They don’t stay much longer after that. My mood has shifted, and I’m sure they can feel it.
I walk them out. Zoe hugs me with Theo on her hip, her hand coming up to the back of my head, holding me there for a second.
“Call me,” she says. “Any time. I mean it.”
Paige squeezes my hand as she steps past. “Same. Don’t sit with this on your own.”
I’m not on my own. I’ve got Dane.
They head down the path, their voices carrying for a moment, then fading. I close the door and stand there in the entrance hall, listening to the quiet.
What happened in that pool belonged to us. Now strangers are looking at it on their phones.
I sit on the bottom stair and wait for Dane to come home. By the time the door opens, I’m already moving. I cross the foyer and go straight into him before he’s even fully inside—arms around his neck, my face pressed against his throat.
He catches me without hesitation, both arms coming around me and holding me steady.
“Hey—” He pulls back just enough to look at me, and whatever he sees shifts something in his expression.
“Babe.”
His voice softens as his hand comes up to my jaw.
“Charlotte.”
“Do you know?” I ask.
Something flickers in his expression.
“Yeah. Lachie showed me.”
I press back into him, burying my face against his neck. He tightens his hold, one hand settling at the back of my head, keeping me there.
“Why are they doing this to us?”
“I don’t understand it.”
“Why aren’t we allowed to just… be?”
“I don’t know, babe.”
I pull back and meet his eyes. “What do we do?”
“We’re installing cameras first thing tomorrow with every angle covered. We’ll cover all the windows too.” He cups my face in both hands. “No one sees our private lives again.”
“How can you promise that?”
“Because I’ll make it impossible. Whatever it takes.”
I hold his gaze, and something in me—tight and wound up—starts to ease, just a little. Because I’ve spent most of my life watching him keep impossible promises.
“They got one night,” he says. “That’s it. Everything after that is ours. Only ours.”
I lean my forehead against his and close my eyes.
After everything—the island, the years, Connor, all of it—we’re still here. Together. The world might be out there, pushing in wherever it can.
But not here.
