had spent two years building was collapsing.
And Rowan had tried to keep her calm.
Badly.
Dishonestly.
At my expense.
“Why didn’t she tell me that on the phone?”
“Pride.”
“That sounds like her.”
“She also knew you’d tell me to get legal advice instead of promising her I’d handle it.”
“I would have.”
“I know.”
He laughed tiredly.
“So would I, if it had been anybody else.”
There it was again.
The pattern.
Around his mother, Rowan stopped being the competent professional he was everywhere else.
He became a
