Page 46 of Triplet Trouble For My Billionaire Boss

She takes a step back, her expression softening ever so slightly. “I’m not saying this to hurt you, Cole,” she says quietly. “I’m saying it because someone has to, and everybody else is too busy kissing your ass so they don’t lose their jobs.”

She sighs. “Robbie deserves better. That’s it, Cole. That’s the thing that no one’s telling you. The thing I think you know but don’t want to admit. It might not happen any time soon. Hell, it might not happen for fifteen, twenty years, but one day you’re going to look up from your desk and he’s not going to be there.”

I feel more than see her take a step closer.

“He might not hate you— Robbie’s not like that, or maybe he will be someday—but he will stop trying. He’ll stop hoping. And the saddest part? He’ll think it’s his fault. He’ll think he wasn’t enough for you, when the truth is, you just didn’t show him that he was.”

A sharp, cold pain slices through me, like a dagger to the chest. The thought of Robbie—my little boy, my only son—giving up on me... it’s unbearable.

“You think I don’t care?” I say hoarsely, my voice cracking under the strain of holding back my emotions.

“No,” Annie replies softly. “I think you do care. But caring isn’t the same as showing it.”

I run a hand through my hair, and realize that my hand is shaking a bit. She’s right. As much as Ihate to admit it, she’s right.

Her gaze softens even more, and for a moment, I see Annie in a very different light. Not as the former receptionist or the new nanny, not even as the passionate woman who was in my arms in this very room a few nights ago.

I see a woman who’s been patient with my son, who reads him bedtime stories and cheers him on when he’s too shy to join the other kids.

At least, that’s what Robbie was telling me yesterday before I… abandoned him at the museum.

Annie exhales deeply, the tension in her posture easing slightly. “Look, I’ll leave, okay? If that’s what you want, I can be out of here in a minute, but—”

“No.” The word escapes me before I’ve even realized I’m saying it.

Annie stops mid-sentence, her brows lifting slightly.

“No,” I say again, more firmly this time. “Don’t leave. It’s obvious that you care about Robbie. More than your job.”

Which is more than anyone else has. The thought sends a stabbing pain through me. That this woman who has only been in his life for a few weeks just risked her livelihood for him.

Annie blinks, clearly startled. “I do care about him,” she says softly. “But this isn’t about me. It’s about you, Cole. Robbie needs you. If I leave today, he’ll be sad, but he’ll get over it eventually. He’ll forget about me. He won’t forget about you.”

“I know,” I admit, my voice low. “I know I haven’t been there for him the way I should. And yesterday…” I trail off, unable to finish the thought.

“Yesterday can’t happen again,” she says firmly. “It scared him, Cole. You scared him.”

I flinch at her words. Hearing it said out loud makes it worse, like a knife twisting in my chest. I glance back at my desk, at the scattered papers and the notes I was working on, and suddenly, none of it seems important.

“I didn’t mean to scare him,” I say, the confession coming out rough and unpolished. “I thought—”

“You thought it would be fine,” she interrupts. “But you didn’t think about him, not really. You thought about getting back to work as quickly as possible. You thought about his physical safety. But you didn’t think about his emotional health.”

I nod slowly, the fight draining out of me. “You’re right,” I admit, the words tasting foreign but necessary. I look up into those clear blue eyes and, for the first time in years, feel helpless. “What do you suggest I do? How do I fix this?”

Her expression softens into something almost like relief. “You show up.”

The simplicity of her words strikes a chord in me. Showing up. How did something so basic become soforeign to me?

“Today.”

“Today?” I echo.

She nods once. “Yup. Robbie went to the store with Evelyn, and when he comes back, he’ll be bursting with stories to tell.”

“About the store?” I ask slowly.

Annie nods again. “Yup, about the store. And they won’t be particularly interesting.”

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