Page 84 of Terms of Exposure
"We both were." He squeezed my hand. "And I didn't want to add pressure. Not when you were already carrying so much. Not when I could barely keep myself upright."
The last two weeks. The hospital. The merger. The way we'd both been running on fumes.
"The rules I set at the collaring weren't arbitrary," he continued. "The check-ins. The mandatory rest. The honesty about how you're actually feeling—not the corporate mask you show everyone else." He held my gaze. "Those weren't idle ideas. They were what I saw you needed—"
"You mean like the audit?"
The words left my mouth before I could stop them, smashing through the floodgates.
Damien froze. His hand stilled on mine. The final time.
"Emma—"
"You handled that for me, didn't you?" I pressed. "Took care of it so I wouldn't have to. Made decisions about my company without asking. Without telling me."
The accusation sat heavy in the air, the cabin stifling.
Behind the wheel, Damien was ice, but I waited. The pressure in the air rising, threatening to explode.
"Yes," he said at last.
My heart stopped. Flatlined.
"I falsified the audit." His jaw tightened. "I adjusted the numbers to make Elion's financials appear stronger than they were."
The windshield pressed close. Suffocating.
"Elion was in trouble, Emma. Real trouble." His voice was steady, but the cadence picked up speed. "The numbers Gregory leakedweren't lies. They were the truth. And if Falkirk's board had seen the real figures, the merger would have collapsed. Elion would have been picked apart by vultures within six months."
I stared at him, my pulse pounding in my ears.
"You would have lost everything," he continued. "Your company. Your reputation. All of it—built from nothing." His hand tightened around mine. "And it wouldn't have been just you. Jennifer. David. Kevin. Every single person who trusted you to keep them employed—they would have gone down with the ship."
"So you lied."
"I protected you." Heat blazed in his eyes. "I looked at the situation, I assessed the options, and I made a call. The only call that kept you and everyone you care about from being destroyed."
"Without asking me." My voice was lethal.
"You would have said no."
The truth of it hung in the air, undeniable.
He was right. I would have refused. Would have insisted on doing things the right way, the ethical way, even if it meant watching Elion crumble around me.
"That wasn't your decision to make," I bit out.
The tension in the car crackled, electric and sharp.
"Emma," he tried. "I made you a promise. We both agreed to this dynamic. You gave me the authority to protect you, even when you couldn't see the threat."
I opened my mouth to argue, but he pressed on.
"I agree I should have told you. Should have explained what I was doing and why." His thumb resumed its slow stroke across my knuckles. "I believed it was my call to make. Whether I was right about that..." He exhaled slowly. "I'm still figuring out."
Doubt. Real and undeniable.
"You wanted someone to catch you. To handle the things you couldn't handle alone. This is what that looks like, Emma. Even whenit's messy. Even when it's hard." He met my eyes. "But that doesn't mean you don't get to be angry. Or frustrated. You have the right to all of those emotions. And in turn, I have to bear mine."
