Reborn at Eighteen The Billionaire's Second Chance novel Chapter 275

Chapter 275

$10

When everything was put away, I set my father’s pocket watch on the desk where I could see it, and fastened the compass necklace around

my neck. Julian watched me do both, his expression soft.

*Thank you,” I said. “For fixing the watch. For the compass. For being here.”

“Thank you for giving me another chance. He pulled me close, resting his chin on top of my head. “For choosing me. For choosing us.”

*Thank you for being worth choosing.”

We stood like that as the last light faded from the sky, two people who had been through hell together and somehow come out the other side. The compass rested cool against my skin, pointing north toward the future. The watch ticked steadily on my desk, measuring time

that was finally ours.

‘I love you,” Julian said quietly. “I know I’ve said it before, but I need you to hear it now. I love you, Elara Vance. Not the version of you I tried to create, not the girl who existed to serve my family’s needs. I love the woman you are right now–strong and stubborn and brilliant and brave. I love you, and I’m going to spend the rest of my life proving it.”

I tilted my head back to look at him. “I’m not ready to say it back yet. Is that okay?”

“It’s more than okay.” He kissed my forehead. “Take all the time you need. I’m not going anywhere.”

“Ask me again in a year,” I said. “When I’ve had time to really build my life here. When I’m more sure of who I am.”

“Then I’ll ask you in a year. And every year after that.”

We ordered takeout and ate sitting on my dorm room floor, talking about everything and nothing–his plans for the Providence office, my class schedule, the scholarship fund he wanted to set up in Lily’s name. It was easy, comfortable, like we’d been doing this for years

instead of hours.

Later, as we sat on the steps outside my building watching the stars come out, Julian pulled me against his side. I rested my head on his shoulder, feeling the steady rise and fall of his breathing.

“Thank you for giving me a second chance,” I said softly.

“No.” He pressed a kiss to my hair. “Thank you for giving us a second chance. This story–it’s ours now. Not defined by the past, but by what we choose to build together.”

I looked down at the compass around my neck, watching it catch the light from the streetlamps. It pointed north, toward the future, toward all the possibilities we were just beginning to imagine.

“A new story,” I agreed. “One we write together.”

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18:10 Sat, Apr 11

Chapter 275

Together, avond.

And sitting three in the September night with his arm around me and the whole future spread out before us, I felt something I’d thought

Id est fort in both my lives.

1 telt hope.

Not the desperate, clinging hope of someone drowning. But the quiet, steady hope of someone who’d survived the storm and finally reached the shore. The kind of hope that knew there would be more challenges ahead, more obstacles to overcome, but believed–really

believed that we could face them together.

The compass pointed north. The watch kept ticking. And for the first time in longer than I could remember, I wasn’t afraid of where the

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