---- Chapter 20 Chapter 20 Aimee Ramirez POV: The drive back to the city was a blur of tears and rain-slicked highways. His apology, so simple and sincere, had broken something open inside me. The armor | had so carefully constructed over the past five years had shattered, leaving me raw and exposed He was happy. He had found peace. And in doing so, he had given me the one thing | didn't know | needed: permission to find my own. When | got back to New York, | didn't go to the penthouse. | went to my office. It was the only place that felt like home. | sat in the dark, looking out at the city, and | finally mourned. | mourned the love | had lost, the woman | had been, and the woman | had become. The next morning, | called Anderson. "I'm in New York," he said, his voice warm, unsurprised. He had been waiting. "| know," | said. "Dinner tonight?" He met me at a small, quiet restaurant in the Village, far from the prying eyes of the corporate world. ---- | told him everything. About Kyle, about Karma, about the revenge that had consumed me. | laid the ugly, broken pieces of my past on the table between us. He listened, his expression never changing, his eyes never leaving my face. When | was finished, my voice hoarse, my soul laid bare, he simply reached across the table and took my hand. "Thank you for telling me," he said. "Aren't you... horrified?" | asked. "I'm in love with you, Aimee," he said, his voice steady and sure. "All of you. The brilliant CEO, the broken woman, the avenging angel. All of it." He brought my hand to his lips and kissed my knuckles. "The question is," he said, his eyes searching mine, "are you finally ready to let someone love you back?" | looked at this good, patient man, who had seen me at my worst and had not run away. And for the first time, | didn't feel the need to run, either. Aslow smile, the first genuine smile | had felt in years, spread across my face. "Yes," | said. "| think | am."