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Yardley had noticed Nancy’s mood dipping lately.

Even when she played with Orion, her mind was somewhere else. She would laugh a beat too late. Her eyes would drift to the window. She would go quiet in the middle of a sentence.

"Mommy, you’re spacing out again!" Orion tugged on her sleeve.

Nancy forced a smile. "Sorry, sweetie. Work has been crazy with the start of the year. Mommy just has a lot on her mind."

"Okay." Orion went back to his LEGO spaceship, already lost in his own world.

Yardley turned and walked back to their bedroom.

The master suite was quiet. He passed through the walk-in closet, past his row of suits and her dresses, when something on her vanity caught his eye.

A business card.

He stepped closer. Picked it up.

Thompson & Reed Law Group

Michael Reed, Esq.

He pulled out his phone and typed the name into Google.

Michael Reed. Family law. Divorce and custody.

The air left his lungs.

He stood there, staring at the screen. His fingers tightened around the edge of the vanity until his knuckles went white.

[We just got married. And she is already planning her exit.]

He slipped the card back exactly where he found it.

Then he took a long breath and forced his wolf back down.

--

Nancy had no idea.

She had been digging into her mother’s death for weeks now.

The fall. The timeline. Xander’s name kept coming up in phone records from that night. But knowing something and proving it were two different things.

She had talked to the lawyer earlier that week.

The conversation went nowhere. No hard evidence. No witness. No case. Just a gut feeling and a pile of coincidences.

That was why her mood had been so low. Not because of Yardley. Because she was stuck.

After putting Orion to bed, she went through her usual routine. Shower. Moisturizer. She sat down at the vanity and picked up the blow dryer.

That was when she saw it.

The card.

She had left it out.

Damn it.

She reached for it, planning to shove it into the drawer.

Then she caught a reflection in the mirror.

Yardley stood in the closet doorway. Watching her.

Nancy’s heart jumped. "Do you need to change?"

He didn’t answer. He just walked toward her. Slow. Steady.

"Is your hair dry?"

Before she could respond, his fingers slid into her damp hair. "Not yet. You will wake up with a headache if you sleep like this." He picked up the blow dryer. "Let me finish."

He pressed her gently back into the chair.

Nancy blinked, surprised. But she didn’t refuse.

For the next ten minutes, Yardley dried her hair in silence. His fingers moved through the strands with a gentleness that didn’t match the tension in his shoulders.

The dryer hummed. The bathroom light was warm.

When he finally turned it off, he set the dryer down.

"All done."

Nancy nodded. "Thank you."

They had kissed before. More than once. But she still felt uneasy around him. Like she was waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"You’re welcome."

She expected him to leave. He didn’t. He stayed right where he was, blocking her path.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

Yardley’s dark eyes locked onto hers. His voice was low. Controlled. Almost raw.

"Nancy. Do you hate me that much?"

Her breath caught.

"We just got married." His jaw tightened. "And you are already trying to throw me away. Again."

Nancy’s heart slammed against her ribs.

Yardley’s eyes were dark and unreadable. But if you looked close enough, you could see something flickering underneath. Something raw. Something wounded.

Nancy had assumed he didn’t know about her investigation. She thought she had been careful.

But apparently, every move she made had been under his watch the whole time.

Her lips parted. She tried to say something. Nothing came out.

Even her breathing felt tight. Strained.

--

Seven years ago, Yardley had been invited to give a guest lecture at the University of Texas, Austin.

He spoke to a packed auditorium about pack law and territorial disputes.

Afterward, he walked out to his waiting SUV, ready to head back to the city.

That was when a bike slammed into the side of his car.

His assistant, Louis, jumped out immediately.

A girl in a white sundress sat on the pavement, her knee scraped and bleeding. She had dark hair pulled back in a messy ponytail. Her eyes, when she looked up, were full of frustration.

"Excuse me," she said sharply. "I was riding in front of you. How did you still manage to hit me? This bike is brand new."

She was more upset about the bike than her knee.

Louis looked genuinely sorry. "I am really sorry, miss. A cat ran out in front of us. I swerved to avoid it and didn’t see you in time. Are you okay? Let me take you to the campus health center."

Nancy glanced over at the bushes. A gray cat flicked its tail and disappeared into the shrubs.

She sighed and shook her head. "Forget it. I’m fine."

She didn’t have time for a health center. She had a shift at the coffee shop on Guadalupe Street in an hour.

She stood up slowly, wincing as she put weight on her leg. Then she grabbed her bike and started pushing it down the sidewalk. Limping.

Yardley never got out of the car. But he watched the whole thing through the tinted window. The anger on her face. The bright red scrape on her knee. The way she limped but refused help.

When Louis climbed back into the driver’s seat, Yardley spoke.

"Find out what department she is in. Send her money for medical expenses."

Louis nodded and typed a note into his phone. "Yes, sir."

That night, Nancy checked her bank account and saw a deposit of one thousand dollars.

She stared at the screen, completely confused. "Who sent me money? Is this a scam?"

This was back when phishing scams were just starting to pop up.

Nancy was cautious. She went straight to the campus police and filed a report.

The money sat in the police department’s evidence account for months.

Louis never followed up. Yardley never asked. He moved on and forgot about the whole thing entirely.