Secret baby on my hip and six weeks trapped with the man who walked out.
Off-limits doesn’t begin to cover Ethan Hayes—my ex, my daughter’s father, and now my unavoidable shadow.
The only thing I need less than his help is his attention.
Investor retreat at Rosewood wasn’t supposed to be a reunion. One cottage. One kitchen. Forced proximity measured in minutes, not miles.
He starts showing up before the ovens are even preheated. Silent, focused, noticing everything—including the little girl who moves just like him.
But it’s the way he crouches to Rosie’s eye level in the garden, answering her like she’s the only person that matters, that shakes every certainty I built.
It’s easier to manage menus than memories. It’s safer to keep him out than risk everything I built from nothing.
He says he left to protect me. But loving him again might cost me the only thing I swore I’d never lose—control over my own life.
