Audrey walked in and dropped her bag on the coat rack without breaking stride. "Nancy, take these upstairs for me?"

She'd barely sunk into the couch when the television lit up with an incoming video call.

"Ms. Griffin. Before we start, there's something that needs you personally. Ramos Enterprises' security system is due for its upgrade. When can you come by?"

Six years ago, Audrey had founded her security company. It was one of the leading firms in the industry now. Her partner's reminder pulled up a memory she'd been trying to bury.

After marrying Diego Ramos, she had personally designed and maintained Ramos Enterprises' security architecture for three years.

"Pull every system we run at Ramos Enterprises," Audrey said without hesitation. After a divorce, a clean cut was best.

It had been a private arrangement. No contracts, no formal agreements. No reason to make it messier than it already was.

"What?" Reid Medina stared at her, shock flickering across his face. "Ms. Griffin, what happened? That's the most advanced system we've ever built. If we tear it out wrong, it could cause real damage."

Audrey went quiet. Thinking about Diego still stung, but he was the past now. She cleared her throat and let some steel into her voice. "Diego and I are divorcing. From today, Ramos Enterprises' security isn't our concern. If they want something, they can come through the front door like everyone else."

"So does that mean you're coming back to the company?" Reid couldn't keep the excitement out of his voice. He'd been waiting three years for this.

"Yes. So get ready."

"Honestly, I think it's Ramos Enterprises that should be getting ready. That place is about to turn into a circus." Reid laughed, already savoring it. How did a man like Diego Ramos have Audrey Griffin under his roof and never once look up?

---

Meanwhile, across town, at Lila Stone's apartment.

"I'm scared, Diego," Lila whispered, leaning into him. The fact that he hadn't married her yet sat in her stomach like a stone. If she couldn't lock him down, what future did she have?

She looped her arms around his neck and settled onto his lap. "Don't leave tonight. I'm still new here, I don't know anyone. You promised you'd always look after me." She kissed his cheek.

Diego drew back without meaning to. For some reason, Audrey surfaced in his mind. She had never hung on him like this. She'd been gentle, steady, easy to be around. And when he handed her divorce papers, she hadn't begged. She hadn't cried. She'd signed and walked out.

His expression hardened.

Lila faltered. "Diego? Is something wrong?"

"I—" His phone cut him off. He answered.

"What? Say that again." His face went to stone as he ended the call. He eased Lila off his lap and stood. "Stay here. There's a problem at the company."

He grabbed his coat and was gone.

"How does an entire security system fail at once?" he demanded as Jason drove them across the city.

Ramos Enterprises had always put security first. After the breaches years ago, everything had run clean—right around the time he married Audrey. Now it was falling over again.

"Mr. Ramos, Vanguard Security says they haven't touched our system. It's the same build they've always maintained. They say they don't know anything about an outage." Jason sounded as lost as Diego felt. "I've called in an emergency team. We should have answers shortly."

"You have five minutes."

By the time Diego reached the office, the results were waiting.

"Mr. Ramos, you need to see this." Jason handed him a report. "For the past three years, a firm called SecureTech has quietly been running our security. They routed everything so it looked like Vanguard. It was SecureTech the whole time. As of this afternoon they've pulled all support. That's why everything's coming apart."

"SecureTech? Dig into them. Now. How did Vanguard miss this?" Diego loosened his tie, unease crawling under his skin.

"We tried. SecureTech is the largest security firm in the world, and tracing them is close to impossible. We only found them because of a monitoring stub we caught. The second we identified it, it was gone. We can't even sue—technically they were protecting us." Jason sounded almost impressed.

"Set up a meeting. I'll go myself."

"You? Personally?" Jason blinked. Diego never handled things like this himself.

"Do I need to repeat myself?"

At SecureTech's headquarters, Diego was taken straight to the executive floor.

The office door was open. A chair sat turned away from him, and the woman in it felt eerily familiar. He knocked once. "Hello?"

At his voice, the chair swiveled.

"Audrey?" His breath caught. It couldn't be her.

Behind her, a sharply dressed man watched with quiet interest, his eyes lingering on her in a way Diego couldn't read. Diego's chest tightened. All this time, he'd had no idea she was connected to this company. And she'd clearly wasted no time moving on.

The confusion in his head twisted into something ugly. "You and another man—"

Audrey rose, cutting him off. "Mr. Ramos, it's Ms. Griffin." Cool. Detached. Like he was a stranger who'd wandered off the elevator.

"You run this place? Why didn't you tell me?"

She laughed, with no warmth in it. "Because you never once asked. What brings you to my office?"

The change in her hit him harder than it should have. The soft, accommodating woman he'd married was gone, and whoever this was, he couldn't reach her.

"I'm here about the security failure."

Audrey sat back down and glanced at her watch. "Out of respect for the marriage, you have five minutes."

Diego pulled at his tie. He hated this. Was she enjoying it?

"Why did you rip every system out of Ramos Enterprises overnight?" If she hadn't wanted the divorce, why had she signed so fast?

She took a slow sip of coffee, face calm, eyes indifferent. "Don't read too much into it, Mr. Ramos. Ms. Stone is back. I want a clean break. I'd hate for her to get the wrong idea, or make life difficult for you."

She smiled, bright and charming. Inside, her heart ached.

Diego's expression went tight. "Lila wouldn't do that."

He'd always known the woman across the desk was beautiful—the kind of beautiful that didn't announce itself and didn't need to. But something about her today was different, and he felt an unexpected, unwelcome urge to reach across and pull her out of that chair.

"Friendly reminder, Mr. Ramos—three minutes left. Sure you want to spend them on small talk?" Her voice cut through it, brisk and anything but polite.

"What's your angle here?" The words came out tight, slow and measured, like he was holding something down. Under her steady gaze, the irritation went out of him. "We want your firm on Ramos Enterprises' security. Can we discuss it?"

Audrey straightened her collar, pushing down the wave of sadness rising in her chest. "As a goodwill gesture, we'll cover your immediate needs today. Anything long-term goes through our deputy director, Reid Medina. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have another meeting."

She rose and walked out, leaving Diego with nowhere to put his anger. She'd taken those systems down on purpose. She had to have.

Almost without deciding to, he caught her arm in the corridor and backed her against the wall. "Audrey—"

The door swung open. Jason came in fast and stopped dead. "Mr. Ramos. We have a situation."

"What?" Diego turned, ice-cold.

Jason stammered, staring at Audrey like he couldn't unsee it. "It's Lila. She tried to hurt herself. She's at the hospital."

"What?" Diego's whole bearing sharpened. He shot an accusing look at Audrey, then turned back to Jason. "Stay here. Finish the security negotiation." He was already moving toward the elevator.

Lila had been struggling with depression for years, and today had pushed her under. Had she found out he'd gone to see Audrey?

He needed to get to her.

"Yes, Mr. Ramos." Jason nodded, the weight of it settling on his shoulders.

Audrey watched him go, and the wall she'd spent two days building came down all at once. She slid to the floor, tears spilling over before she could stop them.

Whatever she did, somehow it was always her fault. She was starting to understand how that worked: when a man has already decided he doesn't want you, everything you do is the wrong thing.

A soft knock. "Ms. Griffin? May I come in?" Reid's voice, careful and kind.

She wiped her face, pulled herself together, and got back behind her desk. "Come in."

Love was a bad investment. Work, at least, paid out.

"Ms. Griffin, do we want the Ramos Enterprises job?" Reid asked carefully.

Their calendar was full. Taking it meant overtime for half the floor. And Ramos Enterprises' architecture was top-tier—beating the current build would take Audrey herself, and Reid couldn't tell whether she had the stomach for it.

"Like I said. Standard procedure. Do I need to repeat myself?"

"Understood." Reid hurried out with the files.

He was still annoyed when he got back to his own office, and he didn't bother rolling out the welcome mat for Jason. "Ms. Griffin has approved emergency support, out of consideration for her history with Mr. Ramos. Beyond that, we're booked. If Ramos Enterprises wants a full rebuild, you go on the list, and I can't tell you when we'll reach you. Emergency call-out is two hundred thousand. Sign here if that works for you."

He slid the form across the desk and didn't move.

They thought they could push Ms. Griffin around. Not anymore.

Jason felt a headache starting behind his eyes. They were being difficult on purpose, and everybody in the room knew it. This was Diego's mess. Why was he the one mopping it up?

He signed anyway, and decided on the spot that any further dealings with SecureTech belonged to Diego personally.

Once the payment cleared, Jason looked up. "Who are you sending with me?"

Their firewall could go down any minute.

"Ms. Griffin is handling this one herself. Go ahead. We'll be right behind you." Reid gestured for a secretary to walk him out, then went to tell Audrey.

She was the only person alive who knew that system end to end. It had to be her.

SecureTech had become the biggest firm in the world because every build was bespoke, every client had a named specialist, and nobody ever got handed off to a call center.

On his way to the elevator, Jason's phone buzzed. He read the message and called Diego. "Mr. Ramos, the birthday gift you ordered has arrived."

---

Across town, Lila Stone was a wreck.

"Why did you save me?" she whispered. "I heard about the company. It's Audrey, isn't it? If I hadn't come back, she wouldn't be doing this to you. I don't want you hurt because of me." She covered her face and sobbed.

Diego's brow furrowed. He thought of how cold Audrey's eyes had been that afternoon, and the irritation flared again. He stroked Lila's hair. "It's not your fault. I'll handle Audrey. You focus on getting better."

"Really?" Lila looked up, eyes swimming, and burrowed into his chest. "As long as you're all right, that's all I care about. Don't be hard on her. She can do whatever she wants to me, as long as it doesn't touch you."

He patted her back. "You've always been too kind. Get some sleep. I'll go once you're out—there's still work waiting."

Lila curled obediently under the blanket, a small smile tugging at her mouth. As long as Diego still cared, that was enough.

Audrey could meet with him all she liked. In the end, she'd be the one stepping aside.

---

Audrey arrived at Ramos Enterprises with her laptop under her arm.

Three years of marriage, and this was the first time she'd set foot in the building. She almost laughed. She'd never once come here as Mrs. Ramos.

Jason walked her up to IT himself.

The company was usually buttoned-up to the point of dullness. Today it was chaos.

Inside IT, everyone was hunched over a screen, typing fast, patching holes. The tension was thick enough to chew.

The department head—a man in his forties with a buzz cut—was sweating through his shirt as he circled the room, glancing at the door every few seconds, waiting for Jason to come back with the expert.

Then he saw a woman who looked like she'd stepped out of a magazine, carrying nothing but a laptop, and his hopes crashed.

Doug Keller walked over, skepticism all over his face. "Jason. This is who you brought?"

One look and anyone could tell she was decoration. Could she really handle an architecture like theirs?

"Jason, this isn't a joke."

His voice carried. Heads came up around the room. Whispers started.

"She doesn't look as competent as our interns."

"This is a joke. We might not close the breach, but at least we're holding. She'll finish the job the attackers started."

"I have my doubts."

"Jason, you know what security means to this company. If the firewall goes, the losses are more than we can absorb." Keller's voice took on an edge. "This is IT. Are you sure you haven't brought her to the wrong floor?"

Keller's dismissal set the whole department buzzing, and every head turned toward Audrey with the same unfriendly look. A pretty face, in a room full of people who thought they were the best in the city.

"Watch your mouth, Mr. Keller." Before Jason could answer, Audrey's eyes cut to him, her smile cold. "Skill isn't something you announce. It's something you show. If this company could handle a problem this small, you wouldn't have called anyone."

"Why, you—" Keller went red.

The programmers bristled. Every one of them believed they were elite.

Audrey didn't waste another word. She flipped open her laptop. "Reid. Coffee."

Reid stepped up, handed over the iced coffee, and moved out of her light. "Here you go, Ms. Griffin."

The machine woke in under three seconds. Her hands moved fast and without hesitation. Within moments, monitors across the room flickered, numbers recalibrating and shifting on their own.

"Stop her!"

Keller lunged, panic in his voice. He was certain she was about to wipe them.

He grabbed a cup of cold water off the nearest desk, ready to pour it into her laptop. "Somebody stop her!"

Two techs tried. Their keyboards were dead.

On the walls, the numbers kept spinning, faster and faster.

"Mr. Keller." A hand closed on his shoulder from behind. "Wait. Look at the screens before you do something stupid." The tech lead was frowning.

Keller scanned the monitors. His eyes went wide. "Did we just—did that bug close?"

He looked at Audrey. She was typing one-handed now, sipping her coffee.

Just then, Diego Ramos walked in with a small box in his hand and took in the room.

Under the fluorescents, Audrey looked serious and completely unshakable, her focus locked on the screen. The confidence didn't grate on him. It pulled at him.

Something long dormant stirred in his chest.

"Mr. Keller, this is emergency support only. Get a competent firm to build you a new system inside a month. After that, we're not liable for anything you lose." Audrey hit one last key, closed the laptop, and turned to go.

And came face to face with Diego. She stepped back on instinct and nearly caught her hip on the edge of a desk.

"Careful—" He reached out without thinking and pulled her in.

The clean, familiar smell of him registered before anything else, and for one traitorous second her body remembered exactly what it was like to be held by him.

Color crept up her neck. She got her composure back and put professional distance between them. "Thank you, Mr. Ramos."

And even now, he lingered in her head. It infuriated her.

Diego frowned at how deliberately far away she'd stepped.

"The gift I ordered. Happy birthday." He held out the box.

Audrey hesitated. She was surprised he'd remembered at all. It didn't soften anything. "Thank you, Mr. Ramos. That isn't necessary."

The room went still. Had the CEO just given someone a present?

Jason quietly cleared everyone out, leaving the two of them alone in the open floor.

When Diego kept holding it out, Audrey sighed and opened it. Inside was a delicate bracelet, interlocking loops set with small diamonds, and a charm shaped like a little dog.

Something in her chest went hard. "Mr. Ramos, when you buy someone a gift, it helps to know what they actually like. I prefer wolves."

She was also allergic to dogs, which he'd never noticed either.

Lila loved dogs. Diego's house was full of little ceramic ones—something Audrey had discovered the week she moved in.

Regret flickered across his face. He'd assumed she liked them too; he'd seen her browsing them online once. "I'm sorry. Can we talk?"

Audrey paused, then turned back. "I'm busy, Mr. Ramos. Anything business-related goes through my assistant. Anything else—unless it's legal—let's not. I wouldn't want to get in the way of you and your girlfriend."

She walked out, heels steady, and left the tech floor murmuring behind her.

"I'll walk you down," Reid said, hurrying after her.

"No need." She shut it down flat.

Right now, anyone connected to Diego was unbearable.

As the elevator doors closed, Audrey leaned back against the wall. Her eyes were red-rimmed, her face pale.

She had never mattered to him. A man who could get a gift that wrong had never once been paying attention. Ending it had been right.

Her hand moved to her abdomen. Thinking of the baby, something in her face softened.

She wasn't alone. Not really.

Then a sharp pang shot through her—the day catching up with her, probably.

"Ms. Griffin." Reid was waiting when the doors opened, and his face changed when he saw how pale she was. "Are you all right?"

She gripped his arm. "Take me to a hospital. Now."

She was barely eight weeks along.

"What?" He got her into the car fast. "Should I call an ambulance?"

"Just drive."

She bit her lip, both hands over her stomach.

Hold on, she thought. You and me. We're fine.

The car pulled up at the city hospital.

"Sit here, I'll get you registered." Reid steered her to a bench and hurried to the desk.

As her pulse settled, the pain eased a little.

She pulled out her phone and scrolled through her notes. Coming back to the company meant setting its direction all over again.

"Audrey Griffin. Well. It really is you."

A woman's voice, and it was enjoying itself.