Chapter 98. A Future With You

Vanessa's POV

Some time in October...

The last two months had been the sweetest paradox of my life—terrifying and beautiful all at once. I had my family finally finding stable ground, my mother making slow but steady progress at the hospital, and my brother—the same brother who once swore to "confront my boss for torturing me"—had accepted Andre with surprising ease. Well, after the obligatory big-brother speech about breaking my heart, of course.

Claire's business was flourishing beyond our modest expectations. And my relationship with Andre? It existed in two parallel universes: the professional distance we maintained at work, and the intimate world we'd created when alone. He played his part so well that some of the employees were beginning to think our relationship was nothing but a misunderstanding. We were clean—except Stanley, of course, the stoic guy who you could barely guess what's in his mind.

I learnt a lot more about him from spe