Chapter 14: The Echoes of the Past
Six months after the engagement, Mark Vance made one final, desperate attempt to reclaim what he had lost.
He drove to Oakhaven unannounced, parking his car near the lakeside cottage. He watched from across the street as David, Hannah, and Lily loaded picnic baskets into the back of David’s truck, laughing and talking with an easy, radiant harmony.
Mark stepped out of his car, taking two steps toward the gate.
He saw Hannah turn and laugh at something David whispered in her ear. He saw the genuine, unforced happiness radiating from her face—an expression he had spent years trying to extinguish because he believed her joy threatened his authority.
In that quiet, agonizing moment, Mark finally understood the tragic truth of his own making.
He hadn't lost her because she was weak or disloyal. He had lost her because he had treated a rare, magnificent treasure like a piece of property to be managed.
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He stopped walking. He turned around, got back into his car, started the engine, and drove away out of their lives forever—leaving them to the peace they had fought so hard to build.
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