Chapter Fourteen

Grace’s POV

The doors slid open, and I stepped in first, ignoring the sound of his footsteps behind me, ignoring the way my body immediately locked up, tense and too aware. How was I going to cope with living and working with him? How was I supposed to pretend like everything was normal when everything inside me felt like it had changed overnight?

I kept my eyes forward, watching the numbers light up one by one, pretending like each floor might be the one that set me free. But the air in the lift grew heavier, thick with something I didn’t want to name. I hadn’t even made it past floor three before I heard Hunter shift beside me. Not much. Just enough that his arm brushed mine and my entire body stiffened.

“I didn’t mean it,” he said, his voice low.

I didn’t look at him. “Mean what?” So very thankful we were in the lift alone.

He was quiet for a beat too long. “What I said last night. About bringing you into our home… whatever issue I have, Grace, they’re not because of you. None of this is your fault.”

My stomach clenched. My throat tightened.

“Oh,” I said, keeping my voice neutral even though my hands curled into fists at my sides

He blew out a quiet breath. “It came out wrong last night.”

“Did it?”

Another pause. It stretched a little too long.

“I was frustrated,” he said finally. “And I took my frustration out on you.”

Like that made it okay. Like that explained the way he’d made me feel like a burden. Like I didn’t belong. Like I was a mistake they couldn’t undo.

I nodded, but my gaze never left the panel in front of me.

“You don’t have to explain,” I said, even though he already was. “I get it”

“No, you don’t.” His voice was sharper now, like my calm was more frustrating than yelling would’ve been. Well, tough.

I turned my head just slightly, just enough to meet his eyes. “Then explain it.” I would not be his punching bag. I hated how easily my family could manipulate me, but I wasn’t going to let him do it too.

His jaw flexed. He looked like he wanted to say something, maybe the truth, maybe something close to it…but the doors slid open before he did.

“Times up.” I stepped out first again, walking a little too fast, not caring if he followed.

I didn’t stop until I was at my desk wishing I had a door I could shut behind me, my chest rising and falling too fast.

Because he hadn’t said it.

And I hadn’t asked what I really wanted to know.

What exactly did he regret? Bringing me into the house? Or something else entirely?

Hunter’s POV

I watched her go.

Didn’t follow her straight away. Didn’t call after her. Just stood there like an idiot in front of the open elevator doors while the ache in my chest tightened into something I didn’t know how to fix.

I hadn’t meant it. Not the way it sounded. Not the way it landed.

But Grace hadn’t looked at me once…not in the car, not in the lift, not when I’d tried to apologize. And that polite little smile she gave me? The one that said she’d already boxed it all up and filed me away under “doesn’t matter”?

That stung more than it should have.

I wasn’t supposed to care. She was my employee. She was Helena’s sister. My sister-in-law. Maybe I was being overprotective because she could be carrying my child. The very thought of her being pregnant…of our child growing inside her, was surreal. And that was the problem.

It had started to feel too real.

There was something about the way she wouldn’t look at me. Like I’d genuinely hurt her. Grace had always been my equal at work. I knew I was her boss, but she was my right hand. My balance. I couldn’t do half of what I did without her. But the way she’d pulled away, the way she shut down in that elevator… it felt like I’d broken something I couldn’t fix.

I ran a hand through my hair and headed toward my office, needing coffee, a distraction, anything to get her out of my head. But even coffee wasn’t strong enough to cut through this.

Ten minutes later, I was sitting at my desk, rereading the same sentence three times and still not absorbing a word of it. All I could hear was her voice when she said, “Did it?”

I hadn’t meant it. I didn’t regret her being in the house. I regretted how much I noticed her.

And I noticed her all the time

I was a married man. I loved my wife. Helena was beautiful, elegant, poised. She was everything a man could want in a partner. She didn’t cause scenes. She knew how to carry herself in every situation. She didn’t need constant reassurance. She wasn’t overly emotional.

And I loved her…

So whatever this thing was with Grace, it wasn’t love. It couldn’t be. Maybe I was drawn to her because she challenged me. Because she didn’t walk on eggshells around me. Maybe I just felt responsible for her being here. Maybe part of the problem was I’d noticed her long before I met Helena. But she’d been an employee, and it was a line I never crossed.

Still, the fact that I had even allowed her to carry our child? That was different. That was personal. That was intimate in a way I hadn’t understood until she’d moved in or her closeness with Max. And maybe I should have thought that through more.

I gave a short laugh, the sound dry, tired. Apparently, crossing lines was fine when it came with a medical contract and a quiet agreement. But this… this tension, this guilt, this temptation, it had never been part of the plan.

I just needed to be more careful. I needed to watch myself. Keep my distance. I owed that to Helena. I owed it to Grace. And more than that, I owed it to myself. Because if I wasn’t careful, I was going to lose something important.

Even if I wasn’t entirely sure what that something was yet