James’s POV
I didn’t sleep.
Didn’t eat.
Didn’t move from the chair facing the city until the sun came up like it had no idea the world was falling apart.
I thought staying away would be noble. That pulling the plug on the partnership would protect Melinda from the scrutiny of the media, the whispers, the headlines that liked to turn women into cautionary tales.
But I hadn’t protected her.
I’d abandoned her.
I’d let my fear — of being used, of being manipulated, of repeating every mistake my parents made — become louder than the truth I’d seen with my own eyes.
Melinda Holt wasn’t a woman who needed to use anyone.
She didn’t need a billionaire.
She built everything on her own.
I had just been too proud to admit that my love — real, messy, flawed — had come wrapped in expectations
