Page 45 of The Founder's Power

The door opens. The woman doesn’t wait for permission. She just pushes through with her tablet in hand and an almost scared expression on her face.

Damian looks up from across the room. I’m curled on the window bench, watching the rain, sipping tea he made for me himself this morning. For once, I let myself believe things might be okay.

Until now.

“Clara…” Damian says slowly.

“You need to see this,” Clara says tightly, handing him the tablet.

He takes it without a word, and I watch his expression shift from disbelief to comprehension and then to something harder, something cold and hollow and deep.

“What is it?” I ask softly, standing.

He hands me the tablet.

It’s a press release.

GreyCore Industries makes move to acquire Kincaid Global. Hostile takeover bid launched. Board divided.

I read the words twice, but they don’t feel real.

I look up at him.

His jaw is clenched, his eyes stormy and dark. “He waited and watched. He let Veridian Holdings soften the ground, and now he’s striking.”

My stomach drops. “He’s going to gut everything, isn’t he?”

“He doesn’t want the company,” Damian says. “He wants me to be broken and gone.”

My heart aches. “Tell me what you need,” I say.

He shakes his head slowly. “I need to think. I need to act fast. I need to outmaneuver him without losing control of the board…” He trails off as he starts to pace, his hands clasped behind his back.

Clara’s already on the phone in the background, barking orders into her headset.

Just like that, I feel the shift and the return to silence, tension, and tunnel vision.

Not from malice. From fear. Everything he’s ever been afraid of crashing down around him.

Part of me wants to scream. We just got here. We just found our rhythm and chose each other again, and already I feel the walls going back up. Already I feel the weight of trying to hold him together while he holds the rest of the world at bay.

“Damian,” I say, stepping into his path, forcing him to stop. “You can’t shut me out. Not again. If we’re doing this—if I’m with you—you have to let me stay with you. Even now.”

He looks at me. He’s so exhausted and desperate.

Shit. He doesn’t know how to let someone help him, not when the stakes are this high and the battlefield is his name.

Plus, this is his arena, not mine. Is there even anything I can do to help?

“I’m not asking you to stop fighting,” I whisper. “I’m asking you to let me fight with you in whatever way that I can.”

He finally pulls me into his arms. “I don’t know how to be both things, Isabelle. The man who wins… and the man who loves.” His voice is rough against my temple.

I press my hand over his heart. “Then maybe it’s time you learn.”

But inside, I wonder if we can survive this war even if we win it.

CHAPTER23

---