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“Sebastian, you’re vibrating. I can feel it lying in bed next to you at night. I can see it during the day. I’m honestly shocked something like this hasn’t happened to you before now.”

She doesn't back down, and that’s one of the things I’ve realized I love about her. “And don’t tell me it’s from being overfatigued. What I just saw didn’t have anything to do with being tired.”

We glare at each other for a long moment before I finally let out a breath I feel like I’ve been holding since the news of the leak broke.

“I wake up every day at four in the morning.” The words are quiet, stripped of the usual bravado I wear like armor. “Every morning, without fail, my eyes snap open, and my heart is racing so hard I think it’s going to bruise my ribs.”

“Is there some significance to that hour?”

I shrug. “I have no idea. Perhaps that’s when my brain is working through everything, preparing for the day. And then I’m awake, and it’s just me and a reality, in which I’m always one step away from making a mistake that will bring everything down—the company, the legacy, the livelihood of thousands of people who rely on the King name to keep the lights on.

“I stare at the ceiling, thinking about what the moment I ruin everything will feel like.”

I finally gather the courage to look into her eyes. “I’m terrified, Isabella. I’m terrified I’m not who they think I am, that all of my strength is going to disappear any day now. I’m terrified I’m just a fraud in an expensive suit, and I’m going to end up the loser my father thinks I am.”

“You are not a loser or a fraud! But what if things don’t go the way you hope? What does that mean for you?”

“I don’t know,” I answer, because I don’t have the nerve to follow that road to its ending. “Everyone thinks we went after that biotech firm for the profits, for the patent that would put us on the map.” I look out at the moonlight on the water. “I won’t deny that was part of it. But it was also about my grandmother.”

“Your grandmother?”

“She was one hell of a woman, a real New Yorker, born and bred. Feisty and fierce in her love for her family.”

A lot like Isabella, I realize as I say the words. “But then she started to fade. Alzheimer’s doesn’t just take your memory; it takes your soul. Eventually, she didn't know who any of us were. She stopped talking, and then she stopped eating. It was a horror I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.”

I can see the dawning realization in Isabella’s eyes.

“The King legacy is built on acquisition, on conquering. My father’s name is synonymous with ruthless efficiency. But I don’t want that. I want to heal. I want to build things. I went after that biotech firm because they were so close to a breakthrough, a breakthrough that might just stop the horrors of Alzheimer’s from happening to anyone else. But they needed support to pull it off.”

My chest tightens again. I take her hand, clinging to it like an anchor. “But now, all anyone will remember are my failures. They'll see me as the ruthless heir who finally lost his touch, the one who brought the King legacy to its knees.”

A thickness in my throat makes it difficult to speak. “I’m so tired of being a King, Isabella,” I whisper. “I just want to be a man who does some good.”

Silence stretches between us, filled only by the roar and crash of the waves. Isabella reaches out and cups my face again, her hands warm and grounding.

“I see that man, Sebastian,” she says softly, “the man who cares about the 'why.' That is the man you should let lead. People won’t see weakness; they’ll see a leader worth following.”

Her eyes draw me into their honey-colored depths. “I see a leader worth following.”

The dark hole left by the panic attack fills with light.

“Everything is going to be okay. You aren’t going to break it; you’re going to change it, and I’ll be with you when you do.”

I wrap my arms around her, burying my face in her hair. “Thank you.”

“Thank me by becoming that man, Sebastian. You can choose a different path than your father; you can be a different man, a good man, and still succeed.”

We remain in the embrace for a long time. When the cold ocean spray begins to seep through our clothes, we head back, stopping by the fire to tell the others we’re going up to the house.

Inside, Isabella follows me to my bedroom. I shut the door, sealing us away. When I turn to her in the moonlight, no more words are needed. We undress one another with a quiet reverence, and when we come together, it isn't with frantic desperation; it’s slow, intentional, and deep. Every touch is a silent promise.

Exhausted and satisfied, I fall asleep a man who knows he is loved for exactly who he is.

27

SEBASTIAN

For a few blissful seconds, I am just a man waking up next to the woman he loves. The weight on my shoulders feels balanced.