Mrs. Isabel's breath caught in her throat as she locked eyes with the man across the room. For a moment, time seemed to freeze, the buzz of the party fading into a distant hum. Memories she had long buried came rushing back, sharp and vivid, with every look and detail of his face—a face she'd once known intimately, now aged, but no less familiar.
The man, tall with an air of composed confidence, was no stranger. This was the man she had once loved deeply, the man who had left her for a woman of wealth and influence. A man who, once upon a time, had promised her the world, only to walk away the moment he saw someone who could lift his family to a higher position.
His gaze bore into hers with the same intensity she remembered, but the years between them had turned that fire into something else.
