Chapter 49

(Mike's POV).

"So, you’re going to remarry my daughter, huh?"

The question came from Jimmy, Emily’s father, with the weight of both curiosity and warning in his voice.

His eyes, still sharp despite the health battles he’d faced, focused entirely on me.

Emily stood beside me, her hand resting gently on my arm, but I knew this was a moment between Jimmy and me—a moment where everything I’d ever promised to Emily was about to be scrutinized. I was ready for it.

Emily had told me that this would happen eventually, that her father—recovering from a stroke—would want to talk to me, man to man. And while Emily was my heart, her father’s approval mattered. It was an unspoken rule.

Emily squeezed my arm and kissed my cheek before excusing herself from the room, her father’s office, leaving us alone. The door closed with a soft thud, sealing in the gravity of the moment.

I stood across from Jimmy, hands at my sides, and waited for him to make the next move. The old man waved me over to the c