Page 100 of Ruthless Serenade

And then, there’s my daughter’s mother. Mindy. The woman who still holds my fucking heart, the one I can’t force out of my system no matter how hard I try. Life somehow always finds a way to bring us together.

I let the anger at my own stupidity surface. I pushed her away because of my own insecurity. I never admitted how much I missed her. I never reached out. When life offered another chance, I pushed her away again. All because of my own fucking inflated ego.

And yet, somehow, she’s still here.

With our daughter.

In my house.

And somehow, I’m sure as shit I’m never letting her go again.

There’s a lot for us to work through. First, I must to tell her everything about why Sharon was kidnapped. And then I must tell her about something else… something that Pavel told me, just yesterday. Which is going to be a fucking difficult conversation.Oneof many difficult conversations.

When I enter the living room, I find her on the couch. I freeze in the doorway, letting myself drink in the sight of her.

Even beaten down by exhaustion, she looks fucking magnificent. There’s vulnerability in the slope of her shoulders,but her spine’s still steel - that same unbreakable spirit that hooked me from day one.

She’s always been a study in contrasts: soft curves and sharp edges, gentle heart and titanium will. And despite every scar and shadow between us, every fuck-up that’s stained what we had, I know in my bones that she’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.

She looks up, her eyes finding mine, and the air turns electric. A thousand unspoken words hang in the space between us, weighing me down like a rock.

"The way you’re standing there takes me back to when we worked together at Global Media," she says, a ghost of a smile playing at the corner of her mouth. "You always leaned against the door frame like that."

"Feels like centuries ago." The smile tugs at my lips before I can stop it.

We move toward each other like magnets finding their poles. Our bodies collide with an inevitability that transcends thought - too fucking exhausted to maintain the walls we’ve built, too raw to deny what’s always been there between us.

I breathe her in, and it’s like coming home after years in exile. The familiar scent of her hits my bloodstream like pure adrenaline, triggering a flood of memories and emotions I’ve spent years trying to bury. Our bodies remember what our minds tried to forget, fitting together like they were carved from the same stone. In this moment, I know with bone-deep certainty that whatever hell we’ve been through, whatever storms are still coming, she’s carved into my DNA.

Mine.

For fucking life.

I don’t fight it anymore. Neither does she. We stay locked together, the silence between us saying more than words ever could. Finally, I break the embrace just enough to see her face.

"Sharon?" The question comes out rough.

"Sleeping." She pauses, her eyes softening. "I’m so sorry about Larissa."

I nod, the reality of my mother’s death still raw and bleeding. "It was her time." I meet her gaze, my voice dropping to gravel. "Thank you for playing along with the Cordelia-act. It meant everything to her."

She melts against me, her body surrendering its tension. "Of course. It’s the least I could do."

The silence wraps around us like a blanket, each lost in our own private grief. Then I gently take her hand and guide her to the couch.

"Are you okay?" Her eyes search mine, looking for cracks in my armor where grief for my mother might seep through.

I nod, moving to pour myself a glass of scotch. "Drink?"

She shakes her head, seemingly wrestling with something she wants to say. "Maron," her voice catches. "What you did for Sharon... " Her words fracture. "Thank you. I don’t know what I would’ve done without you."

Guilt slams into my chest once again. Some father I turned out to be. My own daughter kidnapped because of the enemies I’ve made, because of who I am. I can never allow that to happenagain. Ever. I’ll burn my entire empire to the ground before I let anyone touch her.

"I don’t know where we go from here," she continues, her voice gathering strength. "But I need you to know that... all those years ago… at the Tramoxine launch... I had nothing to do with what my sister did. Or with Maurice. I never meant to hurt you, I didn’t-"

"Save it." I cut her off, my words coming out harsher than I intended. "I know you’re innocent."

She stares at me, stunned. "What?"

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