Logan stood frozen, the bustling city of London carrying on around him as he stared at the face of a woman he never thought hed see againcertainly not like this.
Emily Whitmore. His first love. His only love, if he was honest.
The girl whod once dared him to climb the old water tower, who danced barefoot in rainstorms, who kissed him under the bleachers after school and whispered dreams of Paris, poetry, and a world far bigger than their sleepy little town.
But shed vanished after graduation. No note. No call. Just… gone.
And now here she was, clutching two shivering little girls on the pavement outside a Harrods, looking as though the world had left her behind.
He knelt.
Right there, in his Savile Row suit and Italian loafers, on the grimy London pavement.
“Emily,” he whispered again, softer this time.
She couldnt meet his eyes.
“I didnt want you to see me like this,” she said, her voice rough. “I nearly ran when I recognised you.”
The twins stared up at him with wide, frightened eyes. One tugged at Emilys sleeve.
“Mummy, Im cold.”
His heart clenched. *Mummy.*
He looked at Emily, his voice gentler than she remembered. “Are they… yours?”
She nodded once. “Lily and Rose. Theyre three.”
It stole his breath.
Three years.
They looked just like her, but there was something familiar in the tilt of their chins. The way Rose squinted in the sunlight, just as he had as a boy.
His pulse roared.
“Are they… mine?”
Emily finally lifted her gaze, tears in her eyes. “I didnt know how to find you. I tried… but when I found out who youd become, I thought” Her voice wavered. “I thought you wouldnt want this. Me. Them.”
A silence heavier than any hed ever known settled between them.
He wasnt sure how long they stayed like that.
Then, slowly, as if the decision had already been made somewhere deep in his soul, he shrugged off his coat and wrapped it around Emilys shoulders. He scooped Lily up with care, then held out a hand to Rose.
“Come on,” he said firmly. “Lets go home.”
In the days that followed, the papers went wild.
*Tech billionaire Logan Bennett spotted with mysterious woman and children in Central London*
*The secret family of the reclusive tycoon?*
*From rags to riches: The woman who broke Logan Bennetts silence*
But Logan didnt care.
He didnt care about the headlines.
He didnt care about the worried board members calling.
He didnt care about the gossip at society parties.
Because Emily and the girls were upstairs in his penthouse, warm, safe, fed.
And for the first time in years, he felt something again.
Weeks later, Emily stood before his floor-to-ceiling windows, staring at the skyline.
“I dont belong in this world, Logan,” she said quietly. “Youre… you. And Im just”
“Youre their mother,” he interrupted. “Youre the only person who ever really knew me. You belong here more than anyone.”
She turned to him, eyes shining. “I was scared.”
“So was I,” he murmured. “But Im not anymore.”
Then he kneltnot with a ring, not yetbut with his heart.
“Stay. Lets figure it out. Together.”
And Emily stayed.
Not for the money. Not for the penthouse, the press, or the luxury.
But because the boy whod once taken her hand in a school hallway had found her againthis time on the coldest street, in her hardest moment.
And instead of turning away…
Hed come home.
To her.
To their daughters.
To the life they were meant to live.
