Chapter 10 - The Woman Who Wouldn't Be Bought
Z
Marin moved out of the estate at the end of the month.
She returned to her small apartment above a bakery, where the pipes knocked in winter and the kitchen window refused to close properly.
Gideon helped her carry boxes but did not ask her to stay.
At the door, Noah wrapped his arms around her waist.
“You come tomorrow?”
“Of course. I still have a lighthouse to finish.”
He held her tighter.
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
Gideon stood in the hallway, hands in his pockets.
Marin could see how much it cost him to let her leave.
“Thank you for not trying to stop me,” she said.
“I wanted to.”
“I know.”
“But I want you to choose me because you want to be here. Not because you think you owe me.”
She looked at him for a long moment.
“That's the first thing you've said that makes me believe this could work.”
He smiled, though sadness remained in his eyes.
The next morning, Marin opened her own small studio on Atwells Avenue. She used the money she had saved to rent a narrow storefront beside Rosalia's diner.
Her first commission was a mural for a children's reading room. The second was a sign for a family-owned bakery. Word spread that Marin Holloway painted places that made people feel welcome.
Gideon visited the studio twice during the first week.
He bought no special favors and offered no investment.
He simply brought coffee and listened while she explained her designs.
One afternoon, she caught him staring at a photograph of Noah beside the newly painted lighthouse.
“You can sit down, you know,” she told him.
“I didn't want to interrupt.”
“You're standing in the middle of my workspace.”
He moved immediately.
She laughed.
It felt good to laugh with him without feeling indebted.
That evening, he asked her to dinner.
“No business,” he said. “No security meeting. No favors.”
“Who are you, and what have you done with Gideon Rourke?”
He smiled.
“I'm trying to become someone you can trust.”
Marin set down her brush.
“Then keep trying.”
She agreed to dinner.
Not because he was wealthy, powerful, or frightening.
May you like
Because he was learning that love could not be demanded.
It had to be earned.
