“why don’t you join us for breakfast?”

As I approached the sitting area, a knot tightened in my stomach. Every step felt heavier than the last, weighed down by the uncertainty of what awaited me. Samuel’s presence here was like a dark shadow creeping into the light of my new life, threatening to pull me back into the darkness I had fought so hard to escape. I had prepared myself for anger, for accusations, for the cold, bitter man I knew all too well. But nothing could have prepared me for what I saw when I stepped into the room.

There he was, sitting comfortably on one of the plush chairs in my grandmother’s opulent sitting room. And he was smiling. Not the usual smirk of mockery or disdain, but a genuine smile—a warmth that I had never seen on his face before. It was unsettling, to say the least. The man who had only ever shown me contempt was now looking at me as if he were an entirely different person.

“Good morning, Anna,” Samuel greeted me, his voice soft and warm, as if we were old friends. “You look lovely today.”