The estate was quiet that evening.
Most of the household had retired early. Mrs Grayson was upstairs with Lily. Ethan and Lucas had gone out. Sofia and Mrs Luciana were in the guest sitting room talking quietly.
Mara found her father in the main living room with a glass of water and a folder open on the coffee table in front of him.
He looked up when she walked in.
“Sit,” he said simply.
She sat across from him.
For a moment neither of them spoke. It was the comfortable kind of silence that had begun to develop between them naturally. The kind that did not need to be filled.
Then Mr Grayson closed the folder and looked at her directly.
“I want to hold a banquet,” he said.
Mara looked at him.
“For your return,” he continued. “A formal announcement. The kind that puts your name bac
