Chapter 19 - The Vance LegacyTen years later.
The hallways of Vance Manor echoed with new sounds—the rapid, clacking footsteps of two sixteen-year-old girls rushing down the grand mahogany staircase, late for their private fencing lesson.
Chloe and Claire had grown into stunning young women, combining my mother’s dark curls with Elias’s sharp, intelligent eyes. They weren't sheltered princesses hidden away from the world; they were trained in martial arts, fluent in three languages, and fiercely independent—young women who knew exactly who they were and where they came from.
I stood on the second-floor landing, holding a cup of tea, watching them rush past.
“Don't run on the stairs!” I called out automatically.
“We’re not running, Mom! We’re speed-walking!” Claire shouted back with a laugh, disappearing around the corner toward the conservatory.
A pair of strong, familiar arms wrapped around my waist from behind. A warm chin rested softly on my shoulder.
“They’re growing up too fast,” Elias murmured, his voice deeper now, touched with the subtle silver threads of time at his temples, though his frame remained as powerful and imposing as ever.
“They’re sixteen, Elias,” I smiled, leaning back against his chest. “They’re practically running the estate already.”
“Good,” Elias chuckled softly, kissing the side of my neck. “Because I’m planning on retiring to a vineyard in Tuscany by the time they turn twenty-one, and I need someone competent to run the North American logistics grid.”
I turned around in his arms, wrapping my hands around his neck, looking up into those dark, striking eyes that had saved my life a lifetime ago under a freezing overpass in New York.
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“You’ll never retire, Elias Vance,” I teased gently. “You love the chaos too much.”
“I love you too much,” he corrected, his voice dropping to a low, intense register that still made my heart skip a beat after all these years. “Everything else is just background noise.”
