Chapter 10
The silence stretched between them, filled with everything they’d said and everything they hadn’t.
“I’ll think about it.”
“That’s all I can ask.”
After they hung up, Dylan sat in her painted apartment, surrounded by the small rebellions against her own nature—the restoration shop that would open in two weeks, the roots she’d started growing in soil she’d never trusted before.
The ring waited on Eagle’s Point like a question mark against the sky.
And somewhere between Victoria’s calculated cruelty and Aidan’s raw honesty, between the fear that had kept her safe and the hope that might destroy her, Dylan had to decide what she believed.
What she wanted.
Who she was brave enough to become.
Thursday brought no clarity, only the slow torture of Victoria’s presence woven through Laurel Valley like a golden thread designed to remind everyone what they’d lost.
Friday afternoon, Dylan’s phone rang.
Sophie’s cheerful voice greeted her. “First of all, let me apologize. I had no idea that Victoria was going to call you and invite you for coffee. I thought she sincerely wanted to apologize.”