ETHAN'S POV
Ethan Cole sees Jackson Sterling and something inside him turns to stone.
Five years. It's been five years since they've been in the same room. Five years since Ethan walked out of a boardroom and told Jackson that he was going to destroy everything he'd built. He'd meant every word of it. He's spent the last five years making good on that promise.
Jackson is standing in Sophie's gallery like he has every right to be there. He's holding wine glasses. He's smiling at Sophie like she belongs to him. Like the last three years of her rebuilding herself away from Manhattan means nothing.
Ethan drops the flowers.
He doesn't remember letting them fall. One second he's holding them and the next second they're on the gallery floor and he's trying to decide whether to destroy this man or walk away.
Jackson sees him in the doorway. For a split second, something flickers across Jackson's face. Recognition. Fear. Then it's gone and he's back to looking polite. Back to looking like he wasn't just caught with Ethan's fiancée.
"Ethan Cole," Jackson says. He moves toward him with his hand extended. "I haven't seen you in years."
Ethan doesn't take his hand.
He's studying Jackson like he's studying an opponent. Trying to figure out what he's doing here. Why he's in this gallery. Why Sophie is looking at him like she's been caught doing something she shouldn't.
Jackson lowers his hand and smiles like the rejection doesn't hurt him. Like he doesn't care that Ethan just refused to shake his hand in front of Sophie.
"I was just complimenting Sophie on her work here," Jackson says smoothly. "She's really created something special."
Ethan wants to tell him to leave. Wants to throw him out physically. Wants to do a lot of things that would hurt Sophie worse than anything Jackson could do.
So he doesn't speak. He just watches.
Jackson finishes his wine. He glances at Sophie one more time like he's memorizing her face. Then he leaves, walking past Ethan like they're just two men passing each other on the street.
But they're not. They're two men fighting a war that's been happening for a decade. And Jackson just made a move that Ethan didn't see coming.
That night, Ethan drives them home in complete silence.
Sophie keeps trying to talk to him. Keeps trying to explain that Jackson was just there, that he didn't mean anything by it, that they were just talking about art. Ethan doesn't answer. He can't answer because if he opens his mouth, he's going to tell her things she doesn't want to hear.
When they get to the apartment, Ethan pours himself a drink.
He stands at the window looking out at Manhattan and tries to calm the rage building in his chest. It's not rational. He knows that. Jackson didn't do anything wrong technically. He was just having a conversation with Sophie.
But that's the problem. Jackson knows exactly how to be with Sophie in ways that don't register as threatening until it's too late.
Sophie comes to stand beside him.
"Ethan, can we please talk about this?"
He turns to look at her and she flinches. He's never seen her flinch before. Sophie has always been brave with him. Always been steady. But looking at him now, she looks scared.
"Tell me about your marriage," he says. His voice is cold. He doesn't mean for it to be but it comes out that way.
"What?"
"Your marriage to Jackson. Tell me everything."
Sophie sits down on the couch like she's been hit. Like the question physically hurt her.
She tells him the story. About how Jackson pursued her relentlessly. About how the first year felt like a fairy tale. About how slowly the fairy tale turned into a prison. About how Jackson wanted to control everything. Her friends. Her clothes. Her career. Her mind.
She tells him about the affair. About how Jackson didn't even try to hide it. About how he told her she was too soft for his world. Too gentle. Too small.
Ethan listens to her and feels something shift inside him. He's been at war with Jackson Sterling for ten years. But he didn't know until this moment that Jackson had hurt Sophie the way he did.
When she finishes, Ethan sits down beside her. He takes her hand and pulls her close to him.
"I'm not him," Ethan says. He needs her to hear this. He needs her to understand the difference. "I will never try to control you. I will never try to own you. I will never diminish you."
Sophie leans her head on his chest and he can feel her shaking.
"I know," she says quietly.
"But you need to understand something," Ethan says. His voice is steady now. Certain. "Jackson is dangerous. Not because he's violent. He's dangerous because he doesn't understand that you can't own another person. And a man like that will do almost anything to prove he can."
Sophie pulls back and looks at him.
"What do you mean?"
Ethan takes a breath. He needs to tell her the truth about Jackson. Not the romantic version where Jackson is just a man who made mistakes. The real version where Jackson is someone who sees people as assets to be controlled.
"I've been at war with Jackson's family for a decade," Ethan says. "His father destroyed my mother's life. I've spent years dismantling their business. Jackson feels that loss. And now he sees you with me and he sees an opportunity."
"An opportunity for what?"
"To get inside my life. To get leverage. To take back something he lost and remind himself that he still has power," Ethan says. "He's not here because he misses you. He's here because he can't stand the idea that you chose someone else."
Sophie stands up and walks away from him. She goes to the window and stares out at the city.
"So what are you saying?" she asks. "That I can't see him? That I can't work at the gallery where he might show up? That I have to hide from him?"
"No," Ethan says. He stands up and walks to her. "I'm saying that he's going to keep trying. And I need to make sure he can't hurt you."
Sophie turns to look at him.
"How are you going to do that?"
Ethan takes her hands. He looks into her eyes and tells her the truth.
"I'm going to put security around you," he says. "People who can keep you safe. I don't want you going anywhere alone. Not to work. Not to get coffee. Not anywhere."
Sophie's entire body goes rigid.
"You want to put security on me? You want to control where I go?"
"I want to protect you," Ethan says.
"It sounds like the same thing," Sophie says. And her voice is shaking now. With anger or fear, Ethan can't tell. "It sounds like what Jackson did. Like you're trying to own me. Like you don't trust me to take care of myself."
"That's not what this is," Ethan says. But even he can hear how it sounds. Even he understands why she's pulling away from him.
Sophie steps back from him.
"I came to Manhattan to prove I'm not afraid anymore," she says quietly. "I came here to show myself that I could survive in this city. And now you're telling me I need security. You're telling me I need protection. You're making me feel small again."
Ethan reaches for her but she steps away.
"I just need you to be safe," he says.
"Safe or controlled?" Sophie asks. She's looking at him like she's trying to figure out if he's really as different from Jackson as she thought he was. "Because it's starting to feel like the same thing."
Ethan opens his mouth to argue but Sophie is already walking toward the bedroom.
"I'm going to bed," she says without looking back. "I can't think about this right now."
Ethan stands alone in the living room and realizes he just made a terrible mistake. He was trying to protect her. But instead, he made her feel like he was caging her.
And Sophie has already spent years in a cage. She knows exactly what one feels like.
He picks up his phone and calls James, his business partner.
"I need you to find out everything Jackson Sterling is doing," Ethan says into the phone. "Every move he makes. Every person he talks to. Everything."
"Already on it," James says. "I figured this wasn't over when you saw him at the gallery."
Ethan hangs up the phone and stares out at Manhattan.
Jackson is playing a game. And Ethan just realized he has no idea what the rules are anymore.