He tightened his grip on his leather briefcase, his tie loose and his shirt rumpled from an eighteen-hour flight from Tokyo. He wasn’t supposed to be home until Thursday. The merger with Kaito Dynamics had closed early, but that wasn’t why he skipped the celebration dinner. Something unnamed tugged him home—an instinct he didn’t understand.
Now he did.
On the floor of the nursery, kneeling on the thick navy carpet, was the new nanny—Emma Calloway. Twenty-six, Ohio-born, hired through an agency he barely remembered approving. Petite, calm, wearing a simple black dress and a small apron.
But it wasn’t Emma who stopped his breath. It was the three small bodies kneeling beside her.
His sons.
Aiden, Parker, and Cole.
His triplets. Five years old. Still babies in his memory—the babies he was too shattered to hold after his wife, Lila, died delivering them.
He gave them everything.
Except himself.
Now he watched as they pressed their tiny hands together, eyes closed, their little faces soft in a peace he had never witnessed.
“Thank you for this day,” Emma whispered.
“Thank you for this day,” their small voices echoed.