Page 5 of The Founder's Power

I walk away before I do something I’ll regret.

I can feel him watching me the entire time.

CHAPTER3

DAMIAN

Iwatch her walk away.

I should look elsewhere, pretend I don’t notice the sway of her hips, the way her fingers curl around the edge of her clutch like it’s the only thing tethering her to the floor.

But I can’t. I can’t even breathe right.

What the hell just happened?

She was supposed to be a memory. A lesson. A scar I could trace in private but never have to see again. I made peace with her absence. Forced peace, yes, buried under late nights and buyouts and boardrooms. My life doesn’t have space for her anymore.

And yet she walked in like the missing breath in a sentence I’ve been trying to finish for years.

I knew coming here was a risk but damn…

I sit down on the nearest bench like someone just knocked the wind out of me.

She still looks the same. No. Better. She’s softer around the edges but sharper too. Confident. Untouchable. She’s built her world, and it shines. She doesn’t need me.

God, why does that hurt?

I ran the numbers on heartbreak a long time ago. It was a calculated cost. I chose the business. Chose the empire. Chose the version of myself that wouldn’t bleed when someone walked away.

Except she didn’t just walk.

She wrecked me.

And now she’s back, standing not that far away, with her steady eyes and her carefully neutral tone, and it feels like my entire foundation just cracked down the middle.

When she asked why are you really here, I wanted to tell her the truth.

I don’t know anymore.

I ran from feelings like this. I buried them under ironclad contracts and a ruthless schedule and a cold, steel reputation. But one look at her—just one—and I’m twenty steps behind, fighting the part of me that still remembers how her skin felt under my fingers, how her laugh used to echo inside my chest.

I stand, adjusting my cuffs, trying to breathe through the shake I won’t let show.

This isn’t a problem I can outmaneuver or negotiate into submission.

This is Isabelle, and for the first time in years, I don’t know how to win.

I was here to network, but that doesn’t have to be done in person.

I’m not a coward, but I’ll admit to myself and no one else that I tuck my tail between my legs and leave.

But not until after I glance at her one last time.

* * *

The next day,I’m at my office, like always when my phone buzzes.

I don’t expect her text.

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