This man had seen her.
Not the rank. Not the uniform. Not the dancer she used to be or the officer she’d become. He had seen her, in the raw space between who she’d been and who she still was.
God, she had seen him, and that was enough.
Now he was gone.
Blair drew a slow breath, letting it hurt. Letting it settle. She didn’t wipe the tears away. She let them come, aching and honest, because for the first time she wasn’t running from the question rising inside her.
If being without him felt like this, if the life laid out in front of her required this kind of absence, then it wasn’t the life she wanted anymore.
Not for him.
For herself.
She straightened, wiping her cheeks at last, the decision not fully formed but already undeniable. Whatever came next would cost her something. Anything worth having always did.
She set the glass down and stood there in the quiet cabin, finally looking inward without flinching, ready to choose a happiness that had been hard won and was no longer negotiable.
To move forward, she would have to go back.
Blair texted Darrow. She didn’t request leave. She told him she would be gone for three days.
Then she booked a flight and packed her bag.
Paths were funny things. They could lead you far away from what you thought you’d left behind, only to show you it had been in front of you all along.
Three days later, the plane leveled off, the steady hum of the engines smoothing out the last of her nerves.
The conversation with her parents played back in her mind, not as a series of words, but as a feeling. A quiet, profound sense of peace. She had expected resistance, or at least concern, but found only open, curious faces. When she’d told them she was leaving the Mounties, her father had just asked, "But?" as if he knew there was more to the story. When she’d said the job no longer served her, he had simply nodded. Her mother’s eyes had filled with tears, but she’d only squeezed her hand and said, "I didn’t understand then. But I do now."
There was no judgment. Only the easy, unconditional support she hadn't known she needed. It was the final confirmation that she was on the right path, not just for Kelly, but for herself.
Blair opened her eyes and looked out the window as the land rolled beneath her, familiar and unfamiliar all at once. By the time the plane touched down, she felt steady.
Everything had led her here, and everything ahead waited for one person.
She wasn’t ready to say it out loud yet, but she knew.
The next time she spoke of the plan, it would be with Kelly.
47
Darrow stared at the paper in his hands like it had insulted him personally.
“What is this?”
She stood in front of his desk, shoulders squared, coat still on. Ready to leave. “Please don’t make me spell it out for you. Reading was never your strong suit.”
His head snapped up. Shock rippled across his face, then disbelief. “You’re quitting. Without notice?”
“Yes.” Her voice was calm. Deadly calm. “You always said you could manage without me. Here’s your chance.”
“You can’t just?—”
“Why?” she cut in.
His face twisted, anger flashing where panic lived underneath. “You’re running after that Tier 1 bastard like a cat in heat.”
