Ivy frowned. “What do you mean, I forced him? He should be grateful that rich widow was so smitten she wanted to marry him—otherwise, where would he have gotten the money to take such a gamble?”

Naylor was left speechless by her bluntness.

She wasn’t wrong.

Ivy continued, “And he doesn’t resent me at all. In fact, now he’s downright polite, terrified I’ll sabotage the deal and ruin his big project.”

Katrina listened, her eyes shining with admiration for her friend. “Ivy, you’re a visionary. The Windsors must’ve thought they’d pulled off the heist of the century, snatching back Windsor Group from you, only for you to be waiting for them at the next turn. They can’t escape your grasp, no matter what they do.”

Just picturing the Windsors’ sour, helpless faces was deeply satisfying.

Ivy just smiled, saying nothing.

The truth was, she’d already let the past go. It was Baillie who came looking for her—she had no intention of “humiliating” the Windsors any further.

She hesitated, thinking of what Baillie and Rosetta had told her, but decided not to bring it up.

Boyd would listen to her and keep it from Jamison for now.

But Naylor? He might not be so discreet. If he spilled the news, Jamison would be on the next red-eye home, ditching his conference without a second thought.

After dinner, Ivy and Katrina cleared the table and loaded the dishes into the dishwasher.

“Naylor treats you pretty well. Maybe you could let yourself dream a little bigger,” Ivy murmured, keeping her voice low while Naylor was out on the balcony taking a call.

“What do you mean?” Katrina shot her a skeptical look. “Are you suggesting I imagine myself as his last love, maybe even marrying him?”

“Mm-hmm,” Ivy teased.

Katrina laughed, unbothered. “Come on. The moment you get greedy, you’re just inviting heartbreak. Honestly, I’m happy with how things are. This has already surpassed all my expectations. I’m content—really.”

Ivy grinned in admiration. For someone so new to relationships, Katrina had a remarkably healthy perspective.

No wonder Jamison always said Katrina might be inexperienced, but she had Naylor wrapped around her little finger.

“What about your mom? You two have gotten pretty close, and Mr. and Mrs. Wilson pulled a lot of strings to arrange that surgery. They’ve done so much for you—did your mom ever ask about your future together?”

Ivy had been swamped with work lately, barely finding time to catch up with Katrina.

Now that they were living together for a few days, she finally had the chance to ask in detail.

Katrina wiped down the stove, sighing. “After she found out about us, she just said one thing.”

“What did she say?”

“Don’t sell yourself short.”

Ivy paused, brow furrowing. It took her a moment to process. “You mean, she thinks Naylor’s out of your league? That you’ll end up settling, always feeling you’re not enough?”

“Not exactly,” Katrina replied. “It’s not about me personally—it’s the Lester family. You know how people say marriage is about being equals? Once my mom realized who his parents were, she started to worry. If only the Lesters were a little less complicated, we’d actually be a good match.” She shrugged, smiling. “I told her not to worry about the future. I’m just taking things as they come, making the most of the connections while they’re there. No use pinning all your hopes on a man.”

Ivy watched her friend—so open, so clear-eyed—and felt both admiration and a pang of sadness. Every woman dreams of finding someone steady and true, someone who’ll be her shelter when life gets stormy.

But in reality, it’s often that very person who brings the storm.

Before Jamison, Ivy had never allowed herself to hope for love or marriage.

After all, among the older couples she knew, happy endings were rare.

Adkins Windsor might never have divorced or remarried, but there were always other women on the side. Rosetta had fought, screamed, and cried, but in the end, she’d had to carry on.

At least now Adkins was ill—too sick to keep up his old habits. Finally, he’d settled down, if only by force.

Katrina’s parents were another story. They’d built everything from scratch, survived hardships together, and their success should’ve made them the envy of all. But once Waller hit it big, he set up another family elsewhere.

As if betrayal wasn’t enough, he’d done everything in his power to force Katrina’s mother to divorce him—using their daughter’s future as leverage, just to marry his new trophy wife.

Then there was Micah—never married, but always wavering between Emma and Katrina, fancying himself a romantic when he was really just a serial flirt.

Even Micah’s parents, hailed as the model couple for over twenty years, turned out to have secrets of their own—a ten-year-old child from an affair, hidden away the whole time.

And the worst of them all: Farley Shepherd, who, to force Carla Ludwig into a divorce, had the heartlessness to harm his own comatose son. In the end, he died with his eyes open, his family shattered.

Or Baillie, who for the sake of money and power, willingly married a wealthy widow old enough to be his mother…

Thinking of all this, Ivy couldn’t help but feel that, maybe, men really weren’t worth the trouble.