“I’ve been an idiot,” Luca said, his voice quiet in the stillness. He wasn’t looking at her, but at his hands, clasped between his knees.“I spent my entire career building walls. Making sure no one could ever question my judgment, my authority, my… detachment. It was the only way I knew how to survive in that world. And then you came along, and you dismantled them without even trying.”
He finally turned to look at her, his eyes gleaming in the lamplight.“When that leak happened, my first instinct wasn’t to protect you. It was to protect the fortress. I saw a crack in my defences and I panicked. I tried to patch it with logic and spreadsheets, and in doing so, I betrayed the one person who had ever made me want to leave the fortress altogether.”
Isla listened, her heart aching. This was the vulnerability he kept hidden from the world, the truth beneath the sharp suits and the intimidating gaze.
“I don’t want to be your secret, Luca,” she said softly.“And I don’t want to be your scandal. I just want to be your partner. But I can’t do that if I’m constantly fighting for my place in your shadow.”
“You’re not in my shadow, Isla,” he insisted, his voice fierce.“You’re the light that makes the shadow visible. You make me a better editor. A better man. And I have been so terrified of losing that, of losing you, that I’ve been pushing you away by trying to control everything.”
He reached out, tracing the line of her jaw with his thumb.“I don’t have the answers. I don’t know how to make this easy. But I know that a future without you in it is a future I don’t want. So whatever you need—if you need to leave Chroma, if you need me to leave, if you need us to move to a bloody farm in the countryside—I will do it. The job, the title, the office… it’s all just scenery. You are the story.”
The confession was more powerful than any kiss, more intimate than any night spent in his arms. It was a complete and utter capitulation. He was offering her the one thing he had always guarded most fiercely: his control.
Tears welled in her eyes, but this time they were tears of relief. She saw the same raw hope reflected in his own. The hard truths had been spoken there, in the City of Light, and in their place was a glimmer of something new—not the frantic passion of their beginning, but the sober, determined seed of a real, enduring partnership.
She leaned forward and finally kissed him. It was slow, and deep, and tasted of forgiveness and possibility. The Paris trip was no longer an escape or a trial. It had become a beginning.
Chapter 14:
A Choice in the Rain
The remaining days in Paris were a bittersweet dream. They attended shows, but now they whispered critiques to each other, their heads bent together. They explored the city in the stolen hours, holding hands on the Pont des Arts, sharing a crêpe in a shadowed alley. The professional and the personal had finally, truly, fused. They were a team.
But the real world was waiting. On their last morning, a steady, grey rain fell over Paris, washing the city in a soft, melancholic light. They were packing their suitcases in the silent hotel room when Luca’s phone buzzed insistently. It was Anya Sharma.
He took the call, his back to Isla.“Anya. Yes, we’re heading to the station shortly.” He listened, his posture stiffening.“I see… No, that’s… Thank you for telling me.”
He ended the call and stood perfectly still for a long moment, staring out at the rain-streaked garden.
“What is it?” Isla asked, her stomach tightening.
He turned slowly. His face was a careful blank.“Anya. She’s been offered the publisher role at Vogue Global. In New York.”
The air left Isla’s lungs. Vogue. It was the pinnacle.
“That’s… incredible for her,” Isla managed.
“She’s recommending the board appoint me as her successor. As Publisher of Chroma.”
The words hung in the room, heavier than the rain outside. Publisher. It wasn't just a promotion; it was a transformation. It was leaving the creative fray for the stratosphere of corporate strategy, of budgets and boardrooms. It was the ultimate validation of everything he had built.
And it was a death sentence for their fragile new beginning.
He would be her boss in a way that was absolute, un-crossable. Any move she made, any success she had, would be scrutinized a thousand times more. The leak scandal would be resurrected with a vengeance. They would never escape the shadow.
“Luca, that’s… that’s what you’ve worked for,” she said, her voice hollow.
“Is it?” he asked, his gaze intense.“I thought it was. Before.” Before you.
He walked to the window, watching the rain.“She wants an answer in 48 hours.”
He was being offered the crown. And she was the one thing that could stop him from taking it.
“You have to say yes,” Isla whispered, the words tearing at her throat.“You can’t turn this down for me. I would never let you.”
He turned to face her, his expression pained.“So what are you saying? That we go back to London, with me as your publisher, and we just… what? Pretend?”
“I’m saying I can’t be the reason you don’t take this,” she said, tears mixing with the sound of the rain.“And I can’t stay at Chroma if you do.”
