“Continue.”
I swipe through projections, explaining margins, overhead, regulatory risk. My voice is steady. Confident. Exactly how I sound when I’m not unraveling.
But he keeps watching me.
Like he’s trying to understand a code he once cracked and is now locked out of.
“You’re factoring attrition conservatively,” he says after a moment.
“I’m factoring reality.”
“You expect turnover to spike?”
“I expect people to react when leadership changes. Chicago isn’t New York. They won’t fall in line just because Titan’s name is on the building.”
A beat. “You don’t trust them,” hesays.
“I trust data,” I correct.
“And if the board pushes back?”
“They won’t.”
“And if I push back?”
I meet his eyes, my voice surprisingly steadier than before.
“Then,” I say slowly, “I’ll defend my analysis. Like I would with any executive.”
His jaw tightens a fraction. “But I’m not just any executive. I’m the CEO and founder. And that’s not what you would be doing if you defended your analysis to me.”
“What would I be doing, then?”
He steps closer to the table, lowering his voice. “It would be another one of your attempts to put distance between us and pretend it’s about projections.”
My pulse kicks hard. “Donovan—”
“You rewrote an entire model overnight,” he continues, intensity rising. “You reassigned priorities without looping me in. You shut me down in front of the team—with my own company’s strategy.”
“So you don’t like being challenged?”
“I don’t like being iced out.”
“And I don’t like being whispered about. So congratulations, we’re both uncomfortable.”
Silence—thick and pressurized—pushes the air from my lungs as Donovan’s heated gaze drills into me, making me shiver.
“You think I don’t see what this is?” he asks. “Don’t patronize me, Emma. I’m not in the mood.”
“Neither am I. I’m tired, Donovan. I'm so tired. And I can't—" My voice cracks. "I can't keep doing this. Wanting you. Hating that I want you. Wondering if you're going to decide this is too hard and walk away."
"I'm not going to walk away."
"Youalready did. On that terrace. When I told you I was pregnant.”
"I explained that—"
"I know. You were scared. You needed time to process." I wipe my eyes angrily. "But Donovan, I was scared too. I am scared. Every single day. And I didn't get the luxury of checking out because this—" I gesture to my stomach "—doesn't wait for me to be ready."
