He Gave Her The Best So I Left Him With Nothing Chapter 17
“Go home and live your life, Marguerite.” I looked at her, my voice carrying no triumph, only the deep exhaustion that settles in when a long fight is finally done. “I don’t want to compete with you anymore. I just want to stay here and do my work.”
The words seemed to sting her. She squared her shoulders, her pride a shield. “Don’t flatter yourself. You could never beat me.”
Then she spun around and stalked off, the sharp clicks of her heels ringing against the stone path.
But for me, the war was already over.
I turned and found Cormac standing in the doorway.
Behind him, two movers were carefully easing something through the gate. It was the walnut side cabinet that had belonged to my grandmother — the one I’d restored with my own hands.
Cormac motioned for them to set it down in the yard, sent them off, and walked toward me, an almost hopeful sincerity in his eyes.
“Now it belongs to you alone.”
I looked at the cabinet. It glowed in the afternoon sun, and I could still recall the feel of the grain beneath my fingertips as I’d worked it. But now, the sight of it only made my eyes sting. It was still nothing more than another leftover from one of Marguerite’s charity events.
Just like me.
“I don’t want it,” I said calmly.
Cormac blinked, as though he hadn’t seen that coming.
“You can deal with it.”
He opened his mouth to argue, but a gentle voice cut through the tense silence.
“Sadie?”
I turned. Aidan stood a few feet off with Sam, who was clutching a basketball. The instant I saw them, the heavy gloom that had trailed me all the way from Chicago seemed to lift.
