Chapter 81

The room was very still."What frightens you?" Maeve said.He looked at her."About me," she said. "Specifically. You said I terrify you. I want to know what that means."He was quiet for a long moment. Long enough that she thought he might redirect, might find the professional exit from the question.He didn't."You don't need me," he said.She waited."Every relationship I've ever had — every person who mattered to me — needed something I was in a position to provide. My father needed an heir who reflected well on him. The company needed a leader. Investors needed returns. Elizabeth needed—" he paused, "—Elizabeth needed stability and I was the version of stability she could access at the time." He looked at his hands again. "There was always something. A need I could fill. A gap I could occupy." He paused. "It was the only way I knew how to matter."Maeve was very still."You don't need anything I have," he said. "Not the money, not the position, not the access, not the — none of i

Chapter 82

Maeve stood up.Carter looked at her."Go home," she said. "Or wherever you're sleeping. Not here." She looked around at the documents and the laptops. "This will all be here tomorrow. It won't look different at eight AM than it looks right now.""I know.""But you'll be clearer." She picked up her jacket from the back of the chair. "Sleep matters. I learned that in therapy and it's the most practically useful thing I know."He almost smiled. "More useful than tea timing?""Equally useful," she said.He stood. Looked at the desk. Made a decision — she could see him make it — and left the documents where they were. Closed two of the three laptops. Left the third open because some part of him apparently couldn't close all three, and she found that she could hold that as evidence of partial rather than failed progress.They rode the elevator down together in a silence that was entirely different from the one upstairs. The elevator silence of two people who have said enough and don't need

Chapter 83

Okay," he said.She set down her tea."Your kindness was real," she said. "I want to be clear that I know it was real. I'm not going to revise what it was to make this easier to say. You saw me when Carter wasn't seeing me, and you treated me like a person when the household was treating me like a function, and that was real and it mattered." She paused. "I need you to hear that first.""I hear it," he said quietly."But Cameron." She kept her voice even, not gentle-to-softness, just honest-to-kindness, the way true things could be said when you cared about the person you were saying them to. "The timing of it was a weapon."Silence."I know you didn't experience it that way," she continued. "I know you believe you were giving me information. Opening a door. Letting me see an option I might not have seen." She looked out the window. "But the morning you came to the lobby — the morning after the hearing, the morning before the board meeting, the morning when Carter was at his most redu

Chapter 84

don't mean—" she paused, choosing words carefully, "—I don't mean I'm deciding what comes after. I'm not making a declaration about us. About what we are or could be." She kept her voice even and her eyes on his. "I mean the legal structure. The arrangement. The two years and the obedience clause and the financial provisions and everything that it formally represents." She paused. "I can't stay inside that. Whatever I feel, whatever we're building or not building, it can't be built on that foundation."He looked at her for a long moment."I know," he said."You've known for a while.""Yes.""Then why didn't you—""Because terminating the contract means the NDA provisions about company affairs no longer apply," he said. "Which meant, during the hearing, that—" he stopped. "I was protecting the company."She held his gaze."Even then," he said. "Even knowing what I know now. I was protecting the company." He looked down. "I'm telling you so you know. I'm not — I'm not trying to frame i

All Chapters of MY WAY TO THE BILLIONAIRE'S HEART : Chapter 81 - Chapter 84

Chapter 81

Chapter 82

Chapter 83

Chapter 84