Two Hearts

Answers

Laura POV

I was angry.

Angry about everything that had happened over the past few weeks.

Daniel did one thing, then another, without explanations, without warnings, without ever telling me what was going on inside that complicated head of his.

He never talked. Never stopped. Never explained.

All he did was run. Run and avoid.

Well, I was done. Completely done. If he couldn't give me answers willingly, I would drag them out of him myself. Even if I had to use a crowbar.

Everyone had a limit. And I had reached mine.

I yanked his sweatshirt over my head and threw it onto the nearest chair. Honestly, part of me wanted to throw it into the fireplace and watch it burn.

I marched downstairs and headed straight for the kitchen.

There he was. Of course. Sitting at the table. A mug of coffee in his hand. Black. Just like his soul seemed to be sometimes.

For a moment, I simply stood in the doorway watching him. Calm. Collected. Like nothing had happened. Like there hadn't been a kiss. Like he hadn't carried me upstairs. Like he hadn't given me his sweatshirt. Like I hadn't spent the last several days thinking about him far more than I should have.

And suddenly I couldn't take it anymore.

"Daniel."

His head lifted immediately. For a brief second, I thought I saw the hint of a smile.

"Good morning."

"No."

His eyebrows rose.

"No?"

"No. No 'good morning.'" I walked closer.

"We're not talking about the weather."

He slowly set down his coffee mug. I could practically see him shifting into defensive mode. As usual.

"Laura—"

"No." I cut him off immediately. "This time you're going to listen."

Silence filled the kitchen. I could hear my own heartbeat. Or maybe it was just pounding so loudly inside my head that I couldn't hear anything else.

"I can't do this anymore."

His forehead creased.

"What?"

"This." I gestured between us. "These games. This constant avoiding. This endless silence."

His expression turned serious. But I wasn't finished. Not even close.

"One day you act like I annoy you. The next day you take me to the one place in the world where nobody else is allowed. You kiss me. You pretend it meant nothing. You carry me upstairs. And then you act like none of it ever happened."

I took a deep breath. Finally saying it all out loud.

"I can't keep walking through this maze, Daniel."

He said nothing. And somehow that only made me angrier. Because silence was his favorite weapon. His favorite escape. His favorite hiding place.

"No." I shook my head. "Not this time."

"You don't get to answer with one word. You don't get to disappear and chop wood. You don't get to change the subject."

For the first time, I saw genuine uncertainty in his eyes. Almost panic. Because for once there was nowhere for him to run.

"I just want to understand." My voice softened. "I literally just want to understand."

"Why did you bring me here? Why did you kiss me? Why do you keep taking care of me?"

I paused.

Then asked the question that mattered most.

"And Daniel..."

I looked directly into his eyes.

"Can you be honest with me? Just once?"

He stared at me for so long that I almost thought he wouldn't answer.

Then finally he exhaled. Slowly.

"That's the problem, Laura." His voice was quiet. "I don't know what the honest answer is anymore."

That wasn't what I expected. Not even close. The anger inside me faltered. I pulled out the chair across from him and sat down.

For the first time, he looked just as lost as I felt.

"And what do we do now, Daniel?"

He didn't answer.

So I reached across the table and placed my hand over his. His gaze immediately dropped to it. But he didn't pull away.

"Then stop running."

His jaw tightened.

"I've been running for ten years."

"And are you tired?"

Silence. A long one.

Then finally—

"Yes." The word was barely above a whisper.

Yet somehow it felt louder than anything he'd ever said to me. I didn't speak. I simply waited. Giving him the space to decide whether he wanted to keep going.

Eventually he did.

"The cabin wasn't supposed to become important." His eyes drifted toward the window. "I bought it after everything fell apart."

A pause.

"I needed somewhere nobody could find me. No employees. No board meetings. No father. No expectations."

He took a breath. The kind people take before saying something they've never said out loud.

"People leave." His eyes found mine again.

"Eventually everyone leaves." A bitter smile appeared.

"So I stopped giving them reasons to stay."

My chest tightened.

For the first time, I wasn't looking at Daniel Carter. The CEO. The billionaire. The man everyone feared.

I was looking at someone who had spent years building walls so high that eventually he'd trapped himself inside them.

And suddenly I understood. He wasn't cold. He was scared. Scared of trusting people. Scared of needing people. Scared of losing them. Maybe even scared of me.

So I asked the only question that mattered.

"And what am I?"

His entire body went still. For a second I thought I'd broken him. Because he genuinely didn't know.

And strangely enough...

Neither did I. What was he to me? Certainly not just my contract husband anymore. Not after the cabin. Not after the photoshoot. Not after the kiss. Not after all of this.

The silence stretched between us. Then finally he spoke.

"That's exactly what I'm trying to figure out."

I studied him carefully. The uncertainty. The honesty. The fear. Things I never thought I'd see in Daniel.

"I don't need you to have all the answers today."

His gaze lifted.

"I know."

"Then why do you look like you think you should?"

For the first time that morning, he laughed. A small one. Humorless. Tired.

"Because I always know the answer."

His fingers tightened slightly around the coffee mug.

"In business. In negotiations. In every decision I make." He shook his head.

"But lately..." His eyes met mine. "I don't know anything."

Something about that confession felt even more vulnerable than everything he'd said before.

"Because uncertainty usually ends badly."

"Usually?" I asked quietly.

He smiled again. This time the smile carried years of disappointment.

"Every time."

Neither of us spoke after that.

The ocean rolled endlessly outside. The coffee had long gone cold. But neither of us moved. Neither of us left.

And for the first time since I'd met Daniel Carter, the silence between us didn't feel like a wall. It didn't feel uncomfortable. It didn't feel threatening. It simply existed.

And somehow...

That was enough.