They were never supposed to meet again.

Father Nick has kept his distance—from scandal, from love, from the past. But when his best friend Kate arranges his transfer to a new parish, he's forced to face the one woman he never forgot.

Bernadette is brilliant, guarded, and resigned to being alone. A past scandal and a painful marriage left her wary of connection—but Nick's return stirs old feelings, and maybe even the hope of something more.

As they reconnect, Nick begins to notice something familiar in Bernie's rhythms—her precision, her quiet intensity, her way of seeing the world. She's like Kate in ways that matter—and unlike her in ways that matter even more.

As church politics and buried regrets resurface, Nick and Bernie must decide if second chances are worth the risk—and whether love, this time, might be worth staying for.

Read the most heart-driven story in the Marduke Manor series yet—where faith, friendship, and found family collide in the quietest kind of miracle.