Katherine's POV
The file was labeled "Private - CEO Only" but what was inside made Katherine's stomach drop.
Bank statements. Hundreds of them. Going back three years. And not just normal business accounts. These were personal accounts. James's personal accounts. And the numbers didn't make sense.
Millions of dollars moving out. Money going to accounts she didn't recognize. Wire transfers to shell companies with no clear purpose. And underneath it all, handwritten notes in James's handwriting that said things like "doesn't matter anymore" and "might as well burn it" and "she's gone anyway."
Katherine's hands were shaking so badly she could barely hold the laptop.
She kept reading.
The personal account transfers had started exactly three years ago. Right after the divorce was finalized. Right after she'd walked out of his office with nothing but the fifty thousand dollars the prenup allowed her and the knowledge that the man she'd married had chosen his company over her. Every single time.
Since then, James had been systematically draining his own accounts. Not in ways that would tank the business. Just enough to make it bleed slowly. Just enough to make sure that everything he touched fell apart.
Katherine closed the file.
She told herself she didn't care. She told herself that James Devereaux could destroy his own empire if he wanted to. It wasn't her problem. It wasn't her responsibility. She wasn't going to spend another moment of her life trying to save a man who was determined to burn down everything he built.
She closed the laptop.
She got up and went to bed.
And then she dreamed.
She was standing in a lawyer's office wearing the white dress she'd worn for the wedding. Except the wedding had been five years ago and she was still in that dress, still signing papers, still watching the lawyer smile like he'd just won a war. James was there but he wasn't looking at her. He was looking at a spreadsheet. Always the spreadsheet. Always the company. Never her.
Katherine woke up at 3 AM with her heart racing.
She could still feel the pen in her hand from the dream. Could still see James's face in that moment when she'd asked him if he really wanted her to sign away everything. And he'd said yes. Just like that. Yes. Sign the prenup. Sign away your future. Sign away any protection. Just sign.
She got out of bed.
By 4 AM, she was back at her laptop. The financial data was still there. The spreadsheets. The bank statements. The evidence that James had been slowly killing his own company since the day she left him.
Katherine started pulling numbers. She built a timeline. Three years of bad decisions. Three years of sabotage. Three years of a man trying to prove something by destroying everything he'd built.
The company's problems started small. A bad vendor contract in January of year one. A hiring mistake in March. A missed opportunity in May. Nothing catastrophic by itself. But when you pulled them all together, you could see the pattern. You could see a man systematically choosing options that would tank the business because staying broken felt like less work than trying to fix himself.
By 6 AM, Katherine had identified fourteen major problems. By 7 AM, she had solutions for all of them. By 8 AM, she was making coffee and trying to convince herself that none of this mattered.
It didn't matter if James was self-destructing. It didn't matter if his company was falling apart. It didn't matter if he'd been bleeding money for three years because he couldn't figure out how to live without her.
None of it was her problem.
She picked up her phone to call the recruiter and tell them no. She'd changed her mind. She wasn't taking the contract. She wasn't going back to Devereaux Technologies. She wasn't going to spend six months in the same building as the man who'd taught her that love came with a price tag that she couldn't afford to pay.
Her finger hovered over the call button.
She didn't press it.
Instead, she found herself opening the calendar invite again. Monday. 9 AM. The penthouse offices. All she had to do was click attend and her life would go back to being complicated in ways she'd spent three years learning how to manage.
Katherine set the phone down.
The sun was rising over San Francisco now, painting the apartment in gold light. She could see the bay from her window. She could see the bridge. She could see the part of the city where James's office was located. The place where he sat in front of spreadsheets and let his company die while he remembered what it felt like to love someone and then lose them.
She felt something crack inside her chest.
Not the kind of crack that broke you. The kind of crack that let light in whether you wanted it to or not.
Katherine reached for her phone and called Sophie.
Sophie answered on the first ring like she'd been waiting.
"Tell me you're calling to say yes," Sophie said instead of hello.
"I'm calling to say this is a bad idea," Katherine said.
"It's not a bad idea. It's the only idea that makes sense."
Katherine closed her eyes. "You don't understand. I looked at his company data. James isn't just struggling. He's..."
She stopped. She couldn't say it out loud. Couldn't say that the man she used to love had been slowly destroying everything he built because losing her had broken something inside him that no amount of money could fix.
"He's what?" Sophie pressed.
"He's drowning," Katherine said quietly. "And I'm supposed to just walk away and let him."
"No," Sophie said. "You're supposed to go save him. Which is what you do. That's who you are. You see problems that nobody else sees and you fix them. So go fix this one."
"I can't fix him," Katherine said. "I'm not a therapist. I'm a financial advisor."
"Exactly. So go be a financial advisor. Fix the company. Let him deal with the rest."
Katherine wanted to tell Sophie that it wasn't that simple. Wanted to explain that being in the same room as James meant remembering things she'd spent three years trying to forget. Meant feeling things she'd spent three years learning how to suppress. Meant risking the careful, controlled life she'd built for herself.
But before she could say any of that, Sophie said something else.
"Katherine, I'm looking at something. The recruiter sent over more information about the contract. It's not just six months."
"What do you mean it's not just six months?"
"There's a clause," Sophie said slowly. "If you meet certain performance benchmarks in the first quarter, they want to renegotiate for two years. Two years and a partner position at Devereaux Technologies. You'd own five percent of the company."
Katherine's breath caught.
Five percent of Devereaux Technologies was worth millions. It was enough to secure everything she'd built. It was enough to make sure that no matter what happened, she'd never have to need anyone again. She could take the contract, fix the company, hit the benchmarks, and walk away with enough money to insulate herself from the world for the rest of her life.
Except James would know she'd done it. James would know she'd come in and saved his company because she couldn't stand to watch him destroy it. And that meant he'd think he'd mattered enough for her to come back.
"Katherine?" Sophie was waiting for an answer.
Katherine's phone buzzed. Another notification. This one from the recruiter.
A message attached to the contract. One that made her blood go cold.
"James specifically requested you. He said the contract is only valid if you're the advisor. He said he doesn't want anyone else. Just you."
Katherine read the words three times like they might change meaning if she looked at them long enough.
James had requested her specifically. James had known she would see this contract. James had set up an offer that would be almost impossible for her to refuse.
And Katherine realized something terrifying in that moment.
James had never stopped fighting for her.
He'd just found a new way to do it.