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Feel.
“I love you, Ivy,” he murmurs, pressing a kiss against my cheek.
My heart clenches so hard it’s a wonder he doesn’t feel it.
I squeeze our joined hands instead of answering, trying to hold the pieces of myself together.
Because I do love him. God, I love him so much it terrifies me.
But with the story still hanging between us, with the deception coiled like a snake under my skin—
I can’t say it back. Not yet.
So I just hold on tighter.
We lie there in the quiet, letting the weight of everything we’re not saying fill the space between us.
One kiss turns into another. And another. Soft at first. Searching. Then deeper. Needier.
It’s not about sex this time. It’s something different.
We don’t rush. We don’t tear at each other the way we have before.
We move slowly. I’ve been in long-term relationships, yet nothing has ever felt like this before.
He kisses me like I’m something precious, something breakable, and for once in my life, I let myself believe I am.
When we finally come together, it isn’t rough or desperate. It’s slow. It’s careful. It’s… love.
And it ruins me even more than the truth sitting heavy in my chest.
CHAPTER 14
CARTER
“Mr. Volcor, I’m sending the jet. You need to get back to the office immediately.”
The storm’s cleared. The airports are open. Life is back to normal. And I woke up to a barrage of missed calls, emails, and texts—from my assistant, from the board of directors—all hammering home the same urgent message: Get back. Handle this.
“Mr. Volcor, this lawsuit… these accusations… they’ll destroy your reputation—and the company’s,” one of my senior advisors says, his voice tight with nerves.
The old me would’ve been on the first flight out, no hesitation. Business first. Always.
But the man I am right now—the one wrapped up in Ivy, the one who just remembered what it feels like to live—he doesn’t want to go anywhere. He wants to stay with her. In this bubble where the world doesn’t get a say.
But I can’t. I know I can’t.
As much as I hate everything my father did—hate it enough to say fuck it all—the truth is, Volcor Holdings is clean now. I made sure of it.
Every deal, every contract, every operation—we rebuilt it brick by brick, the right way.
When I called Liam, we mapped out a plan.
Move fast. Get ahead of this. Protect the company before it burns.
Because it’s not just my name at stake—it’s thirty thousand employees, contractors, families who count on us to keep the lights on and food on the table.
I have enough money to disappear for a dozen lifetimes if I wanted to. But they don’t.