10. Familiar, But Not the Same
CHAPTER TEN
FAMILIAR, BUT NOT THE SAME
T revor froze.
For a split second his brain refused to process what his eyes were telling him. The cold December air pressed against his skin, the porch light spilling warm gold across the steps, and standing at the bottom of the stoop like something dragged out of a past he had already buried was Katelyn.
His first instinct was disbelief, “Katelyn?”
Her posture straightened slightly when she heard her name, chin lifting the way it always had when she wanted to reclaim control of a room.
She wore a long winter coat that looked expensive but thin, the kind of coat someone bought for appearance rather than warmth.
Her now blonde hair framed her face in soft waves, makeup flawless enough to suggest she had expected to be seen tonight.
Trevor stepped forward instinctively, placing himself between her and Aniyah without even thinking about it.
“What are you doing here?” The question left his mouth low and controlled, but the shock in it was obvious. Before Katelyn could answer, Aniyah’s voice cut through the air like glass snapping.
“Actually,” she said sharply, stepping closer to Trevor’s shoulder, “who the fuck do you think you’re talking to?
” Trevor blinked. For half a heartbeat he forgot the tension sitting in front of them and glanced sideways at Aniyah.
There it was. That fire. He had not seen it since high school, back when Aniyah Henderson had been the quiet girl who rarely spoke but could dismantle somebody with a single sentence when she did.
The sight of it now sent a strange warmth through him even in the middle of chaos.
Katelyn’s eyes narrowed, “Excuse me?”
Trevor’s attention returned to her quickly.
“Answer the question,” he said, voice firm. “Why are you here?”
Katelyn’s expression shifted then. The hardness softened around the edges, her shoulders lowering just enough to suggest vulnerability.
“This is the first Christmas without Zara,” she said quietly. “Do you have any idea how hard that is for me? I miss my daughter, Trevor. I miss her more than you know.” The silence that followed lasted only a moment.
Aniyah laughed. It was not a cruel laugh. It was the kind of laugh someone made when a lie was so obvious it almost insulted their intelligence. Katelyn’s head snapped toward her.
“What exactly is funny?” Aniyah folded her arms slowly.
“Oh nothing,” she replied calmly. “It’s just interesting that you suddenly miss your daughter tonight of all nights. ”
Katelyn’s lips pressed into a thin line. Trevor glanced between them, sensing the tension shift in a way he did not fully understand yet. Aniyah tilted her head slightly.
“Especially after the article that ran this morning.”
Katelyn’s eyes flickered to Aniyah with a hint of surprise.
“Excuse me?”
Aniyah reached into the pocket of her coat and pulled out her phone. The screen lit up as she tapped once before turning it outward.
“Mya sent this to me earlier today,” she said casually to Katelyn because she was tired of the song and dance. “Apparently your boyfriend has been busy.”
Trevor frowned in confusion not understanding what Aniyah was talking about.
“What article?”
Aniyah held the phone up where Katelyn could see it clearly.
The headline sat beneath a polished photo of a square-jawed man whose physique looked like he had been carved out of granite.
FINANCE HEIR VICTOR STRAUSS ANNOUNCES ENGAGEMENT TO SOCIALITE LILLIAN ASHBURY
Trevor let out a low breath. The name rang a bell immediately. The Ashbury family was old money. The kind that appeared on museum boards and gala invitations. They were the sort of family people compared to the Kennedys when they wanted to imply legacy and power in the same sentence.
Katelyn’s jaw tightened at seeing that stupid article again. It came as a total surprise to her this morning when her code no longer worked to get into the penthouse. There had been no warning and Victor hadn’t said a word to her. Aniyah slid the phone back into her pocket .
“So forgive me if I’m not buying the sudden motherly nostalgia.”
Katelyn’s eyes flashed with irritation.
“And why exactly are you here anyway?” she snapped. “This is a family gathering.”
Aniyah’s brow lifted in indignation, “Yes,” she replied evenly. “I was invited, unlike you.”
The words landed across Katelyn’s face like a slap.
Katelyn stepped closer to the stairs, anger replacing the fragile vulnerability she had tried to perform moments earlier.
“You’re trying to insert yourself into a family that isn’t yours,” she said sharply. “I understand that you don’t have one, but that doesn’t mean you get to play house with mine.”
Trevor felt Aniyah stiffen behind him as Katelyn continued.
“Newsflash Aniyah, Trevor and Zara will always belong to me. Enjoy pretending to be step mommy while you can.”
“Girl, fuck you and that delusional horse you rode here on in that cheap ass coat,” Aniyah spit out.
The front door opened behind them. Warm light spilled onto the porch as Nina stepped outside, one hand holding the door open as she scanned the scene with mild curiosity.
She had come outside expecting something entirely different.
Inside the house, she and Leon had been laughing quietly over a bet they had made earlier in the evening about how long it would take Trevor and Aniyah to make their first real move.
Nina had confidently said it would happen tonight.
Leon insisted Trevor would overthink it until after Christmas.
Two hundred dollars was currently riding on the outcome.
Naturally, Nina had stepped outside to check.
What she found instead was Katelyn standing at the bottom of the steps in a cheap looking winter coat glaring like a Disney villain.
Nina blinked once.
“Is everything alright out here?” she asked lightly .
Nina’s gaze moved slowly across the scene in front of her, taking in every detail with the calm scrutiny of someone who missed very little. The porch light cast a warm halo behind Trevor and Aniyah on the stoop, but her attention slid past them toward the figure standing at the bottom of the steps.
Katelyn.
For a brief second Nina said nothing. She simply looked at her, eyes traveling from the glossy waves of blonde hair to the thin winter coat that looked more expensive than warm.
The woman stood there like she had every right to occupy the space, chin tipped upward with that familiar air of entitlement Nina had always disliked.
Then Nina’s gaze returned to Trevor.
Her voice was light, almost conversational.
“I didn’t realize trash collection ran on holidays.” The words settled into the cold air with surgical precision.
Katelyn’s head snapped toward her so quickly the ends of her hair swung across her cheek.
Trevor let out a slow breath through his nose. Up until that moment he had been holding himself together with sheer restraint, but the sight of Katelyn standing on his father’s property like she had any claim to it made something inside him shift.
“Katelyn,” he said, his voice losing the last thin thread of patience it had been clinging to. “Why are you really here?”
For a moment she looked like she might try to hold onto the fragile vulnerability she had been performing earlier, but Trevor didn’t give her time to answer.
“You haven’t given a shit about us this entire time,” he continued, the words coming slower now, heavier. “The divorce was finalized over a month ago. Our marriage was dead a year and a half before that and Zara hasn’t seen you in damn near four months.”
The porch had gone completely quiet. Trevor’s voice sharpened with the weight of everything he had swallowed for too long.
“So tell me what exactly it is you think you miss,” he said. “Because it wasn’t us. You made it very clear you didn’t want this life. Remember that conversation? I was just the guy you picked because everybody wanted me.” His eyes held hers. “Isn’t that what you said?”
Behind him, Aniyah felt the tension radiating off his body like heat from asphalt in July.
His shoulders had gone rigid beneath his coat and the muscles in his jaw flexed.
It looked like he was trying to swallow the anger that was threatening to spew itself everywhere in that moment.
Without thinking, she lifted her hand and placed it gently against the center of his back.
The contact was light but deliberate. Trevor stilled under her touch, drawing in a breath that filled his lungs before he released it slowly through his nose.
Katelyn started up the steps. Nina’s voice cut through the movement immediately.
“Not too close.” There was no raise in volume, but the authority in it carried just as clearly. “You’re trespassing.”
Katelyn stopped two steps below them. For the first time since she arrived, the composure she had been clinging to cracked. Her shoulders sagged slightly and when she spoke again her voice sounded thinner.
“I made a mistake,” she said quietly.
Trevor watched her without moving.
“I thought I was suffocating,” she continued, her gaze dropping briefly to the steps between them. “I felt like I didn’t have an identity outside of you and Zara. Every day felt like I was disappearing into someone else’s life.”
Her throat bobbed as she swallowed.
“I thought my life didn’t have meaning.” The words trembled now, breaking apart as tears began sliding down her cheeks. “I should have never done what I did,” she whispered. “Trevor, I’m so sorry. You didn’t deserve that. None of it.”
She looked up at him then, eyes glassy. “I love you. I always have. I will spend the rest of my life earning your forgiveness if that’s what it takes.” Another tear slipped free. “Please.”
Trevor didn’t move. Behind him, Aniyah watched the rise and fall of his shoulders as he breathed. The porch light caught the edge of his profile, highlighting the tension that had settled across his face.