Daniel ended the call with his pulse thundering in his ears.
For a moment he simply sat in his car, fingers tight around the steering wheel, Marian’s broken sobs echoing in his mind. Five years. Five years of silence, regret, nights lying awake wondering if she still hated him, if she’d moved on, if he’d already lost any chance of redemption. Five years of imagining what he would say if he ever heard her voice again.
And tonight, he heard it all—her pain, her exhaustion, her heart still bleeding in places he once tore apart.
He didn’t waste a second.
The moment she told him the hotel’s name, something inside him snapped into focus: clarity, determination, fear, love—every emotion tangled into a single decision.
He had to go to her.
Not to force anything. Not to demand forgiveness. Bu
