Chapter 68 Chapter 68

Chapter 68 Chapter 68
The library of the Ross estate was a vault of heavy silences and expensive shadows. Adrian Senior sat behind his mahogany desk, a glass of scotch resting near a small, silver-framed photograph of Talia. The lamp cast a warm, amber glow over her face—a face AJ had spent thirty years trying to memorize from fragments of fading dreams.

AJ sank into the opposite chair, his fingers tracing the velvet box in his pocket. For the first time in his life, the distance between him and his father didn't feel like a professional boundary. It felt like a shared wound.

"Dad," AJ started, his voice a low rasp that broke the quiet. He had come to ask his father about the 'right time,' and found him staring at a picture of his birth mother. It always amazed him how his mama Rosalinda would give his father time alone to miss a woman he had once loved and in a way still loved.

AJ looked at the smile on his parents' faces and how deeply they looked into each other's eyes. They were in love, so in love that the universe got jealous and snatched hhis mother from his father.

"I’m starting to forget how she sounded. I’m starting to forget how Mom was."

The air in the room seemed to thin. Adrian Senior, the man who had built a legal empire out of cold logic and "new money" grit, didn't move. He just stared at the photo. The silence stretched until it was almost painful.

"That’s my cross to bear, AJ," Adrian said, his voice dropping into a gravelly, raw register. "I kept her in a box because I couldn't breathe when the lid was open. She was... she was the only thing that made this life worth the fight."

He finally looked up, his eyes clouded with a grief that decades hadn't managed to bleach away. "She was a bit like your Katherine. Although her fire burned deep. Katherine is a wildfire—you see it coming. Talia was gentle, quiet... but she was loud in her own way. She didn't need to shout to be the most powerful person in the room. She just had to look at you, and you knew exactly who you were supposed to be."

AJ leaned forward, his heart hammering against his ribs. "How did you know, Dad? How did you know she was the one? And how... how were you brave enough to start over with Mama Rosalinda? I’m terrified that if I step forward with Katherine, I’m just going to fail her again. Like I failed the baby. Like I failed by leaving."

Adrian set his glass down with a deliberate, heavy click. He looked at his son, really looking at him, stripping away the lawyer and the patriarch.

"I knew Talia was the one because the world stopped being a competition when she was in the room," Adrian whispered. "I was a scrappy kid from nothing, trying to buy my way into a world that didn't want me. But with her? I didn't need the money or the title. I just needed her to see me. When she died, I became a machine. I focused on the firm, on the legacy, on making sure you never wanted for a thing. But I was hollow, AJ. I was a ghost haunting my own life."

He paused, his gaze drifting toward the hallway where the faint sound of a distant television suggested Rosalinda was still awake.

"And then Rosalinda," Adrian said, a genuine, tired smile breaking through. "She could already see how broken this home was. And you know how much your Mama likes to fix things."

"Weren't you scared?" AJ asked. "Of letting go of Mom?"

"I was terrified," Adrian admitted, his voice cracking. "I felt like loving Rosalinda was a betrayal. But then I realized... Talia loved me. And she would have hated the man I’d become without love.

Being brave enough to start over wasn't about forgetting your mother, AJ. It was about honoring the life she gave me. Rosalinda didn't replace her. She built a new floor on a broken foundation. She saved us both."

AJ felt a lump form in his throat. He thought of the "mother-shaped wall" at the Henrys' and how different this was. This was a legacy of survival, not suppression.

"I thought I had to be perfect because she wasn't here to see me fail," AJ admitted, the words finally tumbling out.

"No," Adrian said, reaching across the desk to grip AJ’s arm. His hand was warm, solid, and for the first time, AJ felt the father beneath the lawyer. "She would have loved the failures most.

That’s where the growth is. Katherine... she’s your Rosalinda, AJ. She’s the one who’s going to keep you from becoming a machine. She’s the fire that’s going to keep the shadows at bay. Don't be a coward like I was for those five years. Don't wait until you're hollow to realize what's standing right in front of you."

AJ stood up, the tension in his shoulders finally beginning to dissolve. He didn't need to be the hero who never stumbled. He just needed to be the man who stayed in the room.

"Thanks, Dad," AJ said, reaching out to touch the frame of his mother's photo. "I think I'm ready to go home now."

"Go home, son," Adrian said, his eyes reflecting the firelight. "And AJ? Tomorrow, let’s talk about her some more. You have her eyes, you know. When you look at Katherine... I see your mother looking at me."

AJ walked out of the library, the velvet box in his pocket no longer a lead weight, but a compass. He drove back to the city with the windows down, the night air cooling the last of his doubts.

When he slipped back into the apartment, the quiet was no longer a void. It was a sanctuary. He found Katherine asleep on the sofa, a medical journal forgotten on her lap. He didn't pull out the ring. Not tonight. Tonight, he just walked over, lifted her gently into his arms, and carried her to their bed.

As he tucked the covers around her and climbed in beside her, Katherine stirred, her hand instinctively finding his in the dark.

"You're back," she murmured sleepily, her head finding the hollow of his shoulder.

"I'm back," AJ whispered, kissing her temple. "And I'm not going anywhere. Day One, Kitty Kat."

He closed his eyes, finally at peace. The desert was a memory. The silence was broken. And for the first time in nearly two years, AJ Ross wasn't just a doctor or a soldier or a fugitive from his own heart. He was a man who was finally, truly, home.