I look up sharply.
“Don’t panic.” Carmen raises her palms. “I’m not here to meddle in your personal life. I’m here because I care about my team—and whether you want to admit it or not, Emma is part of yours. And right now? She's bleeding internally while pretending her cardiovascular system is made of steel.”
I stand abruptly and walk to the floor-to-ceiling window, watching Manhattan sprawl beneath me—alive.
Lite.
And indifferent.
“I tried to give her what she asked for,” I say quietly. “Space.”
“Space?” Carmen echoes. “What she asked for was reassurance. She weaponized space because she was afraid you wouldn’t give herreassurance.”
I turn. “She told me she shouldn’t have told me she was pregnant.”
Carmen winces. “And I’m sure that was…brutal. But I think I know why. And I think you do, too.” She leans forward. “Because Emma Sinclair’s greatest fear is needing someone who doesn’t want to stay.”
I stop breathing, but Carmen continues softly.
“She supported a man through law school. Worked two jobs. Did an MBA at night. Planned their entire future. And he cheated on her right before their wedding. In their apartment.”
My spine turns into stone.
“She doesn’t trust herselfnotto pick another man who will eventually leave,” Carmen says. “And unfortunately for both of you… your first instinct was to react exactly like the man she fears most.”
The words hit with precision. Because they’re true. Painfully true.
I lower my head, gripping the edge of the window frame.
Behind me, I can hearCarmen standing slowly, gathering her things.
“I’m not here to tell you what to do,” she says to my back. “You’re the CEO. You’re also a grown man who can make his own choices.”
The sound of her stilettos grow quieter before stopping.
“But Donovan?”
I turn slightly.
She offers a small, wry smile. “Emma doesn’t break easily. But when she does? She doesn’t repair quickly. She’s a keep-it-together-until-she-collapses kind of woman. And right now, she’s collapsing.”
“And you?” she finishes. “You’re the first person she’s ever been afraid to lose… even before she really has you. Make of that what you will.”
She slips out, closing the door softly behind her, and I stand in the silence, heart threatening to beat its way out of mygoddamned chest.
Because Emma just may be on the verge of collapsing.
Because of me.
Because I didn’t fight.
And suddenly, distance doesn't feel noble.
It feels like cowardice dressed in a fucking three-piece suit.
Chapter twenty
~EMMA~
