Chapter Five.

The answer didn’t come to her until later that evening, during the livestream Carmen had organized as a last-ditch effort at damage control. Since Carmen couldn’t trust her with another unfiltered interview, a "casual" Q&A on Nora’s social media had been the next best option.

Carmen stood just behind the tripod, flanked by two assistants who were monitoring the lighting and the live feed. Before they’d started, Carmen had given Nora an earful about "minding her tongue" and "sticking to the talking points." Now, Carmen’s hawk-like eyes burned with a warning as she began the final silent countdown with her fingers.

Three. Two. One.

“Hey, guys,”

…

Ethan had just come out of yet another meeting. In the six days since leaving home, he had attended more than a dozen sessions lasting several hours each, trying to soothe the ruffled feathers of the board and his lead investors.

He lay back on the couch in the resting area of his office, massaging his temples. The last meeting had been a five-hour marathon of the Q3 projections and risk assessments. He was exhausted, but the fatigue was a welcome distraction. Because if he stopped moving for long enough, he thought about Nora.

He missed her. Her smell, her smile, the feel of her pressed against him, all of her. He had asked Martha to ensure she ate, and he’d been checking in with Camila daily, making sure she kept Nora distracted from the vitriol of the internet. He wanted to be the one to protect her, but he knew—logically—that his presence was currently the very thing she was fighting against.

The sound of a discreet throat clearing broke the heavy silence of the office. Fitz stood by the couch, an iPad clutched in his hand.

“I’m sorry to disturb you, sir,” Fitz said, his voice level, “but the livestream is about to begin.”

Ethan hesitated. His pulse skipped at the mere thought of seeing her, even through a screen. It had been six days of silence, and the anticipation felt like a physical weight. He nodded once, and Fitz propped the tablet on the mahogany coffee table before stepping to the side.

“Hi, guys,”

Her voice—commanding and melodic—filled the office. She looked every bit the literary darling the world expected. She was poised, a soft, inviting smile on her lips as the viewer count ticked up into the hundreds of thousands.

But Ethan didn't see the celebrity. He looked closer, and his heart sank. He saw the subtle tension in her jaw and the slight, tell-tale puffiness around her eyes that even the most expensive concealer couldn’t fully mask from him.

He felt a familiar, painful tug in his chest. She was not okay, he thought, his protective instincts surging, an old habit that refused to die despite the distance between them.

But she was already moving forward. The stream started light, with Nora answering curated questions about how she was "holding up." But as the viewer count surpassed a hundred thousand, the comments began to shift. The digital crowd turned into a mob.

User123- Looking tired Nora! The block real?

Kadelgreen- when’s your next book, I’m sure writing isn’t that hard

Nora remained calm. “I did struggle with writer's block, but my new book is currently underway and is progressing smoothly.”

Booklover24: Yo! Where Ethan at

Golden_baddie- heard you guys finna get a divorce, imma shoot my shot at Ethan first chance I get

FinnaceGuy- if my wife cause a scandal that affected my company, I’d leave her too.

Coco88- embarrassing him on live television wasn’t enough, now you’re ruining his hard work. He deserves better.

The comments kept rolling in, each one more vile than the last.

Ethan felt a roar of fury rise in his throat; his hands fisted as they rested on his knee. “Someone is deliberately feeding this. This is an attack on you.” He heard Fitz say. And he knew exactly who it was.

On screen, Nora paused. For a split second, she looked stunned—likely seeing the news for the first time that her scandal was affecting Ethan's professional life. Her eyes widened, a flash of genuine guilt crossing her face, but she recovered with a speed that left Ethan breathless.

“The rumors of a separation,” Nora said, her tone dismissive, “are simply that. Rumors. Ethan and I are completely fine. In fact...” he could see the wheels turning in her head, and she got the look in her eyes when she’d just thought of something brilliant.

“With our anniversary just around the corner, we have something special planned. We’ve decided to go back to the prologue of our story—back to where the plot of our love was first written.”

The office went silent. Ethan felt as if the wind had been kicked out of his lungs.

The prologue.

Then it clicked—Paris.

The comments were coming like a tsunami, but Nora was done. He watched, stunned, as Nora ended the livestream with a graceful smile and a challenge in her brown eyes, as if she knew he was watching and was challenging him to refute her claims.

Silently, he leaned back against the couch, a slow, amused smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

“She’s unbelievable,” he murmured.

Fitz, who had been silent

Fitz, who had been silent, let out a soft chuckle. “Saving both your careers in under 25 minutes, and with such grace? The only other person who could have made such a pivot under such circumstances would be you.” The admiration in Fitz’s voice was unmistakable.

“She wasn’t even prepared for such news,” Ethan said, his voice carrying a hint of genuine pride. He knew she had gone on that stream with no prior knowledge of his company’s problem, just her wit and her determination to fix the mess. To see her seize control of the moment and bend it to her will-it was the woman he’d fallen in love with.

“The board is going to hate how much they love this,” Fitz said, a hint of excitement in his voice as he typed away on his iPad.

Fitz was very efficient when it came down to business, but still in his early twenties, he had yet to master keeping his mask in place.

Ethan stood, the smile still on his face. The frustration he had felt all week hadn’t vanished, but it had been eclipsed by a sense of admiration. He liked a good move, even when it was played against him. Especially when it was played by his wife, he found it sexy as hell.

His phone buzzes. The smile turning to a smirk, he knew she’d call. He picked it up on the second ring.

“You really couldn’t help yourself, could you?” his voice wasn’t hard or accusing; it was light and teasing.

“I simply used the situation to my advantage; you taught me that.” He could imagine her shrug as she said it.

“I didn’t know it’d be used against me,” He wished he could continue to tease her and pretend like all was well. “But the ‘prologue of our story’ is a bit too cliché, no?”

“People love clichés. It’s a solid plan. One or two weeks in Paris, we both save our careers; it’s a win-win.”

He felt a pang in his chest as the smile fell from his face. She was only doing this for their careers; she didn’t want to fix things between them.

“I can’t exactly say no now. I’ll be sending Fitz along with the jet to accompany you. We’ll fly out to Paris from Boston. I’ll text you the details later.” And then he hung up.

…

Nora stared at her phone, her brow furrowed. He had gone from teasing to cold in a heartbeat. She shook her head, refusing to let it dampen her resolve. She had a trip to plan and a husband to win back.

She had made him fall for her once in Paris. How hard could it be to do it again?