"No." Victoria said. Her voice was steady, certain. "You're not going to lose anything. I'm going to make sure of it."
Jake looked at her, and for the first time since the accident, something flickered in his eyes. It wasn't hope, not yet. But it was close. Victoria spent the next week in Denver splitting her time between the hospital and her company's legal department. She made calls to the VA, to disability lawyers, to anyone who could help navigate the bureaucracy that stood between Jake and the benefits he'd earned.
His service record was impeccable, but somewhere along the way, his paperwork had been lost or misfiled. He'd been discharged honorably, but without the medical coverage he was entitled to. Victoria had spent 15 years dealing with government contracts and military red tape. She knew how to push. By the end of the week, she had Jake's benefits reinstated.
Full medical coverage, retroactive to his discharge date. The hospital bills would be covered, and the rehabilitation costs wouldn't touch his savings. When she told him, he didn't say anything for a long time. He just sat in the hospital bed with his head against the pillow staring at the ceiling. "Why are you doing this?"
Jake said finally. His voice was rough, like he'd been holding something back for too long. "You don't owe me anything." Victoria sat down in the chair beside his bed. She'd been asking herself the same question for days.
The easy answer was that it was the right thing to do, that Jake deserved better than what he'd been given. But the truth was more complicated. She'd spent her entire career believing that success meant control, that the only thing that mattered was staying on top. Then she'd met a man who'd walked away from everything she valued, and she'd realized he had something she didn't. Something she'd been missing her whole life.
"Because you showed me what it looks like to care about something more than yourself." Victoria said. She looked at Jake, and for the first time in years, she felt vulnerable. "I've spent 15 years building a company. I've won awards, made Forbes lists, closed deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
And I'm lonely. I go home to an empty apartment every night, and I don't have anyone to call. You walked away from all of that because you had something that mattered more. I'm not doing this because I owe you. I'm doing it because I want to be the kind of person who would."
Jake turned his head and looked at her. The hollowness in his eyes was still there, but something else had crept in. Relief, maybe. Or gratitude. "Thank you."
He said quietly. Victoria nodded, and for a moment they just sat there in the sterile hospital room, two people who'd come from completely different worlds and somehow ended up in the same place. Emma stayed with Victoria during Jake's recovery. It wasn't planned, but the rental house in Millbrook was too far from the hospital, and Emma needed to see her father every day. Victoria rented a suite at a hotel near the medical center, two bedrooms with a shared living area.