Didn't move.
Didn't even blink.
Guilt pressed harder, settling into my ribs like concrete. I'd felt it before—after the restaurant, after the leak, after every lie I'd told myself was for her own good. But this was different.
This felt permanent. The outlook bleak.
She's going to leave.
The thought sliced through me, cold and clean. I shoved it down. Left turn. Signal. Brake. The mechanical act of driving kept me from drowning.
The penthouse came into view too soon. Or not soon enough.
I pulled into the garage, killed the engine. The silence expanded.
"Emma—"
"I'm sleeping in the guest room tonight."
Her profile was carved from stone—jaw set, eyes fixed straight ahead.
"I need to think things over," she continued. Quiet. Controlled. The corporate mask she wore for hostile negotiations.
She was using it on me.
"Can we talk about this?" I hated the crack in my voice. Hated how desperate it sounded. "Please, Emma. Just—let me explain—"
"You already explained." She reached for the door handle. "You said you'd make the same choice again. You said you'd do it even knowing I might never forgive you."
The words hung between us, accusation and acknowledgment all at once.
"I meant—"
"I know what you meant." Finally, she turned. Her eyes met mine, and for one terrible moment, I saw it all—the hurt, the anger, the betrayal.
And beneath it, something that looked a lot like doubt.
She's not sure she can do this anymore.
"Emma," I begged. "Please don't—"
"Goodnight, Damien."
She was out of the car before I could reach for her. I followed—of course I followed—but she was already at the elevator, already pressing the button, already stepping inside without looking back.
The doorsclosed between us.
I stood there, frozen, staring at the brushed steel like it might once again open. Like she might reappear and tell me this was just a bad dream.
She wouldn't.
And by the time I made it upstairs, the guest room door was already shut. A thin strip of light glowed beneath it—proof she was awake, proof she wasright there.
I raised my hand to knock.
Stopped.
She asked for space. Give her space.
