Silence pulled tight between us. The phone was warm against my cheek, his breathing a low in my ear. I stared at the ceiling.
“I love you,” slipped out before I could catch it. “So much it feels stupid. So much it makes everything else in my life look… wrong. But, I can’t keep doing this.”
Something fell over on his end. Not a slam, but a dull, solid impact. Furniture, maybe. A hand against a desk.
“You’re ending this.”
“I don’t know how else to survive it.”
“Say it, then.”
His tone sent a shiver through me. Calm. Deadly. The way he sounded in rooms that made grown men sweat.
“Vince—”
“Say it, baby. If you’re going to burn us down, light the match properly.”
My eyes blurred.
“It’s over,” I whispered. “I’m sorry.”
The sound that came through wasn’t a word. More like a punch to his own chest. Another crash followed—sharper this time.
“No. You weren’t meant to be able to say it. You aren’t allowed to end it.”
“It has to be.”
“The fuck it does. You don’t call Daddy from another man’s penthouse and end us? You really think,” the words caught, “you can just… walk away from this? From us? Like it was a… trial subscription you ran out of patience for?”
“It’s not about patience. It’s about pain.”
“Then give it to me instead.” His voice roughened. “That’s what I’mfor.”
My throat burned.
“You’re also the one who walks past me. You can ignore me now. What happens when you decide I’m too much and you switch it off for good? Call it mercy. Tell me I’ll thank you one day. You know how to compartmentalise. I don’t. I’m scared you’ll wake up and decide loving me is a liability you can’t afford.”
He went very quiet. I heard footsteps. The faint clink of something metal swinging—keys, maybe. A door opening, then closing again.
“I’m coming to get you.” The certainty in it made my stomach drop. “You’re going to pack what you have there, baby. You’re going to walk out of that guest room. You’re going to come to my penthouse. Now.”
“No.”
“I need to see you.”
“That won’t change anything.”
“It changeseverything. I can’t beg like I need to on a phone. I need to be on my knees in front of you.”
Crow words this time, slipping low and fast under his breath. I caught fragments only because I knew the sound of him bleeding now.
“You think one day I’m going to turn to you and sayit was fun, baby, time to goand then walk past you like it doesn’t rip me apart? That’s what you really think of Daddy?”
“I think you’re capable of anything if you decide it’s what the dynasty needs,” I whispered. “Including cutting yourself free of the girl who makes your enemies look too closely.”
“Baby…”
The way he said it made my chest tighten.
