Page 63 of Broken Destiny

I didn’t think telling Liam about my past with Caleb would make any difference. The one person who needed to know about it was Cole, and I had told him already.

I was a professional.

A businesswoman.

I knew I could handle Caleb. I had done so in the past, standing my ground when he tried to bulldoze his way through decisions, and I could do so in the present too.

Over the next few weeks,I saw Caleb far more often than necessary—sometimes every three days. His secretary kept scheduling meetings with little notice, slotting them into my calendar as though my time was flexible.

It wasn’t.

Each last-minute request disrupted carefully planned work, forcing me to rearrange priorities for discussions that rarely justified the urgency.

And yet, the meetings kept coming.

Almost as if they weren’t about the project at all.

Each time my phone rang with his name attached to it, my stomach reacted, reminding me that peace would be short-lived. I had to commute from the village to the city every time while trying to manage my time with my children, the restaurant, and the cafés. My days felt like a juggling act performed on a tightrope, where one wrong step could send everything crashing down.

“Will you be late again, Mama?” Lucas asked during breakfast one morning.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart, I might be,” I replied, feeling horrible.

Lucas’s disappointment hung heavily over our usual morning routine, dulling even the comforting aroma of toast and warm milk filling the air.

“You’re hardly ever home anymore, and when you are, you’re either on the phone or working on the laptop.”

“I’m so sorry, Lucas,” I said again. I reached across the table and gently squeezed his hand, needing him to feel the sincerity in my touch. “This is Dad’s special project, his dream. I’m trying my best to complete it soon. Unfortunately, it’s taking up more hours during the day than I thought. I’m really sorry.”

“Mama, no play,” Emma said with her wide blue-green eyes.

I leaned forward and kissed both of them, breathing in the familiar scent of their hair. “I’ll try to cut down on the hours, guys, I promise.”

I had been having breakfast with the children, dropping Lucas at school in the morning, and then rushing through the day only to see them again in the evening… sometimes when they were already in bed, their small bodies curled under blankets while I stood quietly at the doorway, watching them sleep and wishing I had been there sooner.

Trying to lighten the mood and bring back their smiles, I forced abrighter tone into my voice. “How about this weekend we go to see Quinn and Noah?”

“Yay!” the children screamed.

“Last weekend was fun at Uncle Liam’s house,” Lucas said.

“My weekends belong to you guys. No amount of work will prevent me from spending time with the two most precious pieces of my heart, remember?”

“Yes, Mama,” Emma said, nodding happily.

After breakfast, I dropped Lucas off at school and came back home to play with Emma for a while before heading to the city for yet another meeting in the afternoon.

“And here you are again for another meeting?” I said, entering my office and seeing Caleb waiting for me.

I didn’t think these meetings were required because nothing had changed in just a couple of days. We would keep visiting the site again and again, walking the same ground, reviewing the same plans, while construction workers had already begun digging into the land.

“Punctuality is not your forte anymore, I see?” he replied, tapping on his watch.

I noticed it was a different watch. He probably threw mine away or smashed it under his shoe.

“Well, I have two kids now, and commuting every three days for meetings which are unnecessary has kind of changed my priorities,” I said, keeping my voice controlled even as the muscles in my neck tightened.

“Hey… you were the one who said it was your late husband’s dream, and you wanted to make it a reality,” he said, placing his hands on the table and smiling sarcastically.