Chapter 18
JETT
Knight Enterprises Finalizes Landmark Deal with Vanhelm—A Strategic Win for Both Giants.
The headline flashes across my screen, neatly packaged and polished, courtesy of our PR team. It’s out there now—public knowledge. A job well done.
The SEC officially confirmed that the issue was resolved with no lingering concerns. After one last review and signature, the deal closed this morning. It’s over. It’s done.
Ordinarily, Cari would’ve handled most of the last-minute back and forth, but I did it myself.
For once.
I lean back in my chair, staring blankly at the press release. My office is silent except for the occasional creak of my leather chair.
The door opens. My father.
He sticks his head through, expression unreadable as always. “I see it went through, finally.”
No congratulations. No pat on the back. Not even a smug I-told-you-so for the last-minute hiccup.
“It did,” I reply.
He just nods and disappears like a ghost.
Thank fuck.
His face is the last one I want to see right now.
Dex and Zach want to celebrate, and I might be ready for that in a few days’ time. I exhale, long and slow, but there’s no relief. Because even as I sit here, drowning in the aftermath of a victory I should be celebrating, all I can think about is Cari.
Her mother. That sterile hospital room. Cari crumbling, sobbing, looking so small and broken in a way I’ve never seen before.
I close my eyes and scrub a hand down my face.
I hate myself. That day she walked in, wearing the same wrinkled clothes as the day before and carrying those damn flowers like she could hold her world together through sheer will alone, I snapped at her. She was at the hospital all night, sitting by her mother’s bedside, and I treated her like garbage.
I was a complete bastard to her.
And yet, after everything I said, she still saved the deal. In record time. She still held my world together while hers fell apart.
I texted her earlier:
You did an incredible job. I don’t know what I’d do without you.
Her reply was fast:
You’ll need to get used to it.
Those words hit like a sucker punch to my gut. She’s broken, her grief is raw, and is lashing out because she has every right to. I deserve her anger. I deserve worse.
The guilt sits like lead in my chest.
She holds everything together—me, this company—under the most impossible pressure. And I know so little about her. I rely on her too much, care too much, and it’s dangerous.
I pull up my calendar and stare at the entry for dinner tonight—Vanhelm’s CEO, the big celebration at some exclusive Manhattan restaurant where reservations are impossible to get unless your name comes with a nine-figure net worth. A place where the steaks are flown in from Japan and the wine list could fund a small company.
I can’t go.
Not tonight. Cari is on my mind, and it’s not about that stupid dirty dream I had about her. It’s not even about her pulling out all the stops to save the deal.
It’s about her .
Her strength. Her loyalty. The quiet way she breaks apart and still pieces herself back together.
She’s broken, and I'm not in the mood for a celebration. Her grief lingers with me, clinging to my mind like a shadow I can’t shake. I can still see her there sitting alone in that cold, sterile hospital room, holding her mother’s hand as if she could tether her to the earth.
Watching Cari deal with this leaves me feeling helpless and more adrift than ever. I have an overwhelming urge to be with Brooke. I just want to go home and hold my little girl. I need to be close to her, and work harder at cherishing my time with her because nothing is guaranteed. I already knew that, but seeing Cari's world fall apart like mine once did cements it further.
Her grief feels like mine. And yet I can’t do anything about it. I can’t hold her or comfort her. I can’t sit by her side and pull her back from the brink, no matter how much I want to. I have to watch from a distance.
CARI
I’m numb.
It’s like the world’s been stripped of color.
I’m sitting on my mom’s bed at home. I’ve spent every minute here since the day we lost her. Her sheets still smell faintly like her lavender soap.
I emailed Jett to say I needed time off. He responded almost immediately, telling me to take as long as I needed. He also texted earlier today to say the Vanhelm deal was complete.
I exhale a small sigh of relief, and mentally close that chapter. At least something good came out of the chaos.
Eliana and Bianca have been here every day. They bring food I can’t eat, soft words I don’t know how to respond to, and hugs I can barely feel. I love them for it, even though I feel like a ghost in my own life.
Aunt Scarlett and I spend hours lying here in Mom’s bed, going through the family albums she loved so much. I flip through page after page of photos—me with ice cream dripping down my chin at the beach, us grinning under a Christmas tree, a hundred pictures of the same sunset from our vacation in Hawaii.
It’s hard to believe she’s gone.
I close the album, resting it against my chest, and stare at the ceiling.
I check my phone for more messages. New ones from Eliana and Bianca. I re-read Jett’s text again and set the phone aside.
I don’t know what to think about him anymore.
He’s cold. Ruthless. He cares more about deals and dollars than people. And yet I know that’s not entirely true. He came to the hospital. He held me when I was falling apart. I can still feel the warmth of his arms around me, steady and strong.
I remember his face when he looked at me—raw, as if seeing me in pain somehow hurt him too.
And that’s what confuses me most of all.
I don’t know where we stand. I don’t know what he wants, or what I want.
But I do know that I can’t keep living my life like this. I can’t keep being the person who puts his world together while mine crumbles into pieces.
I need to let go.
I owe it to my mom, and I owe it to myself.
This is the end of the prequel. I hope you enjoyed THE DARKEST KNIGHT as much as I loved writing it. But, this isn't the end of Jett and Cari’s story! There’s more. Much more!