Page 49 of The Founder's Power

Vincent can have the board. The headlines. The damn tower if he wants it.

I’ve spent my life building a fortress around myself, brick by calculated brick, and all it did was keep the one person I love out.

Isabelle.

The woman who stood beside me when the floor was shaking.

The woman who looked at me like I was more than what I owned, more than what I controlled.

I’m terrified that if I don’t change and stop this now, I’ll repeat my past mistakes again. I’ll try to shelter her from the fire by shutting her out of the fight.

I grab my coat. She’s the only thing that ever mattered.

* * *

It’s rainingby the time I get to her building. I’m soaked, but I don’t run. I walk. I deserve to be drenched.

When she opens the door, her eyes widen. “Damian…”

I step inside, wet and uninvited, and I speak before she can ask. “I lost it,” I say. “Naomi. The board. Maybe the whole company.”

She stays quiet.

I look at her, not as a man trying to win, but as one finally ready to lose everything else if it means keeping her.

“I’ve been afraid for a long time,” I continue. “Afraid that if I let go, I’d fall apart. That if I didn’t control it all, I’d disappear.”

She steps closer but doesn’t interrupt.

“I thought I had to choose between power and love,” I say, “but that was a lie. The truth is, I was never powerful until you loved me.” I take a breath from somewhere low in my chest. “I don’t want to protect you anymore, Isabelle. I want to let you in. I want to build something with you. Something real. No strategies. No defenses. Just us.”

Her eyes shimmer.

I brace myself for reaction at all—rejection, forgiveness… whatever she’s about to say.

I have next to nothing to offer her now. What kind of future can I provide her now? She could very well want to walk away, cut her losses, and move on, and how could I blame her for that?

CHAPTER26

ISABELLE

He’s soaking wet. His hair, his shirt, his coat all cling to him like the weight of every choice he’s ever made, and still he looks at me like I’m the only thing he’s ever wanted.

His apology—raw, broken, and real—echoes in the air between us.

For a second, I want to fall into him, wrap my arms around him, and pretend it’s all finally behind us.

But I can’t. Not yet.

“Damian,” I whisper, stepping back just enough to breathe. “I believe you love me. I do.”

His throat moves as he swallows. “I do too. For so long. I know I haven’t been the best at showing it always, but… I love you, and I always will.”

“I believe that too,” I say, “but loving me isn’t enough if you’re still married to something else.”

He flinches.

“Your company. Your empire. That world you built to survive… it still owns too much of you.”

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