The Meridian partnership means Sterling Capital is stable for next decade. I can actually take time off, delegate more to my executive team, and I can find something that doesn't require three jobs to survive. Maybe finish the engineering certification I started years ago. Victoria turned to face him. Whatever you want to do, I'll support it.
That's not charity or obligation. That's me wanting the person I'm choosing to be with to have opportunities to be happy. That might take some getting used to having support. We'll figure it out together. The word together landed differently this time.
Not the desperate alliance of two strangers facing crisis, but the intentional choice of two people who'd found each other in storm and decided to see what they could build in calm. Ethan's phone buzzed. Text from Mrs. Rodriguez. Saw the news about that horrible man getting arrested. Justice exists after all.
How are you and Lily doing? He typed back. We're good. Better than good, actually. I'll explain everything soon.
Thank you for everything you've done for us. Her response came immediately. Whatever makes you happy, Mijo, you deserve it. Ethan looked at Victoria. She was watching him with expression mixing hope and uncertainty, still not quite believing that he'd chosen to stay.
Mrs. Rodriguez says, "I deserve to be happy. She's right. I'm starting to believe that might be true." Victoria smiled. Real smile this time, not the performance she'd been wearing for months.
Then let's make sure it stays true. She took his hand. Simple gesture that felt like promise. And Ethan realized that sometimes helping someone for 10 minutes could cascade into something that changed both your lives forever. In ways neither of you could have predicted, in ways that were better than anything you'd allowed yourself to hope for.
They took it slow, despite neither of them being particularly good at slow. Ethan moved back to his apartment after the first week, not because Victoria asked him to, but because he needed to prove to himself that choosing her wasn't about convenience or desperation or escaping the life he'd built. Victoria protested at first, "This is ridiculous. You're paying rent on an apartment you don't need to live in. I need to know this is real.
Ethan packed his bag while Lily watched from the doorway with confused expression. I need to know I'm choosing you because I want to, not because your penthouse is nicer than my place. That's the most stubborn thing I've ever heard. You grabbed a stranger and kissed him in front of 200 people because you were panicking. I think we're both capable of stubborn decisions.
Victoria couldn't argue with that. So Ethan went back to his two-bedroom apartment with the ancient heating system and the refrigerator that sounded like it was plotting murder. Lily went with him, though she complained loudly about missing the bubble bath. But Victoria visited three times a week. She learned to exist in spaces where furniture wasn't arranged by professionals.