The harsh, sterile scent of bleach and rubbing alcohol clung to the back of my throat, making it impossible to swallow the rising panic. I paced the length of the surgical waiting room, my phone pressed so tightly to my ear that my fingers were completely numb.

Outside the third-floor windows, a torrential downpour battered the glass, distorting the city lights into angry, blurred streaks.

"Pick up, pick up, pick up," I chanted under my breath, my voice trembling.

The line rang for the fifth time before it finally clicked over.

"Nora?" Julian’s voice came through the speaker, breathless and distracted. "Hey, I'm just leaving the office. What's going on? You called six times."

"Julian, it’s my dad," I choked out, my knees finally giving way. I sank into a rigid plastic chair, curling my free hand into the fabric of my skirt. "He collapsed at his house. His neighbor found him. It’s a massive stroke, Julian. They just rushed him into emergency surgery."

The background noise on Julian’s end instantly vanished as he slammed a car door. "What? Oh my god. Nora, are you okay? Where are you?"

"I’m at Seattle Grace. Third floor, surgical wing. Please, Julian, you have to get here. The doctors… they said it doesn't look good. There was so much bleeding." A sob tore its way up my throat, completely unbidden. I hated crying, but the thought of losing my father—the only family I had left in the world—shattered every wall I had built.

"I’m on my way," Julian said firmly, stepping into his role as the decisive CEO of Thorne & Vance, the architecture firm we had built together. "I’m pulling out of the parking garage right now. I'll be there in fifteen minutes. Don’t panic, Nora. I’ve got you. I’m coming."

"Hurry. Please."

"I love you. Hang tight."

I dropped the phone into my lap and buried my face in my hands. Julian was coming. My fiancé was coming. The man I had loved for five years, the man I was supposed to marry in four months, was going to walk through those double doors and hold me together while my world fell apart.

For twenty agonizing minutes, I stared at the frosted glass doors of the surgical ward. Every time a nurse walked past, my heart stopped.

Finally, the elevator pinged at the end of the hall. Julian jogged down the corridor, his dark wool coat damp from the rain, his expression tight with concern.

"Julian!" I stood up, practically throwing myself into his arms.

He caught me, wrapping his arms tightly around my shoulders and pressing a kiss to the top of my head. "I'm here. I'm right here, Nora. Have they told you anything else? Has the surgeon come out?"

"No," I whispered into his chest, gripping his lapels like a lifeline. "They said it could be hours. They had to relieve the pressure in his skull. Julian, I'm so scared."

"Shh, I know. It's going to be okay," he murmured, rubbing my back. "Arthur is tough. He’s the toughest guy I know. He’s going to pull through this."

I squeezed my eyes shut, letting his warmth seep into my freezing skin. For exactly three minutes, I felt safe. I felt like I wasn't carrying the crushing weight of the world entirely on my own.

Then, Julian’s pocket vibrated.

A sharp, cheerful ringtone cut through the heavy silence of the waiting room. Julian stiffened against me. He didn't reach for it immediately, but the phone kept ringing.

"You can check it," I muttered, pulling back slightly. "It might be the office."

Julian pulled the phone from his pocket, his brow furrowing as he looked at the caller ID. A flash of something complex—guilt, obligation, panic—crossed his handsome face.

"It's Chloe," he said softly.

My chest tightened. Chloe Sterling. The widow of Julian’s late business partner and best friend, Mark. Mark had died in a tragic hiking accident two years ago, and ever since that day, Julian had appointed himself as Chloe’s personal savior.

"Let it go to voicemail," I said, my voice thick with unshed tears. "Please, Julian. Not tonight."

"She knows I’m usually off work by now. If she's calling, something might be wrong," he reasoned, already sliding his thumb across the screen. Before I could protest again, he brought the phone to his ear. "Chloe? Hey, what's wrong?"

Even without the speakerphone on, I could hear the hysterical, jagged sobs emanating from the device.

"Julian!" Chloe wailed, her voice piercing the quiet hospital corridor. "Julian, I'm so scared! I don't know what to do!"

"Chloe, calm down. Breathe. Where are you?" Julian’s posture instantly shifted. He turned slightly away from me, his free hand raking through his dark hair.

"I'm on Interstate 5! The car just started shaking, and there was this horrible noise, and now I'm pulled over on the shoulder. It's pouring rain, Julian! The trucks are flying past me so fast, the whole car is shaking!"

"Okay, okay, you probably just blew a tire. Are you hurt?"

"No, but it's Mark’s car!" Chloe sobbed, her voice reaching a fever pitch. "It's the SUV Mark bought me before he died! I don't know how to change a tire, Julian. And the tow truck company said it would take two hours because of the storm. I can't sit out here in the dark for two hours! I'm having a panic attack, I can't breathe!"

"Listen to me, lock the doors and turn your hazard lights on," Julian instructed, his voice slipping into that low, soothing register he usually reserved for talking me off the ledge during high-stress corporate audits.

"Are you coming?" Chloe cried. "Please tell me you're coming to get me. I'm all alone, Julian. I don't have anyone else."

Julian froze. He slowly turned his head to look at me.

I stared back at him, my eyes wide, my head shaking in a frantic, silent *no*.

"Julian," I whispered, my voice cracking. "My father is in brain surgery."

Julian covered the receiver with his hand. "Nora, she's stranded on the highway in a torrential downpour. She’s having a severe panic attack. You know how fragile she is since Mark passed."

"She has a flat tire!" I hissed, taking a step toward him. "My father is dying! You cannot leave me right now."

"Nora, be reasonable," Julian whispered back, his tone laced with a sudden, frustrating edge of condescension. "You’re safe here. You’re in a hospital. Your dad is in the hands of the best surgeons in the city. There is literally nothing I can do here except sit in a chair."

"I need you to sit in the chair!" I cried, the volume of my voice drawing the attention of the nursing station. I lowered my voice, desperation clawing at my throat. "I need you to hold my hand. I need my partner."

From the phone, Chloe’s voice shrieked again. "Julian? Are you still there? A truck just drove by and splashed water all over the windshield! I'm so scared!"

"I'm here, Chloe," Julian said into the receiver. Then he looked at me, his jaw set with that stubborn, guilt-driven resolve I had come to despise. "I’ll be there in twenty minutes, Chlo. Just keep the doors locked."

He hung up the phone and slipped it back into his pocket.

The air in my lungs turned to ash. "You're leaving."

"Nora, I have to," he said, reaching out to grab my shoulders. I flinched backward, stepping out of his reach. He let his hands fall, looking at me with exasperated pleading. "It’s Mark’s widow. It's Mark’s car. You know how much guilt I carry over what happened to him. If something happens to her on that highway..."

"She has Triple-A, Julian! She can call a police officer to wait with her!"

"She called *me*!" Julian snapped, his voice echoing sharply in the hall. He immediately softened, sighing heavily. "Look, she has no one. She's terrified of the dark, and she doesn't know how to handle these things. I'll drive out there, change the tire, and follow her home. I will be back here before your dad is even out of surgery. I promise."

"If you walk out those doors right now," I said, my voice suddenly dropping into a dead, hollow whisper, "don't bother coming back."

Julian rolled his eyes, clearly writing off my words as a hysterical overreaction. "Nora, stop being dramatic. This isn't a competition. I love you, and I love your dad, but Chloe is in active danger. You are safely sitting in a waiting room. I'll be back in an hour."

He leaned in, kissed my frozen cheek, and turned on his heel.

"Julian!" I called out, one last, pathetic plea.

He didn't stop. He didn't even look back. He just pushed through the heavy wooden double doors of the surgical ward and disappeared into the stairwell.

I stood there in the center of the fluorescent-lit hallway, my arms wrapped around my own waist, trembling violently. I was twenty-six years old, a lead architect who commanded multi-million dollar projects, and yet, I had never felt smaller or more utterly abandoned in my entire life.

For five years, I had poured every ounce of my love, my patience, and my brilliance into Julian Thorne. I had deferred my dreams to build his firm. I had swallowed my pride every time Chloe crossed a boundary. I had told myself that his loyalty to Mark’s widow was a sign of his good heart.

But as the minute hand on the wall clock ticked forward, the truth settled over me like a suffocating blanket.

*He will never choose me.*

The heavy metal doors of the surgical suite swung open with a loud groan.

I spun around. A man in blue scrubs stepped out. His surgical mask was pulled down around his neck, and his eyes carried the heavy, unmistakable weight of bad news.

"Ms. Vance?" the doctor asked softly.

I took a step forward, my legs feeling like they were moving through wet cement. "Yes. I'm Nora. Where is Julian? Did you see..." I stopped myself. Julian was gone.

"I'm Dr. Evans," he said, stepping closer and lowering his voice. "Is there anyone with you? A partner? Family?"

"No," I whispered. "I'm alone."

Dr. Evans sighed softly, folding his hands together. "Ms. Vance, I am so incredibly sorry. We did everything we could to relieve the intracranial pressure. But the hemorrhage was simply too massive. Your father’s heart stopped on the table. We tried to resuscitate him for forty minutes, but... he's gone."

The words hit me, but they didn't penetrate. They hovered in the air, echoing off the linoleum floors.

*He's gone.*

I slowly turned my head, looking past Dr. Evans, past the waiting room chairs, straight out the rain-streaked window. Down in the street below, I could see Julian’s black sedan pulling out of the hospital drop-off zone.

I watched his red taillights bleed into the rainy darkness, rushing off to save another woman from a minor inconvenience while my entire universe collapsed.

Something inside my chest—something soft, hopeful, and painfully naive—snapped with a clean, definitive break.

"Ms. Vance?" Dr. Evans asked gently, reaching out as if he expected me to faint. "Can I get you some water? Do you need to sit down?"

I looked away from the window and met the surgeon's eyes. I waited for the hysterical tears to come. I waited for the urge to scream, to fall to my knees, to beg for it to be a mistake.

But nothing came.

The hot, frantic devastation that had been choking me for the last hour instantly evaporated. The tears dried up, leaving my eyes burning and clear. In the hollowed-out cavern where my breaking heart used to be, a chilling, absolute numbness took over.

"No, Dr. Evans," I said. My voice was perfectly steady. I didn't even sound like myself. I sounded like a stranger—someone cold, methodical, and entirely untouchable. "I don't need to sit down. What are the next administrative steps?"

"The next steps?" Dr. Evans repeated, blinking at me in confusion. He shifted his weight, clearly thrown by my sudden, rigid composure. "Ms. Vance, you just received a massive shock. There is no rush. We have a grief counselor on staff who can—"

"I don't need a grief counselor, Doctor," I interrupted smoothly, my tone polite but devoid of any warmth. "I need to know the protocol. My father was a meticulous man. He hated leaving things unfinished. I would like to handle the paperwork immediately."

Dr. Evans stared at me for a long moment, searching my face for the hysterics he was so accustomed to dealing with. Finding none, he finally cleared his throat and nodded.

"Of course. I understand," he said quietly. "A nurse will take you down to the administrative office on the first floor. They will have you sign the preliminary death certificate and the release of remains. You'll need to contact a funeral home so we can arrange the transfer from our morgue."

"Thank you, Dr. Evans. I appreciate everything you tried to do."

I didn't wait for his response. I turned and walked toward the elevator bank, my heels clicking a steady, rhythmic march against the linoleum.

For the next two hours, I existed in a state of hyper-focused efficiency. It was as if my brain had partitioned the trauma into a sealed box, locking it away behind layers of thick, impenetrable ice.

Down in the basement administrative suite, the morgue clerk, a balding man named Mr. Davis, slid a thick stack of blue and yellow carbon-copy forms across his desk.

"Ms. Vance, we need to know which funeral home to contact," Mr. Davis said, his voice dropping into that hushed, apologetic tone everyone used around the bereaved. "We cannot hold the deceased here for more than forty-eight hours."

"Fairhaven Memorial on 4th Avenue," I replied immediately, pulling a sleek silver pen from my purse. "Do you need their direct line, or do you have it on file?"

"We have it on file," he said, watching me uncap the pen. "And we need your signature here, here, and at the bottom of the release form."

I signed my name three times. My signature was sharp, legible, and completely steady.

"Are you sure you don't want someone to come sit with you?" Mr. Davis asked gently, pulling the paperwork back. "A husband? A boyfriend?"

"I'm quite alright, Mr. Davis," I said, slipping the pen back into my bag. "If you'll excuse me, I need to make a phone call."

I stepped out into the quiet, dimly lit hallway of the hospital basement. The air down here was frigid, but it matched the temperature of my blood. I pulled out my phone and dialed Fairhaven Memorial.

The funeral director answered on the second ring.

"Fairhaven Memorial, this is David speaking."

"Hello, David. My name is Nora Vance. My father, Arthur Vance, just passed away at Seattle Grace Hospital. I need to arrange for his transport and begin discussing services."

"I am so very sorry for your loss, Ms. Vance," David replied, his professional sympathy bleeding through the speaker. "We can certainly dispatch a transport vehicle within the hour. Will you be coming in tomorrow to discuss the arrangements?"

"Yes. Nine a.m. sharp. He already owns a plot next to my mother at Cypress Hill. I want a closed casket, a simple mahogany finish, and a brief, non-denominational graveside service."

"You... you have a very clear vision, Ms. Vance. That makes things easier. We will see you at nine tomorrow."

"Thank you."

I hung up the phone. As the screen illuminated, a text message banner dropped down from the top of the display.

**Julian (11:42 PM):** *Hey, the tow truck took forever to get here. Chloe was an absolute mess, I had to sit in the car with her and talk her down for an hour before I could even change the tire. Just followed her home so she feels safe. You still at the hospital? Need a ride?*

I stared at the glaring white text on the screen.

*Need a ride?*

He didn't ask how the surgery went. He didn't ask how my father was. He just assumed I was still sitting dutifully in the waiting room, exactly where he had left me, waiting for him to finish playing knight-in-shining-armor to another woman.

My thumb hovered over the keyboard. A year ago—even a day ago—I would have typed out a long, desperate, angry paragraph. I would have screamed through the text, demanding to know how he could be so callous. I would have begged him to recognize my pain.

But the woman who begged Julian Thorne for basic human decency had died in that waiting room upstairs.

I tapped the screen once.

**Nora:** *No.*

I locked the phone and slid it into my pocket.

Thirty minutes later, my taxi pulled up to the curb of my childhood home. The rain had finally stopped, leaving the suburban Seattle street slick and glittering under the streetlamps.

I unlocked the front door and pushed it open. The house was pitch black and suffocatingly silent. I reached out and flipped the entryway light switch.

My father's coat was still hanging on the hook by the door. His muddy gardening shoes were kicked off near the mat. On the hall table, a half-drank mug of coffee sat next to the morning newspaper. It looked like he had just stepped out for a moment. It looked like a home waiting for its owner to return.

But he was never returning.

I took a slow breath, the scent of his favorite cedarwood aftershave hitting my senses. My chest gave a single, violent throb, but the ice quickly sealed over the crack. I couldn't break down. If I broke down now, I would never get back up.

I walked past the kitchen and headed straight for his home office.

My father was a retired architectural historian. He was the one who taught me how to read blueprints before I could read chapter books. He was the one who encouraged me to start Thorne & Vance with Julian, believing Julian’s business acumen and my creative brilliance would be an unstoppable force.

I flipped on the desk lamp, casting a warm, golden pool of light over his cluttered mahogany desk. Stacks of books, old schematics, and mail covered the surface. I needed to find his life insurance policy and his will.

I began methodically sorting through the files. Bills in one pile, personal correspondence in another.

As I shifted a heavy textbook on Gothic architecture, a thick, cream-colored envelope slid out from underneath it. The paper was premium, heavy cardstock.

My hands stopped moving.

I recognized the embossed gold seal in the upper left corner instantly. It was the crest of the London Architectural Academy.

I picked up the envelope. It had been opened. Inside was a letter dated exactly fourteen months ago. I slowly pulled the heavy paper free and unfolded it under the lamplight.

*Dear Ms. Vance,*

*It is with great pleasure that we formally offer you the prestigious Senior Fellowship at the London Architectural Academy. Your portfolio exhibits a rare, visionary talent that we believe...*

My eyes scanned down to the second paragraph.

*We acknowledge your request to defer this acceptance for one calendar year due to your commitments at Thorne & Vance. We have granted this deferment. However, please be advised that your final window to claim this fellowship closes on the 30th of this month.*

I stared at the date at the top of the letter, doing the rapid mental math. The 30th of this month was exactly twelve days from now.

I sank into my father’s heavy leather desk chair, the letter trembling slightly in my grip.

Fourteen months ago, I had been accepted into the most elite architectural fellowship in Europe. It had been my lifelong dream. When the acceptance letter arrived, I had run into Julian’s office at the firm, weeping with joy.

But Julian hadn't smiled. He had looked at the letter, then looked at me, and said, *"London? Nora, we're right in the middle of the Peterson merger. If you leave for a year, the firm will go under. I need you here. Mark just died, Chloe needs us, and the firm needs you. You can't just abandon us for a vanity project."*

So, I didn't. I shrank myself. I folded up my massive, sprawling dreams and shoved them into a tiny box so Julian wouldn't feel overwhelmed. I wrote to the Academy and begged for a deferment. I gave Thorne & Vance my blood, sweat, and late nights, ensuring Julian looked like a genius CEO while I did the heavy lifting behind the drafting table.

And tonight, when I needed him to hold my hand while the only parent I had left bled out on an operating table, he left me to go change Chloe Sterling’s flat tire.

I looked at the letter again.

My father had saved it. He had kept it hidden under a book on his desk, a silent testament to the brilliant daughter he believed in—the daughter I had stopped being the moment I let Julian dictate my worth.

The ice in my veins crystallized, sharp and brilliant.

I didn't need to yell at Julian. I didn't need to cry, or throw plates, or demand couples therapy. Julian would never understand my grief because Julian only understood things that affected him.

If I wanted to hurt him—if I wanted to truly survive this—I couldn't just walk away. I had to dismantle everything. I had to rip my foundation out from under his feet so quietly he wouldn't even realize the building was collapsing until the roof caved in on him.

I reached into my tote bag and pulled out my laptop. I set it down on my father’s desk, right next to the letter, and flipped it open.

The screen flared to life, illuminating the dark office.

I opened my email client and clicked "Compose."

In the "To" field, I typed the email address of the admissions director at the London Academy.

I didn't hesitate. I didn't second-guess. My fingers flew across the keys, the rhythmic clacking filling the empty, silent house.

*Dear Director Hastings,*

*Fourteen months ago, you graciously granted me a deferment for the Senior Fellowship. I am writing to inquire: Is the position still open? If so, I am prepared to relocate to London immediately.*

I read the two sentences over once. Then, I moved the cursor and clicked *Send*.

The espresso machine hummed, a low, vibrating purr that filled the expansive silence of our penthouse apartment. I stood in front of the marble kitchen island, watching the dark liquid trickle into my ceramic mug.

The apartment was a masterpiece of modern architecture. Julian and I had designed it together, arguing over every fixture, every angle of the floor-to-ceiling windows, every slab of imported stone. It was supposed to be a physical manifestation of our partnership. Now, looking at the cold steel finishes and the stark, minimalist lines, it just felt like a very expensive mausoleum.

I took a sip of my coffee. It was bitter, just the way I needed it.

The front door unlocked with a heavy, metallic clank.

Footsteps echoed in the foyer, hurried and uneven. I didn't turn around. I simply took another slow sip of my coffee, feeling the heat radiate through the ceramic against my icy palms.

"Nora?" Julian’s voice called out. It was breathless, laced with that familiar, frantic guilt he always wore when he knew he had pushed me too far. "Nora, are you here?"

He rounded the corner into the kitchen, his suit jacket slung over one shoulder, his tie undone, and his hair disheveled from the rain. He looked exhausted. A year ago, a month ago, even yesterday, my heart would have immediately softened at the sight of him. I would have rushed over, smoothed his hair, and asked him what was wrong.

Today, my heart did nothing. It just sat in my chest, a heavy, quiet stone.

"I'm here, Julian," I said, my voice perfectly level.

He stopped in his tracks, his chest heaving as he took me in. He braced himself, his shoulders tensing as if he were waiting for a physical blow. He was expecting the screaming. He was expecting the tears, the thrown objects, the hysterical accusations.

"Nora, I am so, so sorry," Julian started, closing the distance between us but stopping just short of the island. "I know you're furious. I know I shouldn't have left the hospital, but it was an absolute nightmare. The tow truck took almost two hours to arrive in that storm, and Chloe was completely inconsolable. She was having a full-blown panic attack on the side of the highway, hyperventilating, shaking. I couldn't just leave her there."

"I see," I murmured, taking another sip of coffee.

"I had to drive her back to her house," he continued, the words tumbling out of him in a desperate rush. "And then I had to sit with her until her breathing regulated. My phone died while we were waiting for the tow, and by the time I finally found a charger at her place and saw your missed calls, it was nearly four in the morning. I drove straight here."

He paused, searching my face for a reaction. I gave him nothing.

"I know it was terrible timing," Julian pleaded, stepping closer, reaching out to rest his hands on the marble counter. "I know you needed me. But Chloe is just... she's so fragile right now. Ever since Mark died, she doesn't know how to handle these things. I promised him I'd look out for her. You know that."

"I do know that, Julian," I said softly.

He blinked, clearly thrown by my calm agreement. He swallowed hard. "How... how is your dad? Did the doctors stabilize him? I can drive you back to the hospital right now. We can spend the whole day there. I'll cancel all my meetings."

I set my coffee mug down on the counter. The ceramic made a soft, hollow *clink* against the stone.

"My father passed away, Julian."

The words hung in the air, perfectly articulated, entirely devoid of emotion.

Julian froze. All the color instantly drained from his face, leaving his skin a sickly, ashen gray. His mouth opened, but no sound came out. He stared at me, his eyes wide with a sudden, overwhelming horror.

"He suffered a massive hemorrhage," I continued, my voice steady, as if I were reading a weather report. "The doctors did what they could, but he was gone before midnight."

"No," Julian whispered, the word barely scraping past his lips. "No, Nora... God, no."

"Yes."

"Nora, I..." He choked on his words, his hands trembling against the marble. "I wasn't there. You were alone."

"I was."

"Why didn't the hospital call me? Why didn't you have the nurses page me?" His voice was rising now, thick with panic and self-loathing. "I would have left Chloe. I would have run all the way to the hospital, Nora, I swear to God!"

"Your phone was dead, Julian. Remember?" I looked at him, my expression perfectly placid. "You were regulating Chloe's breathing."

A sob tore from his throat. He rounded the kitchen island, his arms outstretched, intending to pull me into his chest, to bury his face in my hair, to share the grief that he assumed was tearing me apart.

As he stepped into my space, I calmly took one step back.

It wasn't a flinch. It wasn't a dramatic recoil. It was a smooth, deliberate withdrawal.

Julian stopped, his arms suspended in the empty air between us. He looked at the gap I had intentionally created, a profound confusion washing over his grief-stricken face.

"Nora?" he whispered.

"I need some space right now, Julian," I said, my tone polite but utterly impenetrable.

"Please, let me hold you," he begged, his eyes filling with tears. "I am so incredibly sorry. I will never forgive myself for this. Let me help you. We need to call your family. We need to talk to the funeral home. I'll handle everything, I promise. Just let me take the burden off you."

"There is no burden left to take," I replied. "I handled the morgue paperwork last night. I met with the funeral director at dawn. The arrangements are already in motion."

"You did all of that? Alone? In the middle of the night?"

"It needed to be done."

"But I should have been the one to do it for you!" Julian ran a trembling hand through his damp hair. "You shouldn't have had to deal with the logistics while you were in shock. Nora, please yell at me. Please. Tell me you hate me. Tell me I'm a monster. Do something, please."

I looked at the man I had planned to marry. I looked at the broad shoulders I used to lean on, the dark eyes I used to drown in, the hands that had helped me sketch the blueprints of our future.

I felt nothing but a mild, clinical detachment.

"I don't hate you, Julian," I said, and it was the absolute truth. Hate required passion. Hate required a pulse. "And I'm not going to yell at you. What happened, happened. We can't rewrite last night."

"I can make it up to you," he insisted, his voice cracking. "I'll do whatever it takes. I will spend every second of the next month making sure you are supported. We will get through this together."

"There's no need to make anything up to me," I said, offering him a small, polite smile that didn't reach my eyes. "I understand exactly what your priorities were last night. You don't need to apologize anymore. I see things very clearly now."

Julian stared at me, searching my face for the sarcasm, the hidden trap, the underlying rage. But there was none. I had locked all my grief and all my love for him in a heavy iron box and dropped it into the darkest part of the ocean.

Slowly, the panic in his eyes began to recede, replaced by a tentative, cautious relief. He let out a long, shuddering breath, misinterpreting my cold apathy for grace.

"You are incredible," he murmured, shaking his head in awe. "Anyone else would be tearing me apart right now. But you... you're just so strong. You're so strong and mature, Nora."

"Thank you, Julian."

"I'm going to go take a quick shower," he said, his posture relaxing slightly. "And then I'm going to call the office and tell them I'm taking the week off. I'm not leaving your side."

"Actually," I said smoothly, "I would prefer it if you went into the office today."

He frowned. "Are you sure? I really don't want to leave you alone."

"I'm sure. I have a lot of phone calls to make to extended family. It's going to be exhausting, and I'd really prefer to do it in quiet. It would help me more if you kept Thorne & Vance running smoothly so I don't have to worry about the firm on top of everything else."

Julian hesitated, guilt warring with his natural inclination to avoid emotional heavy lifting. The firm was his safe haven. By giving him permission to go, I was handing him exactly what he wanted.

"If that's what you truly want," he said softly.

"It is."

He nodded, a look of immense gratitude washing over his features. "Okay. Okay, I'll go in. But I'll be home early. And I'll bring dinner. Whatever you want."

"That sounds fine."

He lingered for a moment, clearly wanting to kiss me, but the invisible barrier I had erected kept him rooted to his spot. Finally, he gave me a tight, grateful nod and retreated down the hallway toward the master bathroom.

I waited until I heard the heavy spray of the shower turn on.

Then, I picked up my phone from the counter. I didn't open my contacts to call my extended family. Instead, I opened my browser and typed in the name of the most ruthless corporate law firm in the city.

I dialed the number.

"Sterling, Hayes & Carmichael," a crisp receptionist answered.

"I need to speak to Mr. Arthur Hayes," I said, my voice barely above a whisper, yet harder than the marble beneath my fingertips. "Tell him Nora Vance is calling. And tell him I need to initiate a hostile divestment."