Selena's face crumpled. I called as much as I could. I know, but it wasn't enough. So, what do you want from me? You want me to quit?
Give up everything I've built. I want you to figure out what you actually want. Because right now, it feels like you're trying to have everything and it's tearing you apart. Maybe I am trying to have everything. Is that so wrong?
No. But it's not working. Selena stood up, her chair scraping against the floor. I knew this would happen. I knew the second I let myself care about you, it would all fall apart.
That's not fair, isn't it? You're asking me to choose. Maybe not in those exact words, but that's what this is. The company or you. I'm not asking you to choose.
I'm asking you to be realistic about what you can handle. And you've decided I can't handle both. You just spent two weeks in Singapore barely sleeping, barely eating, barely talking to us. You came back looking like you're about to collapse. So yeah, maybe I don't think you can handle both.
Not like this. Selena grabbed her coat. I need to go where? I don't know. Anywhere but here.
She left, and this time Ethan didn't follow. He sat at the kitchen table until the tea went cold, staring at the wobbly leg he still hadn't fixed, and wondered if maybe this was how it ended. Not with some big dramatic fight, but with exhaustion, with two people who wanted different things from life and couldn't find a way to make them fit. Selena didn't come back that night or the next morning. When she finally showed up three days later, she looked different, calmer, like she'd made a decision.
I talked to the board, she said, standing in the doorway like she wasn't sure she was allowed inside. About what? About the expansion. About the schedule. About what I can realistically do.
Ethan waited. "I told them I need to restructure my role." I can oversee the expansion from here, make quarterly trips instead of monthly. They weren't happy about it, but they agreed. Well, why would you do that? because you were right. I can't do both.
Not the way I was trying to. She stepped inside, closed the door behind her, and I realized something while I was gone. The company matters. It'll always matter, but it's not all I have anymore. You and Chloe, you're what I want to come home to.
Not an empty apartment in another board meeting. You love that company, Sam. I do, but I love you more. She said it simply like it was the most obvious thing in the world. And I'm done pretending I can have everything without making sacrifices.
So, I'm sacrificing the expansion. Someone else can run it day-to-day. I'll be the name on the door, but I won't be in Singapore every month. Ethan stared at her. You're serious completely.
Your investors are going to hate you. Probably, but I'll deal with it. She crossed the kitchen, stood in front of him. I'm not saying this will be perfect. I'm still going to travel sometimes.
I'm still going to have late nights and difficult calls. But I'll be here with you and Chloe if you still want me. If I still Ethan pulled her close, burying his face in her hair. Of course, I still want you. I never stopped wanting you.
"Yes," she kissed him. And it felt like coming home after a long trip, like finding something you thought you'd lost forever. I'm sorry, she whispered against his mouth. For all of it, for disappearing, for making you feel like you weren't enough. You're sorry for having a career.
I'm sorry for making you compete with it. They stood there in the kitchen holding each other while the afternoon light slanted through the windows. Upstairs, Khloe's footsteps creaked across the floor. She's home, Chloe called down. I am, Selena called back.
And I brought pizza, the good kind, not frozen. Footsteps thundered down the stairs. Chloe appeared, suspicious and hopeful at the same time. "You came back," she said. "I—I promised I would." You were gone a long time.
I know. I'm sorry. Chloe studied her for a long moment. Then what kind of pizza? pepperoni with extra cheese. Okay, you can stay.
Selena laughed and the sound filled the kitchen with something that felt almost like hope. They ate pizza on the couch. The three of them squeezed together while some animated movie played on the TV. Khloe fell asleep halfway through, her head on Selena's shoulder. Ethan carried her upstairs, tucked her in, and came back to find Selena still sitting on the couch, staring at nothing.
"What are you thinking about?" he asked. how easy it would be to screw this up. You won't. You don't know that. No, but I trust you anyway. She looked at him.
Why? Because you came back. You could have stayed in Singapore, buried yourself in work, pretended we didn't exist, but you came back. That means something. It means I'm terrified of losing you.
Good. I'm terrified of losing you, too. He sat beside her. That's how this works. We're both scared, but we do it anyway.
Selena leaned against him. I don't deserve you. Probably not, but you're stuck with me now. God. She smiled.
Actually smiled. I can live with that. They sat there in the quiet, listening to the house settle around them. Somewhere upstairs, Khloe was dreaming. Outside, the neighborhood was dark except for the scattered porch lights.
And in this small space they'd carved out together two people who should never have worked somehow did. It wasn't perfect. It wasn't easy, but it was real. And for now, that was enough. The restructuring worked for exactly four months. four months of Selena coming home for dinner most nights. four months of Khloe doing homework at the kitchen table while Selena answered emails beside her.
Four months of something that almost looked like normal if you didn't look too close at the cracks. Then Marcus Chen called. Ethan was grading papers when Selena's phone rang. He watched her face change as she listened, watched her walk out to the porch and closed the door behind her. She was out there for thirty minutes.