Leo caught her face in both hands, as if he needed to make sure she was really there, really warm beneath his palms. Estelle clutched at his shirt, and then he was kissing her, hard, desperate, relieved enough that it almost hurt.
When they broke apart, both of them breathing unevenly, he kept his forehead pressed to hers.
“Tell me,” he said. “Where did you go?”
Estelle’s fingers curled tighter in his shirt. “I didn’t run,” she whispered, and there was something fierce in her voice. “I faced her, Leo. I faced Margaret.”
He pulled back enough to see her properly. “Margaret. What happened?”
“I showed her.” Estelle swallowed. “Everything.”
Leo stared at her. “You shifted in front of Margaret?”
She gave a small nod. “Words weren’t enough. She had to see it. Had to understand what Adara is, and why I’ve been so afraid.”
His mind tried to catch up with the courage of that, the risk of it. “And?”
Estelle let out a shaky breath. “And she listened. Not at first. Not easily. But once she saw...” She shook her head. “She understood what was really at stake. And she promised to keep the secret.”
“Do you believe her?”
“Yes,” Estelle said, and the certainty in her voice caught at him. “I do.”
Is it really over?his bear stirred uneasily.
Maybe not entirely,Leo thought.But something had changed. I can hear it in her. Feel it.
“And Adara?”
“With Fiona.” A faint, tired smile touched Estelle’s mouth. “She told me she’d keep her overnight.”
Leo blinked. “You trusted Fiona with her?”
“I did.” Estelle’s smile shifted, a little wry now. “She understands why I did what I did.”
“And you didn’t think that I would?” Leo asked, unable to hide the hurt.
“You would have tried to talk me out of it,” Estelle replied.
True,his bear said.
“It was such a risk,” Leo replied.
“Sometimes you have to risk it all to get the very thing you need most.” She smiled shyly at him.
She means us. She means a life here with us,his bear said, practically doing somersaults.
Relief washed through him again, quieter this time, but no less deep. He pulled Estelle close and held her there, burying his face in her hair for a moment.
“When I found the cottage empty...” His voice nearly failed him. “I thought I’d lost you.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“It doesn’t matter,” he murmured. “You’re here now, and that is all that matters.”
She came back to us,his bear roared with triumph.
Estelle stepped back just enough to take his hand. “Come with me,” she said. “I want to show you something.”
