“They’re gone, Eleanor.” His voice was low and steady in the narrow hall. “They packed up their mics and moved on to the next tragedy. We’re yesterday’s news.”
He stepped closer.
“I had to go,” she said. “I’ve seen what they do, Reid. I couldn’t watch them drag your career through the mud just because you’re with me.”
“And I was afraid,” she whispered.
He went still.
“I know what happens when people like us become the story,” she said, tears bright in her eyes now. “Charleston taught me that. They tear everything apart until there’s nothing left but the version they want.”
Her fingers twisted harder in his coat.
“So I left before you could decide I wasn’t worth it.”
Reid’s face changed.
“Ellie—”
“I decided for you,” she said, voice breaking. “I told myself I was protecting your career, your reputation, your future. But the truth is… I was scared you’d look at everything this would cost and choose the easier life.”
Her laugh was shaky and miserable.
“The safe life. The one with Sloane Gentry and Sunday dinners and nobody whispering when you walk into a room.”
Reid caught her face in both hands immediately.
“Ellie, look at me.”
“There is no life with Sloane Gentry,” he said. “There was never going to be.”
She stared at him.
“You are the choice, Eleanor. You. The complication. The risk. The story. All of it.”
She tried to turn her head, but he stayed where he was, steady and close.
“I get it,” he said, his face inches from hers. “You want to protect me. You’ve spent so long carrying this alone that you think you have to protect everyone else from it. But how about letting me get in between you and whatever it is for a change?”
He leaned in, his voice dropping to a rougher, intimate register.
“Let me be the one to protect you, Eleanor. I’ve spent my life in a courtroom. I don't break. And I don’t walk away from what matters to me.”
He exhaled once, then went for the only thing that mattered tonight.
“Tell me this,” he said quietly. “Do you love me?”
Tears gathered in her eyes.
“I’m not asking for a closing argument, Eleanor,” he said, his thumb brushing the tear from her cheek. “I’m asking for the truth. Just give me the truth.”
Silence stretched between them.
“Yes,” she whispered, breaking open on the word. “Yes.”
He closed his eyes for one second, as though the answer had hit him somewhere deep and unguarded.
“Okay,” he said quietly. “Then come here, Ellie. No more running.”
