SARAH'S POV
Sarah had planned this moment for seven years.
She'd imagined how she'd walk into the ballroom. How she'd move with certainty. How she'd be surrounded by people who valued her, who wanted to be near her, who understood her brilliance. She'd imagined Dominic seeing her and realizing what he'd destroyed.
What she hadn't planned for was how it would feel.
The gala was crowded with Manhattan's elite. Billionaires in tuxedos. Heiresses in designer gowns. Everyone here played a version of themselves that looked good at charity events. Everyone here pretended their money meant something noble.
Sarah didn't pretend.
She moved through the crowd in the dress she'd designed, shaking hands and making connections. People wanted to meet her. Wanted her to design for them. Wanted to invest in her vision. She'd become someone people pursued instead of someone who had to pursue opportunity.
It felt like power.
Then she turned and saw him.
Dominic stood near the bar with a drink he wasn't drinking. He wore a tuxedo that cost more than most people's cars. But his eyes were empty. His face looked like something carved from stone.
Sarah's breath caught.
Seven years of careful control cracked open.
The past seven years disappeared. The stores. The awards. The success. All of it was suddenly irrelevant because she was twenty-five again, standing in his office learning what betrayal felt like. She was sleeping in her car. She was destroyed. She was broken.
Except she wasn't.
She was standing here looking at him and realized she'd survived it. More than survived. She'd become something extraordinary because he'd destroyed her first attempt.
Dominic's eyes met hers across the ballroom.
For a moment, nothing moved. The crowd continued talking around them but Sarah heard nothing but the sound of her own heartbeat. Dominic was looking at her like she was something he didn't believe was real. Like she was a ghost that had somehow taken physical form.
Like he'd been waiting seven years to see her too.
Sarah felt something dangerous rise in her chest. Not forgiveness. Not yet. But something that felt like understanding. Something that felt like maybe people could change. Maybe people could regret things deeply enough to become different.
She pushed the feeling away.
Sarah turned and walked toward the door.
She didn't run. Running would have been weakness. But she moved with purpose, cutting through the crowd, refusing to look back. She could feel him moving. Could sense the moment he decided to follow her. Could feel the weight of his presence like it was pulling at her.
No. She wouldn't let him catch her.
Not tonight. Not here. Not when she'd spent seven years building herself into someone strong enough to survive his loss.
She reached the exit and pushed through the heavy doors into the hallway leading toward the front entrance. Her heart was pounding. Her carefully constructed armor was shaking.
"Sarah."
His voice stopped her cold.
She was three feet from the elevator. Three feet from escape. But his voice was different than she remembered. It was broken. Desperate. Like the word her name was the only thing holding him together.
Sarah didn't turn around.
"Just five minutes," Dominic said, and he sounded like someone drowning. "Please. I'm not asking you to forgive me. I'm not asking for anything except five minutes."
Sarah stood with her back to him, her hands shaking, her mind screaming at her to keep walking. To press the elevator button. To disappear back into the life she'd built.
But something in his voice reminded her that she wasn't the only one who'd been destroyed seven years ago.
She turned.
Dominic stood in the hallway in his expensive tuxedo and looked absolutely broken. His eyes were desperate. His face showed every year of regret. He looked like a man who'd spent seven years realizing his biggest mistake was letting her matter and then destroying her anyway.
"Five minutes," Sarah said quietly. "Not here."
Dominic nodded like she'd just handed him a lifeline.
"My car is outside," he said.
They walked to his car in silence. Sarah's dress whispered against her legs with each step. The night was cold. The city was alive around them but they existed in a bubble of tension and history and seven years of trying to become people who didn't need each other.
Dominic's car was sleek and expensive and exactly what Sarah expected. He opened the passenger door for her and she sat down without speaking.
He got in the driver's side and started the car but didn't drive anywhere. They just sat there, parked in front of the gala venue, surrounded by the sounds of New York.
"You became everything," Dominic said finally.
Sarah didn't answer.
"I spent seven years destroying myself trying to prove I could survive your loss," he continued. "And you just... you just rebuilt yourself bigger and better and completely without me."
Sarah looked at him.
"That was the point," she said quietly. "That was always the point. I needed to know I could survive without anyone. That my talent was mine. That my dreams belonged to me."
"I know," Dominic said. "That's what makes it worse."
He turned to look at her and Sarah saw something in his face that she'd never seen before. Humility. Pain. The complete absence of the cold predator who'd destroyed her company.
"I'm not asking you to forgive me," he said. "I know what I did. I know I destroyed you for no reason except fear. I know I took everything from you and felt nothing at the time. But Sarah, I need you to know that I've spent every day since regretting it."
Sarah felt her chest tighten.
"Why should I believe that?" she asked.
"Because I'm not the same person," Dominic said. "I'm not the same person and I never will be. Not unless you give me a chance to prove it."
Sarah looked away from him and out the window at the city. At all the people living their lives without knowing that the woman in the expensive dress had once slept in a car. That the billionaire next to her had destroyed her entire world.
"I don't know if I can trust you," she said finally.
"I know," Dominic replied. "I know you can't. But maybe you could try."
Sarah sat in silence, feeling the weight of seven years pressing down on her. Seven years of building herself into someone untouchable. Seven years of refusing to let anyone matter.
Seven years of waiting for this moment.