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So different from the women I typically encountered in business or social settings. So fundamentally matched to something in me I hadn't recognized was seeking completion.

Had never felt the need to create contingencies against my own son potentially causing harm to someone I cared about.

It was unprecedented.

Reckless, by my usual standards.

Potentially setting a dangerous precedent if anyone in my professional circle discovered it.

And yet it felt necessary.

Essential, even.

The first step in building something I hadn't realized I wanted until Savannah had crashed into my carefully ordered life.

A future that included her.

Protected her.

Bound her to me in ways that transcended the physical connection we'd established.

You were made for me.

The words had emerged spontaneously, yet contained a truth I was only beginning to understand. A recognition that whateverexisted between us was something rare, something worth risking everything to preserve.

Even if that meant crossing boundaries I'd once considered inviolable.

Even if it meant acknowledging that, for the first time in decades, I was no longer fully in control.

Chapter 12

Savannah

The call came at 6:32 a.m., Miles's name illuminating my phone screen like a warning.

I stared at it for three rings, my stomach already knotting.

We'd been texting sporadically since our breakup—nothing romantic, just friendly check-ins about family events, mutual friends, the kind of contact that felt harmless enough that I'd never mentioned it to Lucas.

But a call this early meant something was wrong.

"Miles? What's happened?"

"Grandpa Richard had a stroke last night." His voice was tight, strained.

"I'm at the hospital. It was minor—a TIA—but he's in the ICU for observation."

I sat up straight, suddenly wide awake. "Oh my god. Is he going to be okay?"

"They think so. But Savannah, I can't reach Dad. His phone keeps going to voicemail, and I know he's flying back from New York today." The panic in his voice was unmistakable.

"Grandpa has me listed as his emergency contact because I live closest, but Dad should know. He needs to know."

My chest tightened. Lucas in New York, unreachable, while his father lay in a hospital bed. "What do you need me to do?"

"Could you meet Dad at the airport? Tell him what happened? His flight gets in at eight tonight, Terminal 3. I'll keep trying to reach him, but if I can't..." Miles's voice cracked slightly. "I'm supposed to fly to San Diego this afternoon for a client meeting tomorrow morning, and I don't know if I can get back in time. I don't want him to find out by seeing my missed calls and panicking."

Every instinct told me this was crossing a line. Lucas and I had been careful to keep our relationship separate from his complicated dynamic with Miles.