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If he allowed that to happen, he would be lost if she left him. He would probably follow her to the ends of the galaxy, whether she wanted him to or not.
Yet they both had signed a contract agreeing never to meet again.
What if we both agreed to change the contract? What if she stayed?
A future with Chloe and all the children they would have flashed before his eyes, and he drank it in eagerly. Surely, she would agree to go with him. She had to feel the connection just as much as he did.
Didn’t she?
Her comms buzzed, interrupted his thoughts.
“I haven’t checked the portal yet today,” she said frantically, pulling away from him to tap her bracelet.
He let go of her and watched as she scanned the hologram over her bracelet hungrily.
“Oh no,” she moaned. “I… I have to go send a comm back. This is urgent.”
She scrambled back down the hallway to the bedroom, her whole being fixed on the image floating above her wrist.
Even the intensity of her own sadness was instantly forgotten in favor of helping her student in need.
She calls them her children, he realized, the truth unfurling painfully and inexorably in his mind. He could never ask her to give that up.
Sucking in a deep breath, and calling on all his force of will and sense of right and wrong, he turned and headed for the front door of the villa.
His need to protect her was greater than his own selfish dreams. He knew what he had to do, even as the thought of it made him feel as if knives were slicing his heart to pieces.
22
CHLOE
Chloe dressed carefully for lunch, feeling eager to look her best after abandoning Jubal all morning to deal with a work tangle.
He hadn’t knocked on the door to bother her once, for which she would be endlessly grateful.
The stakes were so high for kindergarteners, and she had so little time with them. A positive first school experience could make all the difference, and she was determined to do what she could, even from here, to ensure that each and every student had a fair shake.
And since five-year-olds weren’t really in charge of their after-school schedules and whether or not they got help at home, some special help from the teacher and a chance to retake a test wasn’t a privilege, it was a requirement as far as Chloe was concerned.
She had sent impassioned comms to the principal, the school board, and the head of the parent-teacher forum, begging them to intervene on behalf of her class.
And they had come through, big time.
A parent who had retired from teaching when she had her twins offered to come in and coach anyone who needed it since her clearances were already on file.
And the overwhelmed substitute had been grateful for the principal’s help planning out her schedule to accommodate re-tests on Fridays.
Hopefully, the kids were feeling content and no permanent damage had been done to their fragile confidence.
Now, with that settled, Chloe could relax and focus on her own life again.
And it was hard to feel down when she looked so nice. The girl in the mirror wore a creamy white dress that swirled around her whenever she moved. Her hair was pulled back in a pearl-encrusted comb, showing off diamond drop earrings the size of uvaberries.
It all felt like overkill for a kindergarten teacher, but this was what Oberon had laid out for her.
Oberon knows best, she told herself.
And the mirror certainly agreed.
