By Chance

Charlotte Douglas has spent far to long trying to stitch her life back together after a single betrayal shattered her place in the community that once adored her. With every polite nod and measured smile, she shoulders the same whispered story: she is not the young lady she ought to be — and certainly not the kind any respectable man would escort into a ballroom.

Then a flat tire on a warm afternoon brings Elias Navarro to her gate.

A hardworking mechanic with steady hands and a restless heart, Elias has lived safely, sensibly, and without surprise. Until Charlotte. With her quiet fire, careful poise, and eyes that dare him to look closer, she becomes the first woman in years to make him want more than the life he knows.

What begins as a returned plate and a shared cup of coffee becomes something neither expected:
late-afternoon walks, borrowed laughter, the charge of almost-kisses, and the slow, undeniable pull toward something tender.

But Charlotte’s past is a room full of watching eyes—and the Winter Soirée is coming.

When Charlotte hesitates to invite Elias, terrified he will judge the truth she’s never said aloud, he mistakes her quiet fear for rejection. And when cruel words at the ball turn her reputation into spectacle, Elias steps into the fray without hesitation—proving himself steady, fierce, and nothing like the man who once broke her heart.

What follows is a reckoning of truths:
her fear of being unworthy,
his fear of not belonging in her world,
and the choice they must face—
whether love found by chance can become love fought for on purpose.