Page 145 of My Big, Fat, Hot Billionaire Enemy

But hearing the words, seeing her choose the company, choose her role, overusin this critical moment… it feels like a physical blow.

I nod curtly, masking the sudden hollowness inside.

“Understood.” I stand up and leave the boardroom.

In the hallway outside, her voice stops me. “Christopher, wait.”

I turn back. She’s followed me out into the corridor, leaving the stunned board members behind for a second.

“I need you to understand,” she says quickly, her voice low, urgent. “I believe you. One hundred percent. I know you didn’t know about this.” Her eyes plead for me to understand. “But Iamthe CEO now. I can’t strategize how to fight off a Blackwell takeover, even if it’s your father, with the CEO ofBlackwell Innovations sitting at the table. The conflict… it’s impossible. Can’t you see?” She touches my arm, her touch burning through my jacket. “This position… proving I can do it, saving the company… it’s everything I’ve worked for, everything Dad sacrificed for. But it means… it means...”

She bites her lip, unable to say the words. But I know precisely what she wanted to say.

We’re done.

She’s giving up on us.

“I see,” I reply, my voice flat. And I do. I really do.

I see her standing tall, making the impossible choice I practically pushed her towards. I see the leader emerging, forged in fire.

And I see the chasm opening between us, created not by distrust, but by the very positions we now hold.

She looks devastated but resolute. “I have to go back in there.”

“I know.”

She gives my arm one last squeeze, then turns and walks back into the boardroom, leaving me standing alone in the hallway. I watch her go, watch her square her shoulders and become the CEO Hammond needs.

At the cost of us.

I exit the building.

Elijah materializes beside me. “Sir?”

“I’m going home, Elijah,” I say numbly.

Back in the sterile silence of my penthouse, the full weight of it hits me.

My father’s perfect fucking timing. He didn’t just launch a takeover. He created an impossible choice for Lucy. Forcing her to choose between herprofessional duty, her hard-won position, and her personal feelings for me.

A choice where, inevitably, our relationship becomes the casualty.

Why didn’t I fight her on it? Like I did last time she tried to push me away? When she felt guilt over my failing relationship with my father?

I shut that shit down immediately.

Possessive. Controlling.

Refusing to let her go.

But this… this is different. That was her misplaced guilt.Thisis her choice. Her decision as CEO.

The role I encouraged her to take, told her she deserved. How can I undermine her authority, her first act of decisive leadership, by refusing to respect her boundaries?

How can I stand in the way of her finally proving herself, finally achieving the success she deserves, even if it means she has to let me go to do it?

I wanted her to shine. With all my fucking heart.