---- Chapter 23 Jody POV: When | got back to my room, Evander was waiting outside the door, pretending to read a book on his tablet. He looked up as | approached, his eyes full of a quiet, anxious question. He didn't need to ask. He just needed to be there. And in that moment, | knew with a certainty that settled deep in my bones what | wanted. What | deserved. | walked right up to him, stood on my toes, and pressed my lips to his. The kiss was soft, gentle, and full of all the unspoken things that had been growing between us for the past year. He was stiff with surprise for a second, and then he relaxed, his hand coming up to gently cup my cheek as he kissed me back. When | pulled away, he was staring at me, his eyes wide, his mind clearly reeling. "| thought," | said, a small smile playing on my lips, "that we were being pretty obvious about this." A slow, dazzling smile spread across his face. "Obvious," he repeated, as if tasting the word. "Yeah. Obvious." From that day on, everything was different. And everything ---- was perfect. He held my hand in public. He brought me breakfast when | worked late. He remembered | hated cilantro. He was my partner in the lab and my partner in life, and the love | felt for him was a quiet, steady flame, a world away from the consuming, destructive fire | had once mistaken for passion. | knew Arthur hadn't given up. He tried to invest in our research institute, a transparent attempt to buy his way back into my life. | refused the funding. He sent lavish gifts to my apartment. | sent them all back. He never approached me directly again, but | knew he was watching from the sidelines, a ghost at the feast of my new, happy life. Years passed. Our research institute became a world leader. Evander and | were married in a small ceremony, surrounded by our friends and colleagues. Two years later, our daughter, Elara, was born. She had my eyes and Evander' s calm, gentle spirit. She was our whole world. On Elara' s first birthday, a courier delivered a thick envelope from a law firm. | opened it, my heart sinking with a strange premonition. Arthur was dead. He had taken his own life. And he had left everything to me. His entire tech fortune, his properties, his stocks-all of it. The will stipulated that it was to be placed in a trust for me and for my daughter, Elara. ---- | stood in the sunlit hallway of my home, the legal documents trembling in my hand. | thought of the charismatic, laughing boy | had first met in the library, full of life and promise. And | thought of the broken, haunted man he had become. A man who had everything and nothing. A single tear traced a path down my cheek, a final goodbye to a boy | had once loved, and a life | had thankfully left behind. Evander came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist, his chin resting on my shoulder. "What is it?" he asked softly. | leaned back into his warmth, into the safety and certainty of his love. "It's nothing," | whispered, letting the papers drift from my fingers onto the table. "Just a message from the past." | turned in his arms and looked towards the nursery, where | could hear our daughter stirring from her nap. The past was gone. The future was here. And it was beautiful.