Before Clara could answer, from a distance, Margaret's voice cut in, polite but firm.
"Oh, Axiel, perhaps another time," she said quickly, stepping in as though to block the conversation entirely.
Clara frowned, glancing between them. As they walked down the stairs towards the breakfast table, she said "Why not? I don't mind at all. I'd love for him to meet my sister Sofia," she added warmly. "I think they will get along really well."
Margaret hesitated, and for a moment, worry, calculation, maybe even fear filling her eyes. She looked toward Ethan and Robert, and both gave the smallest shake of their heads. But Clara did not give up, and eventually, they relented.
What no one told Clara was that their caution wasn't about disapproval. It was about survival.
A few months ago, when she started working at the DA's office in New York, Clara prosecuted a case that put away the son of a powerful man. That man swore revenge in his own quiet way. The police never caught him making threats, but he had been spotted more than once at the CPS office, asking questions about a boy named Cade, adopted years ago. The Ashfords had pieced it together that the man wanted an eye for an eye. Clara had taken his son's freedom; he would go after her own.
For months, he had found no leads, but that didn't mean he had stopped searching. And if Clara was seen in public with Axiel, the connection would be easy to make. One photograph and the dots would connect in a way that could destroy everything.
So when Margaret said "perhaps another time," it wasn't an invitation to reconsider. It was a shield, one Clara didn't even realise she needed. But maybe a one day outing would do no harm.