He stared at her for a long moment, his jaw ticking. Then, with a sigh, he muttered, "Just let me have a conversation with them first, okay? I’ll see what I can do."

Relief flooded her body so fast she nearly sagged in her chair. "Thank you."

"Don’t thank me yet, sweetheart. Come on, let’s leave Mary to rest."

Mary’s eyes were already half-closed, her breathing slowing as sleep began to pull her under. Her pale lips curved into a faint smile as Ivy leaned over and kissed her forehead.

"I’ll see you later, Mum," Ivy whispered.

Evans quietly wheeled Ivy out of the room, his hands steady on the handles of her wheelchair.

*****

Winn and Joey stepped out of Winn’s Maybach and into the lobby of the Grand Mercure Hotel.

Winn’s jaw was tight. The Dutch investors had flown in from Amsterdam to attend his wedding and finalize the deal. But now, with the wedding fiasco, things were falling apart fast.

When they got to the elevator, Winn paused—so suddenly that Joey nearly bumped into him. His hand hovered over the chrome call button, but he couldn’t bring himself to touch it.

The hotel lobby was pristine, a gleaming temple of wealth and polish—high glass ceilings, marble floors, a faint hum of foreign conversations blending with the piano music drifting from the lounge. But to Winn, it all blurred into static.

The world narrowed to the reflection staring back at him in the mirrored elevator doors—haunted, tired, and aching.

An onslaught of memory hit him. This was where it had all really started—the last time the investors were in town. Ivy had been trailing him. Then the elevator had shuddered to a stop between floors. Lights flickered. For a moment, panic had clawed at his chest.

He’d cursed under his breath as she slammed the emergency button, felt his throat close the way it always did when confined spaces cornered him.

But then Ivy had talked him through it. He remembered the sound of her voice vividly. The gentle cadence of it had reached through his panic and steadied him. She’d sat on the floor beside him, knees brushing, holding his hand as if that was the most natural thing in the world. He realized he’d started to fall for his secretary.

He blinked, dragging himself back to the present. Joey was watching him closely, eyes narrowing with concern.

"You good, man?" Joey asked, noticing Winn hadn’t moved even as the elevator doors slid open with a polite chime.

"I can’t take the elevator," Winn said simply.

"Okay," Joey replied easily, hands in his pockets. "We’ll take the stairs." He knew about Winn’s phobia of confined spaces—how he hated anything that trapped him.

"I can’t." Winn’s voice cracked, and that was when Joey realized this wasn’t about the elevator anymore.

"The stairs?" Joey raised a brow, trying to keep his tone light. "What’s going on, Winn?"

Winn’s eyes flickered toward the stairwell entrance, visible across the lobby. His chest rose and fell, a ghost of a bitter smile tugging at his lips. "I kissed Ivy for the first time on those stairs."

"We’d just finished the meeting with the investors. They had accepted the project and I was happy. She gave me the idea to keep them interested. And I didn’t even think. I just kissed her."

The elevator dinged again, waiting. Winn didn’t move.

"I started falling for her in that elevator," he went on, quieter now. "And I kissed her on those stairs. What am I supposed to do, huh?"

"Winn..."

"What am I supposed to do, Joey?" Winn turned to his friend. "Am I just supposed to accept that she’s gone? That she left me?"

Joey exhaled slowly. He wasn’t used to seeing Winn this undone.

Joey reached out, clapping a hand on Winn’s shoulder. "You’re not supposed to accept it," he said finally. "You’re supposed to live through it."

"Listen..." Joey moved closer.

"I know that it hurts. Believe me, I know. I see Diane in every room in the house. I hear her voice. Every time I walk past the kitchen or the study, I feel her presence. It’s like she never left. But Ivy... Ivy chose her path. I am quite certain it’s not because she doesn’t love you, Winn. The whole marriage idea must have spooked her. I mean, you said so yourself. The investigator flagged her finances. She got a plane ticket out of town. That doesn’t happen unless there’s pressure, fear. You guys weren’t getting married for the greatest reason at first."

"Why didn’t she just talk to me?" His mind raced—how could someone so close, someone he’d trusted with his heart, vanish without warning? Every scenario played in his head: arguments, miscommunication, fear of his father’s interference. None made sense.

None explained why the woman he loved had chosen to disappear rather than lean on him.

"Maybe you will get answers someday," Joey said, placing a steady hand on Winn’s shoulder.

"But for now, we have to find a way to save House of Kane. That’s the bigger picture. If the investors pull out, everything we’ve poured into the mall project collapses. We spent every dime getting that property. You’ve got to keep your head in the game, even if your heart is screaming otherwise." Joey gave him a small, encouraging nudge.

"We have to protect what you’ve built. We can handle heartbreak later."

Winn ran a hand through his hair, his knuckles brushing the ridge of his jaw. "There is no two ways about it," he said. "They are going to call off the deal. They were expecting a married man. Instead, they see chaos."

"We will give it our best shot," Joey said. He reached over, resting a hand lightly on Winn’s shoulder again, trying to anchor him. "Come on. We face this together. You’ve built this empire on guts and brains. Ivy might have shaken your heart, but she won’t shake your mind." With that, he nudged Winn gently toward the elevator.