“I know she’s scared!” The words cracked out harsher than he intended. Jonnas closed his eyes briefly before forcing himself to calm down. “I know.”
Silence stretched between them. Then quietly, Aliza asked, “Do you really love her?”
Jonnas looked at her like the question insulted him. “I was ready to walk away from my entire career this afternoon if it meant protecting her.” Aliza went still. “I’ve spent my whole life avoiding this exact kind of attachment,” he admitted roughly. “And somehow that stubborn, emotional little nurse became the most important person in my life in less than two months.”
Emotion flickered across Aliza’s face immediately. “She’s pregnant with my baby,” he continued quietly. “And she left thinking I’d eventually resent her for it.” The thought alone made him sick, because the truth was the exact opposite. Dani hadn’t ruined his life; she’d changed it. There was a difference. A huge fucking difference.
Aliza looked away briefly before muttering, “She’s at her grandmother’s cabin at the lake.”
Relief hit so hard his knees nearly buckled. “Where?”
“She’s about three hours away.” Aliza pointed at him immediately. “And before you go charging up there acting insane, you need to understand something.” Jonnas waited impatiently for her to finish. “She’s expecting you to choose your career over her eventually.” Deep down, he already knew that. “She won’t believe promises right now,” Aliza continued softly. “You’re gonna have to prove it.”
Jonnas grabbed his keys tighter in his hand. He was fine with that because proving it was exactly what he planned to do. Aliza sighed heavily before grabbing a sticky note from the counter and scribbling an address down. When she handed it over, Jonnas looked at it like it might save his life. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet.” Her expression softened slightly. “Just don’t break her, okay?” The idea alone made his chest ache, because Dani still didn’t understand. She wasn’t the fragile thing between them anymore—his heart was.
The entire drive to the cabin felt like torture. It took three hours to reach Dani’s grandmother’s cabin. Three fucking hours of imagining Dani alone somewhere, convincing herself she was doing the right thing by leaving him.
Jonnas gripped the steering wheel tighter as rain hammered against the windshield. She loved him. That part kept replaying in his head over and over again. Not in words, but in every terrified self-sacrificing instinct that made her run, because Dani loved like someone expecting punishment afterward, and Christ, that realization hurt.
His phone buzzed through the SUV speakers. It was Elias, and Jonnas answered immediately. “What?”
“Well, hello to you, too,” Elias mumbled.
“I’m driving,” Jonnas explained.
“Aliza told me.”
Jonnas exhaled harshly. “Dani shouldn’t have left.”
“She’s scared,” Elias said.
“I know she’s scared,” Jonnas shouted.
“No,” Elias said quietly. “I don’t think you do.” The rain blurred across the windshield while silence filled the SUV. Then Elias continued softly, “You’re a powerful man, Jonnas.”
“I know what my job title is,” he grumbled.
“That’s not what I mean.” Elias sighed heavily. “You’ve spent your whole life having people respect you.” His voice lowered. “Dani’s spent hers waiting for people to decide she’s too muchtrouble.” The words settled heavily into Jonnas’s chest, because yeah, that tracked. How many times had she probably heard those things without anyone saying them directly?
“She thinks this investigation is the moment you realize she’s not worth it,” Elias finished quietly. Anger flared instantly—not at Dani, but at the thought itself.
“She’s carrying my child,” Jonnas whispered.
“And she loves you enough to leave before you resent her,” Elias said. Fuck. Jonnas closed his eyes briefly at a stoplight, because that was the part killing him. Dani didn’t leave because she stopped loving him. She left because she loved him too much.
“Tell me something honestly,” Elias said after a long silence.
“What?” Jonnas barked.
“You really ready to burn your career down for her?”
The answer came instantly. “Yes.” There was no hesitation or uncertainty on his part, because the truth was horrifyingly simple now. Without Dani, none of it mattered anymore. Not the title, the hospital, or the board. None of it.
Elias let out a low whistle. “Damn.”
Jonnas laughed bitterly. “Yeah.”