Four years vanished into the ether, leaving behind a family that was evolving just as beautifully as the sprawling gardens of their estate.
Lily, now twenty-one, had taken Europe by storm. She was currently in Milan, co-designing a massive eco-friendly botanical structure for a tech billionaire. She called home every Sunday without fail, her vibrant energy bridging the thousands of miles between them.
But back in New York, a different kind of quiet brilliance was taking center stage.
It was a rainy Tuesday afternoon. Inside the sleek, glass-walled executive office of Sterling Enterprises, the city spread out below like a misty, grey canvas. Julian stood by the floor-to-ceiling window, a cup of black coffee in his hand, watching the afternoon traffic crawl along the slick streets.
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