Emily continues, voice steady, relentless.
"She reviewed everything Graham gave her. All of it. She pushed Dr. Teller until he admitted the truth, that they're managing, not fixing. That waiting isn't helping."
My chest tightens.
"There's a specialist," she says. "One of the best. He won't come unless someone makes him. And my sister doesn't wait for permission. When she left, she promised us that she would drag him back here if she had to."
I picture Lucy, exhausted, broken open, still moving forward and something in me fractures.
"She didn't collapse because of you, Julian," Emily says quietly. "She chose to leave."
Lucy didn't fall apart.
She acted.
She doesn't need saving.
She needs to be chosen; she needs to be loved.
Theo drags a hand through his hair. "Jesus, Em. Give him a break. It's not his fault that he's emotionally constipated. It's notlike we were ever taught how to do any of this. We didn't exactly grow up with healthy relationship role models."
Emily turns her attention to all of us, eyes sharp, assessing.
"One... Theo, I am Emily to you... and Two... for a group of brilliant billionaires," she says coolly, "you are spectacularly stupid."
Elliot bristles. "Hey..."
"No," she cuts in. "You don't get to interrupt me."
She steps closer to me again, a small ball of fury.
"Do you think Lucy was taught to be the way she is?" she asks. "Because shewasn't. Our dad left when we were young. I barely remember him. Mom worked constantly until she got sick."
Her voice wavers only slightly, then steadies.
"No one taught Lucy how to care the way she does. No one showed her how to put everyone she loves ahead of herself. She chose that. Every single day."
My throat tightens, but Emily doesn't stop.
"She shut the door oneverydream she ever had so I could chase mine," Emily continues. "She took your shady-ass deal so I could finish med school. She made sure Mom got the care she needed. And when you blew up your marriage..."
Caleb mutters, "Christ."
"She didn't stop," Emily finishes. "She kept going. She always does."
She folds her arms again, eyes locking on mine. She lets her words settle into all of us.
"Even when Lu gets kicked, even when most people would crawl into bed and call it a day, she somehow finds it in her to keep going. She wasn't taught that, that is Lucy being lucy... and making the right choices... or making a choice she can stand by, be proud of. Now me, I have Lucy... I grew up watching her, so I have seen what that kind of care and love and protection looks like..."
She lets that hang there. Telling me that she will protect Lucy with everything that she has, then she steps closer and somehow manages to stare me down while looking up at me.
"So, tell me, Julian North," she says quietly. "Why should I let you anywhere near my sister?"
The question hangs between us, heavy and absolute.
I don't answer.
I can't.
