Read Chapter 26: — NOT OURS TO KEEP

Nora raged when Leo confronted her.

“You chose her too,” she said. “Michael chose her. You chose her. Everybody chooses her.”

Leo stood still while she threw a glass that cut his forehead.

Then he held his sister while she cried.

“You built a life around something that wasn't yours,” he said. “The company. Michael. That child. None of it can become yours because you suffer enough.”

Nora eventually agreed to return the money she had diverted and correct the false paternity claim.

Eleanor made one unexpected request.

“Don't tell Michael's parents yet.”

Leo stared. “They think the boy is their grandson.”

“I know.”

“It's a lie.”

“Yes.”

“They deserve the truth.”

“So does Lily. So do I. But truth has timing too.”

Michael's parents had lost their only son. The little boy had become a reason for them to get up in the morning. Eleanor could not bear to tear him away immediately just to make the record morally neat.

“They'll learn eventually,” she said. “But not as a weapon.”

Leo nodded.

Nora returned to London.

So did Leo.

Before leaving, he hugged Lily and promised to send drawings.

Eleanor forgave him slowly.

Forgiveness, she learned, was not declaring something harmless.

It was deciding harm would not be the only thing remembered.

That night she told Adrian the full story of Michael.

He listened without interrupting.

When she finished, she said, “I loved him.”

“I know.”

“I still do, in some way.”

“I know.”

“Doesn't that bother you?”

Adrian thought.

“It would bother me if you lied about it.”

Eleanor began to cry.

He held her.

No competition.

No replacement.

Only room.