Page 87 of Owned

She was so fucking beautiful.

“We’re lucky bastards don’t you think?” Cal said meditatively as we all stared in the direction of our women.

“Fucking lucky,” I agreed.

Rowan had decided she didn’t want to get an MBA after all. She wanted to study law instead and was gunning for Harvard, because of course she was. She was nothing if not ambitious and once the baby was born, I had no doubt she’d get in. She was a woman who went out and got what she wanted, and I was the perfect example.

“Charlotte destroyed the proof she had of Sir George’s murder,” Ten said conversationally, as if he hadn’t just dropped a massive fucking bombshell.

“What the fuck?” Cal said, turning to him. “When?”

“Oh, earlier,” Ten said airily. “When we arrived.”

“Thanks for the heads up,” I said. “Why was that not the first thing you said?”

He shrugged. “It slipped my mind.”

“Ten,” I began.

“She decided, after speaking with Isabel and Rowan that she wanted to be a family, and a decent family,” Ten went on as if I hadn’t spoken. “And as a gesture of good faith, she got rid of it.” He smiled at me, a rare thing. “We’re in the clear, Atlas.”

“Well, that’s something to celebrate,” Cal said.

“Fucking A.” I held up my glass and the two dutifully clinked it.

Not a minute after that, Rowan approached over the grass, the breeze catching her hair and my heart along with it.

My toy. My beauty. My Rowan.

My past would probably never completely leave me, but the shadow it cast got smaller every day. Because every day had her in it.

She made everything worth it and she always would.