Chapter 11 Resolution

Arthur 

Meanwhile, back at the estate…

I stood on the terrace long after Ceci's car vanished into the night, my fist clenched so tight around the ring I could feel the metal digging into my palm. Footsteps approached from behind me.

“Well,” Carter said quietly. “That went well.”

“Shut up.”

“I’m just saying—you don’t seem to take Cecilia seriously at all. This is probably the stupidest thing you’ve done in over thirty years.”

My knuckles whitened.

"What happened? Why did Cecilia leave all of a sudden?" Max stepped closer, holding two glasses of whiskey in his hand.

Carter looked at Max with exasperation. "Isn't it obvious? Someone upset his little darling."

"What? Who’s someone? What little darling?" Max stepped up beside me, holding out a fresh glass of whiskey. "Here."

Carter stared hopelessly up at the sky.

I snatched it and downed half in one burning gulp. "I can’t marry her."

"Huh? Marry her? Who? You’ve got a lover and didn't even tell—" Max took a sip of his whiskey.

Then he stared at me in shock. "Cecilia?"

I nodded.

"She's Robert's daughter!"

"You've got no right to judge, when you're in love with your foster sister!" Carter shoved Max aside and snatched the drink from my hand.

“Arthur, she loves you because you indulge her,” Carter said. “You’ve been letting her. Remember when she hacked your security system just to wish you happy birthday? Any other person would’ve called the cops. You hired her a programming tutor.”

“She had potential—”

Carter’s voice softened. “We all saw it. The way you light up when she walks into a room. The way you track her every move. The way you nearly killed that prep school kid who made her cry.”

“He called her an orphan,” I said flatly.

“And you broke his nose. Very proportionate response.”

“Look, we get it. She was your best friend’s daughter. You were her guardian. Lines you thought you couldn’t cross. But she’s twenty-two now, Arthur. She’s not a kid anymore.”

“I know that.” My voice came out raw. “Believe me. I fucking know that. We had long since crossed that line.”

“Then what’s the problem?” Carter pressed. “Why push her away?”

I went quiet for a long, heavy moment.

"I'm her guardian—I can protect her for a lifetime. But I will never marry her. I would stay single for the rest of my life."

“Robert trusted me. He asked me to take care of his daughter. To protect her. To give her a good life."

"I let her move in with me. I let things happen that never should have happened. And then—" my jaw tightened “Then I sent her away. Because I won't be able to stop myself from wanting her. From taking her."

"Mate," Carter said gently. "She makes her own choices. And from what I can see, she chose you. She’s been choosing you since she was old enough to know what choosing meant."

Carter said bluntly. “What does she want? What do you want?”

I stared down at the ring in my palm, at the inscription I’d spent hours perfecting:

I’ll always be by your side.

I’d meant every word. Whatever she was doing, I would’ve burned the world down to protect her.

But I’d fucked it up. Again.

"Do you want her?" Carter asked softly.

"I want her," I admitted, the words feeling like they were being torn from my chest. "I've always wanted her."

"Could you stand to see her marry someone else?"

"Not at all."

"Then marry her."

"Exactly. It's that simple. Marry her!" Max said simply.

I knew they were right. I’d been a coward.

Too afraid to claim what I wanted, trapped by some outdated sense of honor and guilt over Robert. And I could never resist Ceci’s advances, which drove me to lose my self-control.

But Cecilia had always been braver than me. She’d come back. And I’d rejected her. Again.

No more.

I shoved the ring into my pocket and turned for the door.

"Go for it, bro. I feel like if you don’t go after her tonight, you’ll have no shot at all." Carter called after me.

“I’m aware.” I grabbed my keys. “I’ve wasted 4 years. I’m not wasting another night.”

I was in my car and speeding toward the city before they could stop me. My phone buzzed—a text from Ethan:

Sir, unusual activity on corporate servers. Someone accessed Mr. William Winston's private files. Digital signature matches the “C” operative.

My blood turned to ice.

Cecilia. It had to be. But why was she digging into my father’s files?

Another text flashed in:

Files all relate to Locke-Winston Neural Computing Partnership. Termination date: three days before Robert Locke's accident.

Understanding crashed over me like a tidal wave.

Every piece I’d refused to see snapped into sharp, brutal focus.

My father. Robert’s partner. The “accident” that had never made sense.

Cecilia’s return after 4 years. Her insistence on working at Winston Corp.

She wasn’t just back for me.

She was back to investigate her father’s death.

And she suspected my family was involved.

I slammed my foot harder on the accelerator.

We needed to talk. Now.

But when I reached her building, her apartment was dark. The doorman said she’d come home an hour ago, then left again twenty minutes later—only a backpack and her laptop.

“Did she say where she was going?” I demanded.

“No, sir. But she took an Uber to the Brooklyn waterfront.”

I was back in my car before he finished speaking.

Brooklyn waterfront. One stood out above all others:

the old warehouse district.

The kind of place a brilliant hacker would keep a private server room.

I was going to find her.

And this time, I wasn’t letting her run.