“You found your own way back, Pen,” Daniel said gently. “I’m just glad I get to walk the rest of it with you.”
Spring arrived in London with a sudden burst of green across the parks.
Julianne stood in the doorway of her new home—a quiet, brick townhouse with a small garden in the back where lavender was beginning to bloom.
Inside, the sound of laughter echoed off the high ceilings. Theo was sitting at a proper wooden desk in his room, setting up his chessboard for a match with his grandfather, who had arrived from the airport an hour earlier. Lily was in the kitchen with Mira, noisily baking biscuits and flouring the cat by accident.
Julianne stepped out onto the back patio, pulling her cardigan tight against the cool breeze.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket. It was a picture sent from Nadine—the final, stamped decree of divorce, officially registered and closed.
She stared at her name on the document: Julianne Marlowe.
No extra titles. No heavy history. Just her own name, clear and unburdened.
She put the phone away and took a deep breath of the crisp spring air.
Behind her, the kitchen door opened, and Lily ran out into the grass, chasing a yellow butterfly, her joyful laughter ringing out under the wide, open sky. Theo came to the doorway, leaning against the frame with a peaceful smile on his face.
Julianne walked over to her children, wrapping an arm around Theo’s shoulders as Lily came running back to grab her hand.
They didn’t look back. They didn’t need to.
The past was just a story they used to live in. The future was finally theirs.
