Chapter 10 - The Day Claire Packed AgainEight months after Edward fired Claire, she packed her suitcase for the second time.
The bullet passed through soft tissue without striking bone or major vessels.
By morning, he was demanding discharge papers.
Claire expected arrogance.
Instead, when the nurse told him to wait, he waited.
Mostly.
Emma and Lily arrived before breakfast.
Both girls ran into the room.
Edward braced himself.
“Ow.”
They stopped instantly.
“Sorry!” Emma cried.
He smiled.
“Gentle hugs.”
They climbed carefully onto the bed.
Claire stood at the doorway.
The scene looked simple.
A father.
Two daughters.
Morning sunlight.
But nothing about them was simple anymore.
Daniel had been charged with kidnapping, fraud, conspiracy, and several offenses connected to Caroline’s death.
Martin had agreed to cooperate.
Marcus had done the same.
Jonathan’s immunity negotiations continued.
The board had canceled Edward’s competency hearing.
Nobody dared mention removing him now.
Yet none of that seemed to matter to Edward as much as the two girls beside him.
“Are you coming home today?” Lily asked.
“Yes.”
“Will you stay home tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
“What about Tuesday?”
Edward hesitated.
Claire watched him.
He looked at Emma.
“I have to work sometimes.”
Emma’s face fell slightly.
“But I can work differently.”
“How?”
“I can be home for dinner.”
“Every day?”
“Most days.”
Emma thought.
“What about pancakes?”
Edward looked offended.
“I nearly died making those.”
“You burned them.”
“That was the dangerous part.”
Emma laughed.
Later, after the girls went with Mrs. Alvarez to the cafeteria, Claire remained.
Edward looked at her.
“You’re leaving.”
She was surprised.
“How did you know?”
“You’ve been standing by that door for ten minutes like someone preparing a resignation speech.”
Claire sighed.
“I think it’s time.”
Edward’s expression changed.
“Because of what happened?”
“Because you don’t need me the way you did.”
“My daughters need you.”
“They need stability.”
“You are stability.”
Claire sat beside the bed.
“That’s exactly the problem.”
He frowned.
“They’ve attached to me because you disappeared emotionally after Caroline died.”
“I’m trying to change.”
“I know.”
“And you think removing the person they trust most will help?”
“No.”
“Then stay.”
Claire looked at him.
“You’re ordering me?”
“No.”
He paused.
“I’m asking.”
That mattered.
Claire smiled faintly.
“I’ll stay through the school year.”
Edward relaxed slightly.
“Then what?”
“Then we decide what’s healthiest for them.”
He nodded.
“Fair.”
Claire stood.
“Also, you’re going to therapy.”
Edward stared.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“That was not part of our agreement.”
“It is now.”
“I don’t need—”
Claire raised an eyebrow.
Edward stopped.
She waited.
He sighed.
“I’ll consider it.”
“You’ll go.”
“You are extremely controlling for an employee.”
“And you are extremely argumentative for a man wearing a hospital gown.”
He looked down.
“Point taken.”
By autumn, the Montgomery household changed in ways nobody expected.
Edward hired a professional CEO to handle more daily operations.
He remained chairman but stopped measuring his worth in hours spent away from home.
He attended Emma’s school assembly.
He arrived fifteen minutes early.
Emma spent the entire performance looking into the audience every thirty seconds to make sure he had not left.
He noticed.
Afterward she ran to him.
“You stayed!”
Edward’s smile faltered.
“Of course.”
But Claire saw the pain in his face.
He understood what Emma’s surprise meant.
Lily began insisting he braid her hair.
He was terrible at it.
The first attempt looked like tangled rope.
The second was worse.
By the tenth, he had watched enough tutorials to become respectable.
Every Sunday, they visited Caroline’s grave.
At first Edward spoke only to the girls.
Then one morning he remained after they walked toward the car.
Claire stayed several yards away.
Edward stood before the stone.
“I’m sorry,” he said quietly.
The words were almost lost in the wind.
He did not ask forgiveness.
He simply told the truth.
“I failed you that night.”
A pause.
“But I’m trying not to fail them.”
Claire looked away, giving him privacy.
The criminal case against Daniel grew stronger.
Forensic analysis suggested Caroline’s brake line had been deliberately damaged.
Marcus eventually confessed that Daniel ordered him to weaken the line.
He claimed the intention was intimidation.
Prosecutors argued that deliberate sabotage made the outcome foreseeable.
Daniel’s lawyers fought every charge.
The Montgomery name filled newspapers.
For years Edward had protected the family’s reputation above everything.
Now he released a public statement supporting the investigation.
No excuses.
No attempt to bury embarrassment.
“The truth matters more than the preservation of any family image,” he told reporters.
Claire watched from the kitchen.
Mrs. Alvarez smiled.
“Mrs. Montgomery would have liked that.”
Claire looked at her.
“You think so?”
“Oh, yes.”
Mrs. Alvarez poured tea.
“She loved him very much.”
“Even at the end?”
“Especially at the end.”
Claire frowned.
Mrs. Alvarez sat.
“Young people think love disappears when people become angry.”
She shook her head.
“Sometimes anger is what happens when love has nowhere safe to go.”
Claire thought about that longer than she expected.
By winter, Daniel accepted a plea agreement on the financial crimes and kidnapping charges, but prosecutors still pursued a homicide-related charge connected to Caroline’s death.
Edward attended every major hearing.
At one appearance, Daniel turned toward him.
“You destroyed me.”
Edward stared back.
“No.”
Daniel’s face twisted.
“You could have handled this privately.”
“That’s what our family always did.”
“You’re enjoying this.”
Edward shook his head.
“No.”
“What do you want from me?”
Edward looked at his brother for a long time.
Then said, “I wanted the truth.”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“And now?”
Edward glanced toward Claire, Emma, and Lily waiting near the courtroom doors.
“Now I want to go home.”
He turned away.
Daniel shouted after him.
“Edward!”
He did not turn back.
Outside, Lily grabbed his hand.
“Can we get ice cream?”
“It’s forty degrees.”
“That’s not a no.”
Claire laughed.
Edward looked at her.
Something passed between them.
Something that had been building quietly for months.
Neither acknowledged it.
Not yet.
May you like
Because some things needed time.
And the Montgomery family had finally learned that not everything valuable should be rushed.
