Chapter 21 

Ever since Maisy moved back into the Gilmore estate, the family had shut out the world. No news got in, and no gossip got out. 

Patrick knew Maisy’s dad had remarried. What he didn’t know was that the second marriage had already crashed and burned. That’s why Maisy finally agreed to come home and start running the family business. 

After Maisy returned, her father quietly moved out to the old house so he wouldn’t bother her. Now, Maisy had the entire mansion to herself. 

Every morning felt the same. Maisy would come downstairs and the housekeeper would have the TV on the news and breakfast waiting for her–toast, eggs, coffee, the works. Maisy would wave the housekeeper away, then plop down cross–legged on the rug and dig in. 

She barely glanced at the TV, sipping her milk, until a flash of Patrick’s face caught her eye–a missing person notice. She looked away just as quickly. 

Even from another continent, Maisy knew all about Patrick and Melinda. She knew Patrick had gotten bored, dumped Melinda, and then had the nerve to try crawling back, begging Maisy to take him back and tear up the divorce papers. She knew he’d seen the divorce certificate she’d left behind, that he realized she was really gone. She even heard about him going after the people who hurt her, and how he’d searched for her everywhere, desperate. 

But Patrick’s regret meant nothing to her now. 

If he’d realized what he had before she’d burned those ninety–nine love letters–maybe, just maybe, she would’ve considered giving him another chance. But by the time he looked back, she was done. She’d burned everything, let go of all her hope. It was only after he’d used Melinda up and had nothing left that he remembered her. 

Would he have ever come back if Melinda hadn’t disappointed him? Or would he have kept her waiting forever, trapped in his shadow? 

The thought made Maisy sick. As far as she was concerned, the Patrick who loved her died the day he cheated. The man searching for her now was just a stranger. 

Whatever he did, he’d never find her. She would never let herself look back. 

She turned off the TV, grabbed her laptop, and headed to her study. She’d been feeling under the weather lately, so she was working from home. 

The second she logged on, her group chat started blowing up. The pinned message read: “Ms. Gilmore, the CEO of Huffman Corporation wants to buy your gallery in the city.” 

Maisy’s stomach twisted. That gallery was the only thing her mother had left her–a place filled with memories. Now Patrick was using it to try to force her out of hiding? 

But she remembered what her mother had told her before she died: if anyone ever tried to use the gallery against her, she was to let it go. Things were just things. Her safety came first. 

Chapter 21 

So she typed a quick reply: “Let him buy it.” 

She’d already taken every last memento out of the gallery before she left the country. Now it was just an empty shell. She wasn’t planning on coming back, so it didn’t matter who owned it. With that settled, Maisy closed the chat window and got to work. 

Meanwhile, back home, Patrick slammed his phone down on his desk the moment he got her answer. Trying to buy the gallery had been his last shot at getting Maisy to show herself. 

Ever since she left, he’d been falling apart. He couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep, couldn’t focus. Even at work, nothing felt right. And this was just the beginning–he had no idea how he’d survive if things kept going like this. 

But he never imagined Maisy would be so cold. She didn’t even want Deanna’s gallery anymore. Didn’t she care at all? 

He’d told her, hadn’t he? Melinda was just a fling. Once he got bored, he’d come home. That’s more than most men in his world could say. Some of them had mistresses before marriage and never came home after. He’d waited five years before his first affair, and he always came 

home. 

Maisy had agreed to it all at first, so why did she suddenly change? 

Patrick was seething when his assistant knocked and stepped in. “Mr. Huffman, should we move forward with acquiring Mrs. Gilmore’s mother’s gallery?” 

Patrick glared at him. “Didn’t you see her answer?” 

The assistant’s face went pale and he nodded quickly. “I’ll go prepare the papers right away!”