Jax’s shoulders slump, but I’m so furious that I feel nothing when I see his defeated posture. A tiny voice in my head is trying to pull me back, trying to remind me that he’s had a hard day—that he’s losing his mother to a slow and agonizing disease, that his father is in prison, that he’s done so much for me that I can at least hear him out.

But I don’t want to.

Nothing he can say can possibly make up for what happened to me this morning, with all my hard work dismissed as worthless. I’m back out on my ass, back at the bottom. I’m starting over somewhere else and it will be years, years, before I can finally feel secure enough to move forward with all the other plans I have for my life. The anxiety is like a pair of hands around my neck. Years…

“I didn’t tell your boss to fire you.” He says the words, but he must know they’re going to have no effect. “And I meant to talk to you about this last night, but things…got in the way.”

“You couldn’t send me a message?”

“It’s not the kind of thing I thought you’d appreciate hearing about in a text.”

“You couldn’t call?”

He shakes his head, shoulders raising in a hint of a shrug. “It was late when I was finally free…”

This is all so irrelevant. The fact that Jax did this and said nothing to me is a secondary problem, though I can’t help but dig at him over it. The main issue is that he thought he had the right to make a change like that in my life, and he did not. He absolutely did not. It’s unforgivable.

I step over to him, looking him straight in the eye. “Let me make something crystal clear to you, Mr. Hunter.” I watch the last two words twist the knife. “Nobody makes decisions for me. Nobody. Not even men like you.”

For an instant, I almost feel sorry, because Jax doesn’t give me a cocky smile. He doesn’t have a cutting reply ready. He doesn’t step forward and try to overwhelm me with kisses, doesn’t press his body to mine until all I can think of is the clean scent of his skin, of his clothes, until I’m so lost in him that all I can do is dig my nails into his back and surrender to the most intense pleasure I’ve ever experienced.

He looks down at the floor.

“I’m sorry, Cate. It didn’t play out how I thought it would.”

“No, I imagine it didn’t.”

He twists away from me, a hand over his eyes, and a moment later straightens up, taking in a deep breath and letting it out. Well, isn’t he the model of self-control.

“Is there anything else you’d like to discuss?”

“Discuss?” I get it. Now that I haven’t folded, haven’t gone along with his grand plans—never mind that he couldn’t take the time to consult me about my own life—he’s going to treat me like another business associate.

“Yes. Was there anything else?”

I take a deep breath and prepare to unleash another stream of anger on him. It’s my right after what he’s done. But my phone buzzes in time to cut me off.

The habit is so ingrained that I don’t even think about the situation I’m in, think about the gravity of what’s happening between the two of us. I pull it out and look at the screen even as I swipe to answer it.

It’s Dex.

Dex almost never calls me. When the family is together, we get along and enjoy each other’s company, but unless he’s around when Bee is video chatting with me, I don’t hear from him. He’s a busy guy.

“Hello?”

“Cate?” When I hear the strain in his voice, my heart drops into my stomach.

“It’s me. What’s going on, Dex?” I turn my shoulders away from Jax, whose face instantly filled with concern when he heard the question.

“You’ve got to come home, Cate.” Terror. Pure, cold terror. Something has happened to my sister. What happened to my sister?

In a split second I switch modes. It’s like I’m back behind the desk at Basiqué, dealing with a thousand things at once like it’s nothing. I shove my fear and my anger deep down into the center of me, where it can’t interfere.

“Is it Bee?” My voice is clear, strong. Get the necessary information. Move into action.

“Something went wrong…something…I don’t know exactly what,” Dex’s voice is choked. He’s doing his best to hold it together, but Bee is his wife, the love of his life. “She’s going into emergency surgery to deliver the twins right now.”

“I’m on my way.”

“She might not make it, Cate!” he cries, voicing his darkest fear for probably the first time since this nightmare began.

“She’ll be all right,” I tell him, projecting every ounce of confidence I have into my voice. “I’ll be there soon.”

“Get here.” A ragged breath. “Please.”

He hangs up and I’m already walking, moving toward the door.

“Cate.”

I turn back to Jax one last time. I’m about to walk away from him forever, and I hardly care. I need to get to my sister. My family is the only thing that matters now. I raise my eyebrows. What could be so important?

“My private jet will be fueled up and ready to leave by the time you get to LaGuardia.”

I don’t want to take the offer, but I need to get to my sister.

“I’m not coming back.”

“I know.”

It’s his money, his plane. I can’t waste any time on refusing on principle, even if that makes me the worst person on the face of the earth.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

I get into the elevator without looking back.