"I don't need protection! I need a partner!"
The words burst out of me. "I need someone who fights for us, not just for the company. I need" My voice cracked. "I need to know I'm more than an obligation to you."
His face crumpled. "Emma, you are not an obligation. You're"
My phone rang. Riley's name flashed on the screen.
"I have to take this." I answered, stepping away. "Riley, not a good time"
"It's everywhere, Em. Someone leaked it to the press. 'Hartley CEO in Secret Affair with Employee.' It's trending on business Twitter. There are photos. I'm so sorry."
The room spun. "How bad?"
"Bad. Comments are… not kind. Some people are defending you, but others are saying you slept your way to the top. The company's PR line is blowing up."
I hung up, turned to Adrian. "It's public. Press has it. It's trending."
For a moment, Adrian just stared at me. Then he was moving, pulling out his phone, barking orders to someone on the other end. "Get PR on damage control. Prepare a statement. I want to know who leaked those photos and I want to know yesterday."
He was in CEO mode now, commanding and controlled. And I was just standing there, my career imploding, watching him choose the company.
Again.
"I need to go." My voice sounded distant to my own ears.
"Emma, wait"
"No. You have a crisis to manage. I have a career to salvage." I grabbed my bag. "Let me know what the board decides about my future. If I still have one."
"Emma, don't do this"
"Do what? Get out of your way so you can fix the problem?" I laughed, but it sounded broken. "That's what I am now, right? A problem to be managed?"
"That is not fair"
"Neither is having my entire professional reputation destroyed because I fell for my boss!" The words hung in the air, raw and true. "I fell for you, Adrian. And now I'm paying the price for it."
I walked out before he could respond, before I could see his reaction to my accidental confession.
My phone was exploding with notifications. Emails, texts, missed calls. I ignored them all, heading straight for the elevator.
Sarah caught me in the hallway. "Emma, I just saw are you okay?"
"Fine. I'm fine." I jabbed the elevator button repeatedly.
"You're clearly not fine. Let me help"
"There's nothing you can do." The elevator opened and I stepped inside. "Just… focus on the Riverside campaign. It needs to succeed regardless of what happens to me."
The doors closed on Sarah's concerned face.
In the privacy of the elevator, I let myself break.
Tears streamed down my face as the reality crashed over me. My promotion questioned. My competence doubted. My relationship with Adrian exposed and twisted into something sordid.
And worst of all, the knowledge that Victoria had been right.
Adrian would always choose the company.
And I would always be the complication he had to manage.
I made it home well, to Riley's couch, since I'd never found a new apartment and immediately shut off my phone.
"Talk to me," Riley said gently, sitting beside me with wine.
"There's nothing to talk about. I'm the office scandal. The woman who slept her way to the top. Everything I've worked for is ruined."
"That's not true"
"It is true! Even if Adrian proves I earned my promotion, people will always wonder. Always question. Every success will be attributed to him, not me." I took a large gulp of wine.
"Victoria warned me. She told me exactly what would happen. And I didn't listen."
"What are you going to do?"
"I don't know. Resign? Start over somewhere else? Change my name and move to Alaska?"
Riley squeezed my hand. "Or you could fight. You're brilliant, Emma. You closed a fifty-million-dollar deal. You built an amazing team. You earned everything you have. Don't let Marcus or the media or anyone take that from you."
"And Adrian?"
"What about him?"
I thought about his face when I'd walked out. The desperation in his voice. The way he'd immediately shifted into fixing mode instead of just… being there for me.
"I don't think we can survive this," I whispered. "The company will always come first for him. And I'll always be the woman who complicated things."
A knock at the door interrupted us.
Riley checked the peephole, then looked at me with raised eyebrows. "It's him."
My heart stuttered. "I can't"
"Emma, please." Adrian's voice came through the door. "Please let me in. I need to talk to you."
"Tell him to go away."
"Emma"
Another knock, more insistent. "I'm not leaving. I'll stand out here all night if I have to. Your neighbors are already staring."
Riley looked at me. "Your call."
I thought about staying on this couch, hiding from the world, letting the scandal define me.
Then I thought about what I'd told Sarah: Focus on the campaign. It needs to succeed regardless of what happens to me.
Maybe it was time to follow my own advice.
I stood, smoothed my hair, and nodded to Riley.
She opened the door.
Adrian looked wrecked. Hair disheveled, tie gone, shirt wrinkled like he'd been running his hands through it repeatedly. His eyes were red-rimmed and desperate.
"Emma. Thank God." He stepped inside, reaching for me.
I stepped back. "What are you doing here?"
"What do you think? You walked out"
"You had a crisis to manage."
"Screw the crisis!" His voice cracked. "You think I care about the board or the press or any of it when you're hurting? When I've hurt you?"
"You chose the company. Again."
"I chose wrong." He moved closer, and I saw genuine anguish in his expression. "I spent two hours on damage control, doing exactly what you said managing the problem, controlling the narrative, fixing everything. And the entire time, all I could think about was your face when you said you fell for me."
My breath caught.