Daniel nodded, though it felt like his heart was being ripped in two. Holly hesitated, just once, looking back at Daniel before she stepped outside, pulling the door closed behind her, leaving him standing in the entryway with the echo of a promise he wasn’t sure she’d keep.
Behind him, a small voice broke the silence.
“Do you think she’ll come back?” Teddy whispered.
Daniel turned around, and his heart broke. Teddy’s lower lip quivered, his eyes wide with worry. Maisie stood beside him, her expression unreadable, her hands gripping her brother’s shoulders.
The sight of them, so vulnerable, so uncertain, cut through Daniel’s own shock. He crossed the space between them in three long strides and kneeled, bringing himself to their level. His knees hit the hardwood floor with more force than he intended, but he barely felt it.
“I don’t know, buddy,” Daniel said, forcing his breathing to remain steady despite the vise squeezing his chest. He wouldn’t lie to them. Not about this. Not when they’d already lost so much in their short lives.
But Maisie lifted her chin, her eyes fierce and certain in a way that reminded Daniel so much of himself when he’d first decided to fight for custody.
“She will,” she said, her voice stronger than her slight frame suggested possible. “I know it.”
Daniel swallowed hard against the lump in his throat. He wrapped his arms around both children, drawing strength from Maisie’s conviction when he had none of his own. Her certainty was like a lifeline he desperately needed to grab.
He closed his eyes and offered a silent prayer.Please let her come back.
Chapter Twenty – Holly
The cold morning air was sharp in Holly’s lungs as she walked beside Andrew toward his car, each step taking her further from Daniel’s house.
But she held onto the thought that it was taking her closer to her future. That this wasn’t her running away again. This was her choosing to finally leave her past behind so she could fully embrace her future.
With Daniel. With the children. Because that was her choice.
“I should have called first,” Andrew murmured, more to himself than to her, rehearsing words under his breath. “I should have...”
Holly glanced at him, this man she’d once thought she’d spend her life with and felt nothing but distance. So many years of shared dreams, plans, and memories had somehow become a fading echo, as insubstantial as the cloud of their breath disappearing in the winter air.
Daniel’s kitchen warmth still clung to her like a second skin, the scent of pancakes, the children’s laughter, the feeling of belonging. It made Andrew’s polite stiffness beside her feel impossibly foreign, like trying to slip back into clothes she’d long outgrown.
“The car’s just down here,” Andrew said, gesturing awkwardly toward a sleek rental parked at the curb.
Holly nodded, wrapping her arms around herself. Her fingers dug into the rich red fabric of her coat, and she remembered the way Daniel’s fingers had brushed her cheek when he’d helped her into it at the bakery. The memory chased away the winterchill and filled her with warmth. Because everything about him was warm. His touch, his voice, his smile.
As Andrew opened the passenger door for her, a gesture that once seemed thoughtful but now felt like an empty ritual, Holly felt a surge of compassion. Not for herself, but for the woman she used to be. The one who’d thought she was supposed to marry this man because it was expected, because it made sense on paper, because it was easier than choosing her own path.
She got into the car. The door closed with a soft thunk, and Andrew circled to the driver’s side, sliding in beside her. His cologne was exactly as she remembered, expensive, carefully chosen, impeccably applied. Yet somehow, it couldn’t compete with the memory of Daniel’s scent, warm bread, cinnamon, and something uniquely him that made her feel safe. Made her feel at home.
Andrew started the engine and pulled away from the curb. Holly’s fingers twitched in her lap, and it took everything in her not to tell him to turn around, to take her back to the house with the blanket nest and paper chains, back to Teddy and Maisie, back to Daniel.
But she knew they both needed closure if they were going to move on with their lives.
“There’s a place we can talk,” Andrew said, his voice carefully neutral as he navigated the unfamiliar streets of Bear Creek. “I passed a coffee shop on my way into town.”
“The parking lot is fine,” Holly murmured. This conversation didn’t need witnesses or the comfort of hot drinks. It needed honesty and an ending.
Andrew nodded, pulling into an empty parking lot at the edge of town. He turned off the engine but kept his hands on the wheel, his knuckles white with tension. For a long moment, theysat in silence, the only sound their breathing and the occasional tick of the cooling engine.
“I’m sorry,” he finally said, his voice breaking the stillness. “I’m sorry for not talking to you face-to-face and for giving you the letter instead. And I’m sorry I let you take the blame.”
Holly turned to look at him, really look at him, for the first time since he’d appeared on Daniel’s doorstep. His familiar profile was tense, with a muscle jumping in his jaw.
“I knew I wouldn’t have been able to find the words if I’d had to speak them,” Andrew continued, staring straight ahead through the windshield. “That I’d have gone through with the wedding even though I knew in my heart we were not right for each other.”
The words hung between them, honest and raw in a way they’d never been with each other before.
