Zoe reached up, her small hands sticky with frosting, and Natalie gently wiped her cheeks with a napkin. Aiden leaned forward to cut another slice, and Natalie playfully tapped his wrist, pretending to scold him. They looked like a family, warm and unguarded, something Gordon realized he had not seen since his wife passed away six years earlier.
He felt his breath hitch.
It was not the cake that moved him. It was the realization that while he had been building skyscrapers and negotiating million dollar deals, this woman whom he barely noticed had been giving his children laughter, comfort, and the presence he never provided. A memory surfaced of his late wife Lydia, who had once told him that children grow from attention, not from fortune. At the time he had nodded without understanding. Now her words rang through him like a bell.
Natalie looked up and finally noticed him. Her smile faltered, her posture straightening as if she feared punishment for crossing a line he never meant to draw.
“Sir,” she said softly. “I did not expect you home.”
Aiden slid off his chair and ran toward Gordon, hugging his legs with frosting still on his hands. Zoe followed, clutching his coat.