He had learned she was pregnant less than a minute ago, and already Dominic Vale was trying to convert the news into territory he could control.
“Stop,” Grace said.
His eyes met hers.
“Stop what?”
“Planning my life without asking me.”
The accusation landed harder than anger would have.
Dominic glanced toward the corridor.
The household had retreated beyond sight, but he lowered his voice anyway.
“You cannot walk out of here tonight alone.”
Grace gave a small, exhausted smile.
“There it is.”
“This isn’t about control.”
“Everything with you is about control.”
“This is about safety.”
Grace’s expression changed.
“Protection again.”
He went silent.
She stepped closer, not because she wanted comfort, but because she wanted him to hear every word without hiding behind distance.
“You missed dinners because you were protecting me.
You stopped telling me where you went because you were protecting me.
You took calls behind closed doors because you were protecting me.
You decided what I could know because you were protecting me.”
Dominic’s face was unreadable.
“And tonight,” she continued, “you told me you never loved me.
Was that protection too?”
For several seconds, the only answer was the rain.
Then Dominic looked away.
It was the first time Grace had ever seen him do that during a confrontation.
Her heartbeat changed.
“Dominic.”
His hand closed at his side.
“When you’re connected to me,” he said slowly, “you become something people can use.”
Grace stared at him.
“That isn’t an answer.”
“It is the only answer that matters.”
“No.
It’s the answer that lets you avoid the question.”
He turned back to her.
His control was still there, but now she could see what it was covering.
“When you entered my life,” he said, “I believed I could keep the two parts separate.”
“What two parts?”
“You and everything else.”
Grace almost laughed again, but there was no humor in her.
“I was never separate, Dominic.
I lived here.
I waited for you here.
I watched you become a stranger three feet away from me.”
“I know.”
The admission was quiet.
She had not expected it.
Dominic looked toward the dark portraits lining the walnut wall.
“I was raised to believe that anything you care about becomes leverage.”
Grace followed his gaze.
The men in those frames suddenly looked less like ancestors and more like warnings.
“So you decided not to care.”
“I decided you needed to believe I didn’t.”
