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For a long moment, neither spoke. Richard studied her face — and suddenly he saw it. The familiar tilt of her eyes, the faint dimple in her cheek, the kindness he’d once seen in Grace.
“How did you end up here?” he finally asked.
Richard stood slowly, his throat tight.
For years, his life had been about profits and precision — but now, looking at this woman who was his sister’s lost child, something in him broke open. He walked around the desk and, for the first time in years, embraced someone not out of formality, but out of love.
“I failed your mother,” he whispered. “But I won’t fail you.”
Maria cried quietly against his shoulder, years of silence and loss finally melting away.
