Caleb’s hand, and stood.
“We’re getting lunch,” she said.
“You can come if you want.”
Andrew looked up, surprised.
“I’d like that.”
They walked toward the street with Caleb between them, his tiny hands gripping one finger from each parent.
Five months earlier, Natalie had walked toward a front door believing she was being thrown out of her life.
Now she understood that the door had opened in the other direction.
She had lost the illusion of a perfect family, but she had gained something far more valuable: the certainty that nobody’s name, money, house, or bloodline could define her worth or decide the truth for her.
And this time, when Andrew walked beside her, he wasn’t leading her back into the Mercer family.
He was learning how to walk beside the family they had chosen to rebuild on entirely different terms.
