Page 190 of My Big, Fat, Secret Billionaire Baby

She jumps, startled, her head snapping up. Her eyes widen when she sees me, filled with a mixture of surprise, wariness, and hope. Or maybe I’m just imagining the latter.

“Leo?” she says quickly. “What are you doing here?”

“We need to talk,” I say, closing the door behind me, shutting out the rest of the world.

Just us.

“If this is about the PR fallout from Luca’s… announcement,” she begins, the professional mask already in place.

“No, Sabrina,” I cut her off, walking towards her. I perch on the edge of her desk. I need her to see me. The real me. “Honestly? I don’t give a fuck about the business right now.”

Her eyebrows shoot up. “Who are you and what have you done with Leo Maxwell?”

The joke breaks some of the tension, and I find myself laughing.

“I’ve been asking myself the same question,” I admit. “The guy who lived for adrenaline, who measured success in zeros and exits... I don’t recognize him anymore.”

She watches me uncertainly. “So if you’re not here about the firm...”

“I’m here about us,” I reply.

She flinches, her gaze dropping to her keyboard. “Leo, I…”

“No, let me talk.” I reach out, gently but firmly tilting her chin up so she has to meet my eyes. “Please.Just… listen.”

I take a deep breath, the words I rehearsed in my head suddenly feeling inadequate. So I just… talk. From the gut. From that vulnerable place I usually keep barricaded.

“Wingsuiting…” I begin. “It wasn’t just about the adrenaline. Just about the escape. It was also about control. Because you see, when I was a kid, my father… his drinking… there was no control. Just... fear.”

I see a flicker of understanding in her eyes. She knows about fathers who disappear, who fail.

“And I didn’t want to be him,” I continue, the admission costing me more than I care to admit. “I didn’t want to be a failure. Didn’t want the firm to fail. So I kept pushing. Kept moving. Kept winning. Kept… fucking. Couldn’t stop. Couldn’t look back. Couldn’tfeel. And the noise in my head, all that pressure, all that fear of not being good enough… it only stopped, truly stopped, when I was hurtling towards the earth in a wingsuit, inches from oblivion. So yes, it was also an escape. From the pressure. From myself. The escape from the escape.”

I pause, searching her face. Her expression is unreadable, but she’s listening.

“But then… Mia happened. And you.” My voice cracks slightly. “And suddenly, that peace I chased in the sky… I found it here. With you. With her. Holding Mia, watching her sleep, arguing with you, even… it’s… it’s real to me, Sabrina. More real than any fucking funding round or IPO, any jump, any line of coke.”

“When I was crashing in Chamonix, in that moment before I blacked out, I saw your face,” I tell her, watching her eyes widen. “I didn’t understand it then. Why you, someone I barely knew from a one-night stand I couldn’t even remember. It felt like some cosmic joke.”

I swallow, my throat dry with emotion, but I press on. “But now I know. It wasn’t chance. It was... a warning. Or maybe a fucking gift. Showing me what I’d be leaving behind if I kept on that path... leaving behind everything that matters. You. Mia. Even though I didn’t know she existed, yet. But somehow, my consciousness knew. My subconscious. My sixth sense. Call it whatever the fuck you want. But I knew. That there was something about you. Something that mattered. Something that changed everything. That with you, my real lifeawaited. That with you, I couldlive, not justexist.”

I swallow again. “What I’m trying to say is... you matter, Sabrina. More than the risk. More than the rush. More than the money. You and Mia… you matter more than life itself.”

I see tears welling in her eyes, and my own throat tightens. “That’s why I withdrew from Chamonix, Sabrina. That’s why I’m giving up wingsuiting forever. Because I can’t… I can’t risk that again. Seeing your face, Mia’s face, knowing I might be leaving her fatherless, leavingyou… I can’t fucking do it. I just can’t. It’s not worth it.”

She’s crying openly now, silent tears streaming down her face. I reach out, gently wiping them away with my thumb.

“I know I fucked up,” I continue, my voice barely above a whisper. “Lying to you. Scaring you. Unintentionally pushing you away. But I’m trying, Sabrina. I’m really fucking trying. To be better. To be the man Mia deserves. To be the man… maybe…youdeserve.”

I don’t say I love her. The words are too big. Too terrifying.

But I think she hears it anyway, in the raw honesty of my voice, in the desperate plea in my eyes.

“That’s all I wanted to say,” I tell her.

She gets up then. “Oh Leo.” She hugs me tight, and I just hold her. Just hold her there for I don’t know how long. Seconds. Minutes. All I know is I don’t want to let go. I want to keep holding her.

Forever.

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