Chapter 15 - ROSA RETURNED TO COLUMBIA
Three months later, Rosa walked back onto Columbia’s campus.
She had almost turned around twice.
Everything felt familiar.
And completely different.
The laboratory building looked smaller than she remembered.
The hallways smelled exactly the same.
Coffee.
Paper.
Chemicals.
Ambition.
Professor Jonathan Reeves met her outside his office.
He had supervised Rosa years earlier.
The moment he saw her, regret crossed his face.
“Rosa.”
“Professor.”
“I owe you an apology.”
“You believed what donors told you.”
“That isn’t an excuse.”
“No.”
“It isn’t.”
He appreciated that she did not make forgiveness easy.
Rosa had been offered reinstatement.
Scholarship funding.
Research support.
Not from Ethan.
She insisted on that.
Columbia opened an investigation into what had happened years earlier.
The institution acknowledged interference.
Rosa wanted her return to belong to her.
Not Caldwell money.
Not guilt.
Not pity.
Her.
Ethan respected that.
Mostly.
He still tried to send a chauffeur on her first day.
She sent the chauffeur home.
He sent lunch.
She kept lunch.
She was principled, not stupid.
Their relationship developed slowly.
Painfully slowly, according to Ethan.
Perfectly slowly, according to Rosa.
He saw Lily four or five days each week.
Sometimes at the mansion.
Sometimes at Rosa’s apartment.
Sometimes in parks where Ethan discovered billionaires were not naturally skilled at pushing swings.
Lily adored him.
That frightened Rosa.
Not because Ethan was bad with her.
Because he was wonderful.
He remembered everything.
Favorite cereal.
Favorite cartoons.
Which stuffed animal was currently ranked second behind Button.
The fact Lily hated socks with seams.
The fact she wanted blueberries cut in half even though she was perfectly capable of eating whole blueberries.
Ethan learned every detail.
He never complained.
He attended preschool events.
Pediatric appointments.
One disastrous ballet class where Lily spent forty minutes refusing to dance and then performed the entire routine in the parking lot.
He was there.
Always.
One evening, Rosa found him asleep on her sofa.
Lily was asleep across his chest.
A picture book lay open beside them.
Rosa stood in the doorway.
For years, she had trained herself not to imagine this.
Now it was real.
And reality was somehow more frightening than loneliness.
Ethan opened his eyes.
“Hi.”
“You’re drooling on my sofa.”
He sat up.
“I absolutely am not.”
“You are.”
Lily stirred.
Both went silent immediately.
Rosa lifted her gently.
“I’ll put her to bed.”
When she returned, Ethan was standing beside the window.
“You’re avoiding me.”
She sighed.
“Ethan.”
“You are.”
“I’m busy.”
“So am I.”
“You own fifty companies.”
“Forty-three.”
“That correction is why people dislike billionaires.”
He smiled.
Then became serious.
“I don’t want to pressure you.”
“You’re doing a bad job.”
“I love you.”
Rosa stopped breathing.
There it was.
No dramatic dinner.
No ring.
No grand gesture.
Just three words in a small apartment.
Ethan continued.
“I loved you four years ago.”
“I think I spent years trying to convince myself I didn’t.”
“And I love you now.”
Rosa looked at the floor.
“You don’t get to say that and expect everything to become simple.”
“I don’t.”
“I don’t trust simple anymore.”
“Neither do I.”
She looked at him.
“I need time.”
“I have time.”
“You say that now.”
“I’ll say it tomorrow.”
“And next month?”
“Yes.”
“And next year?”
“If you still need it.”
Rosa’s eyes filled.
Ethan did not move toward her.
He waited.
That mattered.
Finally, Rosa crossed the distance herself.
She kissed him.
Not passionately.
Not like a movie.
Softly.
Carefully.
A beginning.
Not a promise.
When they separated, Ethan smiled.
“That was significantly better than being told to go home.”
“Don’t ruin it.”
He nodded.
“Understood.”
Then someone knocked.
Rosa frowned.
It was nearly ten.
She opened the door.
A courier handed her a legal envelope.
Inside was notice of a civil suit.
Victoria Haynes was suing Rosa.
For defamation.
Emotional distress.
And destruction of her engagement.
Rosa stared at the document.
Then laughed.
Ethan looked at her.
“What?”
She handed it to him.
He read.
Then looked almost offended.
“She kidnapped our daughter.”
“I know.”
“She shoved her.”
“I know.”
“She committed fraud.”
“I know.”
“And she’s suing you?”
Rosa smiled.
“Apparently I ruined her wedding.”
Ethan folded the document.
“No.”
He looked toward Lily’s bedroom.
“She ruined her wedding.”
May you like
“Now we prove it.”
---
