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That he valued her

Seb stood still, feeling his heart beat impossibly hard, impossibly loud

Was this valuing her? This nausea, this knot of worry, this urge to do whatever it took to show her?

Or was it so more? Was it love?

It was messy and painful, just as he had feared, but it was more than that

It was miraculous

She ift, even though it would take him the rest of his life

The estate office was, as usual, a le of paperwork, old furniture, tools and filing cabinets It felt unloved, i old office chair and looked about at the utilitarian shelves, filled with broken bits oftools This was no way to run a place the size of Hawksley

He picked up a notebook and flipped it open to a fresh white page It mocked him with the unwritten possibilities and he sat for athe changes ahead

But this wasn’t about hie, about the man he was—and the man he should be

It was about his future wife

The first thing he needed to do was admit he needed some help, he couldn’t do it all on his own no matter how much he wanted to

He uncapped his fountain pen and began to write

1 Resign froe

Seb sat back and looked at the words, waited to feel sad, resentful, to feel the weight of failure He still had soprofessorship at Harvard for one Was he ready to give up his acade books but without his college credentials they would ues

But the expected emotions didn’t materialise; instead the burden on his shoulders lessened