“Liam? My God, is that you?”

His head jerked up at the sound of Nadal Patel’s deep voice—a voice that meant home.

Except for some thinning of his hair and a little gray on the sides, Daisy’s father looked almost the same. Lean and slightly stooped, dressed in his favorite outfit of short-sleeved checkered shirt and pants one size too big, he was so familiar it made his heart ache. How many evenings had he sat at the kitchen table listening to Mr. Patel’s stories about his extreme adventures? Or having his confidence bolstered by Mr. Patel’s encouragement and advice?

“You know Limb? Daisy’s fiancé?” Standing beside Daisy’s father, Salena frowned. “Poor boy. He was driving the motorcycle when they were run off the road.”

“I know Liam.” His face tightened. “Very well.”

“It’s nice to see you again, Mr. Patel.” Liam held out his hand, but Daisy’s father didn’t reciprocate.

“What’s wrong, Nadal? Shake his hand.” Short and slender, with a sweet heart-shaped face and a bob of salt-and-pepper hair, the woman on his right gave him a nudge. When he still didn’t move, she introduced herself as Priya.

“Priya is Nadal’s . . . girlfriend. They were in Belize together,” Salena said with a hint of disapproval. “They flew back when they got the news.”

“I’m sure Belize wasn’t the same when you left,” Liam said, trying to break the ice.

Priya laughed but Mr. Patel still didn’t smile.

Puzzled, Salena frowned. “Nadal, are you going to say hello or not?”

“Not.” He folded his arms across his chest, his mouth pressed into a firm line.

“Nadal!” Priya’s shocked expression was a reflection of Liam’s feelings. He’d tried to predict how Mr. Patel would react to seeing him again, but if he’d had to guess, abrupt dismissal would have been the last thing he would have expected from the gentle man who had welcomed him into his home.

“It’s okay,” Liam said. “I can understand how difficult it must be to see me again after how I hurt Daisy, and now this—”

“It wasn’t just Daisy you hurt,” Mr. Patel said, his voice uncharacteristically abrupt. “It was Sanjay and me. You were a part of our family.” He made a sweeping gesture with his arm. “If you had a problem, you should have come to us instead of running away.”

“I left because of my family,” Liam retorted. “I wasn’t part of yours.”

“Every day you came to my house.” Daisy’s father waved his hands around, as he had always done when he was agitated. “You were a friend to my son. You made my daughter smile. You said your jokes and made me laugh. You sat at our table and ate our food. And always you were fixing things in the house. You helped us. We helped you. That’s family. And then you just left. No explanation. No goodbye. Not even a phone call to let us know you weren’t dead.”

Words failed him. He had never even considered that Daisy’s father would care what happened to him after he’d hurt his daughter. His own family didn’t care. They hadn’t even tried to find Liam when his father died. He’d found out only when an estate lawyer had contacted him to let him know he had been cut out of the will.

“I didn’t think you would want to hear from me.”

“After almost eight years of being part of our family?” Mr. Patel’s voice cracked, broke. “We all make mistakes, Liam. How could you think I wouldn’t care? What kind of man do you think I am?”

“Mr. Patel . . .” Emotion rose in his throat, choking his words.

“And now you show up and want to be part of my family again?” He was trembling, his lined face twisted in a scowl. “I thought I knew who you were when you came every day to my house. Even that night of the prom, I thought your reason for what you did would be a good one. You would explain and we would make things right. But you didn’t come. For ten years you didn’t come. No e-mail or letter. Now, I don’t even know who you are.”

Liam’s face heated and he willed the ground to swallow him up. Her father did know who he was. He’d been unworthy then and he was unworthy now. A delinquent in all but name. Even if he accepted the partnership at Evolution, he would never be good enough for Daisy. She was surrounded by a warm, loving family. They wanted her to be happy, to have a family of her own with a good man who would love and care for her. How could he take that away from her? How could he continue to deceive her family into believing she’d found a partner who truly loved her? How could he betray Mr. Patel yet again?

He wanted to be worthy. He wanted to walk into the room and hold his head high. The Evolution partnership was a step in that direction. And so was releasing Daisy from the bargain he never should have made.

* * *

• • •

DAISY had been awake for exactly twelve hours, twenty-eight minutes, and forty-three seconds when Liam walked into her room. She’d seen twenty-six relatives, including her dad and Priya, two nurses, one police officer, two reporters, two doctors, and one excited Max hidden in a tote bag. She’d had two naps, swallowed four pills, drank six glasses of water, traded three terrible hospital meals for plates of food snuck into her room in oversize handbags by aunties who were worried she’d lose weight, and she’d been cleared to leave in the morning.

Salena Auntie, on her way out with Priya and her father, had told her that Liam had been sitting outside her room for three days. She’d also heard about the altercation with her father and had received an earful for not telling Salena Auntie who Liam was. She didn’t know what she’d expected when she finally saw him, but it wasn’t a man who looked so utterly destroyed.

“Daisy . . .” His voice cracked, broke, and in that moment she knew with gut-wrenching certainty exactly what was going to happen, play by play, as if it were a movie she’d seen before.