“You should be,” she said.
“No.” His voice turned firmer. “I’m worried about you.” Emotion tightened painfully in her throat, because even now—when his career could be collapsing around him—his focus was still her.
Dani covered his hand with hers shakily. “What if they force you to choose?” The question settled heavily between them.
Jonnas didn’t hesitate. “You already know the answer.”
Tears filled her eyes instantly. “No,” she whispered. “You can’t do that.”
His expression changed immediately, and she could see the certainty in his eyes. “Dani.” His hand slid slowly to her stomach beneath the blanket. “You and this baby are my family now.” That word shattered her—family. He didn’t use the words “Obligation” or “Responsibility. He called them a family.
Jonnas looked at her like he meant every syllable, and suddenly Dani understood something terrifying. If the hospital forced him to choose between his career and her, he really wouldwalk away from everything, and she wasn’t sure whether that realization healed her heart—or broke it completely.
Jonnas
Jonnas had never hated his office before, but now he wanted to burn the entire floor to the ground. The moment he walked back into the hospital Monday morning, he felt it. The whispers, the tension, and the way conversations stopped half a second too late when he passed.
Normally, none of that would’ve bothered him. He’d spent years building enough authority that people rarely questioned him openly, but now, every glance felt like it touched Dani too, and that made him furious.
“You look murderous.” Jonnas barely looked up as Jessica stepped into his office and shut the door behind her.
“You filed the complaint against Dani and me. How am I supposed to look?” he asked, getting straight to the point.
Jessica sighed heavily. “I filed a mandatory disclosure.”
“You blindsided me,” he growled. “You should have come to me first.”
“I protected the hospital before somebody else weaponized it publicly.”
His jaw flexed hard. “And in the process, you made Dani think she destroyed my career.”
Jessica’s expression softened immediately. “I didn’t know she’d react like that.”
“That’s because you don’t know her,” Jonnas breathed.
Silence settled heavily between them, and then Jessica crossed her arms slowly. “No, but I know women like her very well.” Jessica’s voice gentled slightly. “The kind who panic the second they become someone else’s complication.”
The accuracy of it landed like a punch to the chest. Because yeah, that was exactly Dani.
Jonnas leaned back heavily in his chair and scrubbed a hand over his face. “She ran.”
Jessica blinked. “What?”
“She left town because she thought this would ruin me.” Something that looked suspiciously like guilt flickered across Jessica’s face.
“She loves you,” she said quietly.
The words hit him hard, even though he already knew, not just because Dani had said them, but because she’d tried sacrificing herself for him. And God, that nearly destroyed him.
Jessica studied him for another long moment before muttering, “You’re really gone for her.” Jonnas laughed, rough and humorless.
“I’d quit tomorrow if they forced me to choose.”
Her eyes widened slightly. “Jesus.”
“Yeah,” he agreed. Jessica moved toward the chair across from his desk and sat down slowly.
“For what it’s worth,” she said quietly, “I never thought you pressured her.”
