the heat on her cheeks. "I'm home." Dean Woodland left two years ago without a word or sound and now he is back to bring his belongings with him.