The council ruled in our favor — unanimous, in the end, Rosalind reading a decision that acknowledged the full translated record and formally recognized the bond as legitimate, protected, and entirely outside the council’s authority to interfere with. Relief hit me so hard my knees actually buckled, and Ronan caught me before I fully registered I was falling, his arms steady around me while the chamber emptied around us in a slow, murmuring exodus.
It should have felt like the end of something. Standing in that hallway afterward, watching my mother hover awkwardly at the edge of a reconciliation neither of us knew how to begin yet, it almost did.
Callum was waiting exactly where he’d said he would be.
Not alone — three men flanked him near the parking structure, positioned with the deli
