Vance glanced at the door, then back at us.“The mine has been under external pressure.New investors are demanding increased production rates, pushing to cut corners.”He straightened, his professional mask sliding back into place.“But that doesn’t mean I condone what’s happening.”
“Yet you’re here to contain the evidence,” I said, the realization bitter on my tongue.
“I’m here to offer my professional expertise,” Vance countered, but the denial lacked strength.“You’re good, Dr.Wu.Better than I anticipated.But you’re fighting forces larger than one doctor can handle.”
He turned to leave but paused at the door.“And Mr.Song?Your family connections won’t protect you if you continue pursuing this.Some of us learned that lesson the hard way.”
The door closed behind him with a soft click, far more unsettling than a slam would have been.
My hands shook with anger and a delayed adrenaline crash.Logan pulled me close again, his heartbeat steady against my ear.
“He’s wrong,” Logan said fiercely.“You saved Marshall with nothing but guts and grit.That’s worth more than all his damn resources.”
I buried my face in his shirt, letting the rhythm of his heart calm my nerves.
Logan pressed his lips to the top of my head.“When this is over, when we’ve stopped Victoria and cleaned up this mess with the mine,” he started, but then paused.His arms tightened around me.“Stay, Sabrina.”
The simplicity of the request knocked the breath from my lungs.Two words that carried the weight of a future I hadn’t allowed myself to imagine.
But I remembered every time I’d put down tentative roots only to be uprooted again.Every hospital that had valued my skills but never quite accepted a female doctor who smiled too much and didn’t play corporate politics.
“Logan, I—” My voice caught.How could I explain that staying terrified me almost as much as leaving?That the thought of belonging somewhere, to someone, after a lifetime of professional detachment made my heart race with both longing and fear?
Instead of words, I lifted my hand to his face, tracing the strong line of his jaw.The stubble there rasped against my fingertips, another sensory memory I would carry with me no matter what came next.
“Let me help you save this place first,” I whispered, neither a yes nor a no but a promise of now.“Then we’ll talk about forever.”
