Later, he stopped Chloe by the doorway.
“I care about you,” he said. “More than I expected.”
She whispered, “I feel it too.”
“Maybe we’re crazy.”
“Maybe it’s the good kind.”
“May I?” he asked, brushing her cheek.
She nodded.
“I love you.”
“I love you too.”
They began a quiet relationship, careful and respectful of the girls. The house felt lighter than it had in years.
Three weeks later, Daniel’s mother, Margaret Brooks, arrived unannounced. Seeing Chloe in paint-stained clothes with the twins, she exploded.
“What is this? They look ridiculous!”
“That’s enough,” Daniel said sharply. “You won’t speak to her like that.”
“You defend the help over your own mother?”
“I defend the woman I love.”
The words hung in the air.
“This is beneath our family,” Margaret hissed.
“I care about my daughters’ happiness,” he replied.
She left in fury.
Three months later, Daniel and Chloe married in the same garden. Emma and Lily stood beside them as flower girls.
“Now we’re really a family,” Emma said.
“Forever,” Lily added.
Chloe graduated at the top of her class. Her first exhibition was a success. A year later, she gave birth to a son, Noah.