“Because ten years ago, I signed off on a displacement project that killed someone. A man named Carlos Pearson who worked in warehouses and had a daughter who wanted to be a lawyer. The stress of losing his home gave him a heart attack. He died in a stairwell and I never knew his name until two months ago.”
I looked at each of them, these people who’d questioned my leadership, my vision, my commitment to profit over everything else.
“I can’t lead a company built on that kind of harm anymore.”
“You’re destroying us,” Richard said, his voice shaking with rage. “Do you understand that? Without your shares, without your leadership, Devlin Holdings won’t survive. You’re killing everything your father built.”
“I know.” And I did. My shares were the majority stake. Without me, without my name, the company would collapse within a year. Investors would flee, projects would stall, everything would fall apart. “But I can’t keep doing this. I can’t keep pretending profit justifies pain. So I’m done.”
“You can’t just walk away,” Jeff protested. “You have responsibilities. Contracts. People depending on you.”
“Watch me.”
I pulled out the resignation letter I’d drafted the night before. Set it on the table. “You don’t need to vote me out. I’m leaving on my own. Find someone else to run things. I don’t care anymore.”
I walked out of that building and didn’t look back. Didn’t feel the relief I’d expected. Just felt empty.
That night, I sat in my apartment and drafted one final message to Gianna. Not to send—I’d learned that much at least—but to write for myself. To prove I finally understood what I’d taken from her.
I destroyed your family before I knew your name. I fell in love with you anyway. I’ve lost my company, my reputation, everything that used to define me. And it’s still not enough. It will never be enough.
But I needed you to know that I finally understood what Sunset Park cost. Not in financial terms but in human ones. Your father. Your mother’s health. Seven years of your life. Your ability to trust anyone who says they care about you.
I did that. And I’m so sorry.
You deserved honesty from the start. You deserved better than me. You deserved everything I couldn’t give you because I was too afraid and too selfish.
I sent those documents myself. Chose the coward’s way out because I couldn’t face you and admit what I’d done. That day at Mary’s house was the best day of my life and I knew I couldn’t keep lying to you. But I couldn’t make myself tell you face to face either. So I sent them anonymously and waited for you to discover the truth without me having to say it out loud.
That makes everything worse, I know. Cowardice on top of betrayal.
I hope someday you find someone who gives you everything I couldn’t. Someone brave enough to be honest. Someone who doesn’t destroy you before learning to love you.
I hope you’re happy. That’s all I want now. Just for you to be happy.
Even if I’m not part of it.
I saved it in a folder I’d never open again.
I needed to figure out how to rebuild something from the ruins I’d created.
Not for redemption. Not to earn her forgiveness. Those things were impossible now and I’d finally accepted that.
Just because it was the only thing left to do.
CHAPTER 18
Gianna
Time passed slowlywhen you were trying not to count the days.
I took the bar exam six weeks after walking out of Archer’s office, and studying for it became my salvation. Eighteen hours a day buried in Constitutional Law and Civil Procedure, memorizing case precedents and statutory interpretations until my brain couldn’t hold anything else. Especially not memories of gray eyes, morning conversations, and the feeling of waking up in someone’s arms.
The exam itself was brutal. Three days of testing that left me exhausted and numb, which was exactly what I needed. When I walked out of the testing center, I couldn’t remember half of what I’d written. Didn’t care. At least I’d made it through.
Sam met me outside with coffee and the kind of hug that said he knew exactly how close I was to falling apart.
“How’d it go?” he asked.
