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The silence in the forty-second-floor office stretched so thin I could hear the faint hum of the HVAC system overhead. / Chapter 16 / 20

Chapter 16 - The Return to TribecaTwo days later, I walked back through the doors of the Tribeca penthouse carrying a thick manila folder and a bouquet of white peonies—Elena’s favorite.

The apartment was quiet. The twins were down for their afternoon nap.

I found Elena sitting at the kitchen island, staring blankly out the window, a cup of untouched tea growing cold beside her. When she heard my footsteps, she didn't turn around.

"If you're here to apologize about your paranoia," she said quietly, her voice flat, "save it, Tobias. I'm calling a lawyer tomorrow. We need space."

I didn't answer with words. I walked up behind her, gently placing the manila folder on the counter next to her tea, and laid the bouquet beside it.

Elena frowned, looking down at the folder. She flipped it open.

Inside was a legally binding document from Vance Capital, countersigned by Julian Vance in London, transferring one hundred percent of the biotech firm's voting rights exclusively to Elena Marrow, backed by an unrestricted fifty-million-dollar development fund from Marrow Holdings.

Beside it was a single handwritten note in my own handwriting:

You were never an inefficiency, Elena. You were always the architecture of my life. I'm sorry it took me this long to let you build freely. — Tobias

Elena stared at the paper, her breath catching in her throat. Slowly, she looked up, her green eyes shimmering with unshed tears.

I dropped to one knee beside her stool, taking her small, trembling hand in mine.

"Julian and I had a conversation in London," I said softly. "He reminded me that love isn't a corporate merger to be managed or controlled. It's a risk. The greatest risk I've ever taken."

Elena let out a shaky, watery laugh, a single tear slipping down her cheek. "You flew all the way to London just for this?"

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"I'd fly to the end of the earth if it meant keeping you and our boys," I answered, my voice fierce and absolute.

She reached out, her fingers tangling into the silver-streaked hair at my temples, pulling me up into a fierce, desperate kiss that tasted like forgiveness, redemption, and home.

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