Chapter 16
Jonnas
Jonnas knew something was wrong the second Dani stopped answering her phone.
At first, he tried not to panic. He knew that she had a rough day.
Hell, they both had. After the HR disaster exploded through the hospital, he’d been pulled into meetings for hours while lawyers and board members circled the situation like vultures.
By the time he finally got free, all he wanted was to get home to Dani—to hold her, and remind her that none of this changed anything between them.
Instead, he walked into an empty penthouse.
At first, he thought maybe she’d gone for a walk, and then he saw the note sitting on the kitchen counter.
Jonnas,
I need a few days to think. Please don’t come after me.
I love you too much to destroy your life.
— Dani
His world stopped. “No.” The word left him instantly.
Jonnas grabbed the note hard enough to wrinkle it in his fist while panic slammed through his chest so violently it physically hurt.
Absolutely not. She wasn’t leaving him over this—not after finally letting herself trust him.
Not after telling him she loved him without actually saying the words.
His phone was already in his hand before he fully processed her leaving. He pulled up her number, and the call rang twice before going to voicemail. He tried again, and again, it went straight to voicemail. By the third call, his chest felt tight enough to crack.
“Fuck.” Jonnas dragged a hand through his hair before stalking across the apartment.
He needed to think. Dani didn’t have many people she trusted, which meant there was exactly one person she’d trust enough to tell—Aliza.
He grabbed his keys and was out the door in under thirty seconds, because there was no way that he was going to lose the woman he loved—not if he could help it.
Aliza opened the front door, already glaring at him. “You look homicidal.” He looked her over, his eyes landing on her belly. She was due any day now, and all he could think about was Dani being in that same position, and him not being there for her. There was no way that he’d let that happen.
“Where is she?” he growled. Her expression shifted instantly, and he was sure that Aliza knew where Dani was. Jonnas’s stomach dropped hard when he realized from her stubborn scowl that she might not tell him where to find Dani. “You know where she is.”
Aliza folded her arms over her belly. “She asked me not to tell you where she went.”
Rage and panic collided viciously in his chest. “Aliza.”
“She needs space,” Aliza said.
“She’s pregnant and emotionally spiraling,” Jonnas pointed out.
“And you think chasing after her while the hospital is investigating you is gonna help?” she asked.
“Yes.” The answer came instantly, without hesitation, because none of that other stuff mattered. None of it compared to Dani leaving, believing she was protecting him.
Jonnas stepped fully into the doorframe before Aliza could stop him. “She thinks she’s ruining my life.”
Aliza’s expression softened slightly. “Jonnas—”
“No.” His voice roughened. “Do you have any idea what she looked like today?” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “She was terrified.”
“She’s always terrified,” Aliza pointed out.
He knew that she was always terrified, but she had been conditioned that way.
He saw the real her, though. She was stronger than she knew she was, and he needed to find her to tell her that.
He needed to remind her about who she was.
He needed to convince her that her happiness didn’t automatically come with punishment.
Jonnas paced once across the living room before turning back toward Aliza. “I told her I loved her.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Oh.”
“And then she disappeared,” he growled.
“That’s actually very Dani,” she said. Normally, he might’ve laughed, but right now he wanted to put his fist through a wall.
“She left because she thinks she’s bad for me,” he said. “But she’s wrong.”
Aliza sighed heavily. “She’s trying to protect you.”
“She doesn’t get to decide that. I don’t need her protection. I need her here, with me,” he said.
“She’s scared,” Aliza pointed out.
“I know she’s scared!” The words cracked out harsher than he intended. Jonnas closed his eyes briefly before forcing himself to calm down. “I know.”
Silence stretched between them. Then quietly, Aliza asked, “Do you really love her?”
Jonnas looked at her like the question insulted him.
“I was ready to walk away from my entire career this afternoon if it meant protecting her.” Aliza went still.
“I’ve spent my whole life avoiding this exact kind of attachment,” he admitted roughly.
“And somehow that stubborn, emotional little nurse became the most important person in my life in less than two months.”
Emotion flickered across Aliza’s face immediately.
“She’s pregnant with my baby,” he continued quietly.
“And she left thinking I’d eventually resent her for it.
” The thought alone made him sick, because the truth was the exact opposite.
Dani hadn’t ruined his life; she’d changed it.
There was a difference. A huge fucking difference.
Aliza looked away briefly before muttering, “She’s at her grandmother’s cabin at the lake.”
Relief hit so hard his knees nearly buckled. “Where?”
“She’s about three hours away.” Aliza pointed at him immediately.
“And before you go charging up there acting insane, you need to understand something.” Jonnas waited impatiently for her to finish.
“She’s expecting you to choose your career over her eventually.
” Deep down, he already knew that. “She won’t believe promises right now,” Aliza continued softly. “You’re gonna have to prove it.”
Jonnas grabbed his keys tighter in his hand.
He was fine with that because proving it was exactly what he planned to do.
Aliza sighed heavily before grabbing a sticky note from the counter and scribbling an address down.
When she handed it over, Jonnas looked at it like it might save his life. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet.” Her expression softened slightly. “Just don’t break her, okay?” The idea alone made his chest ache, because Dani still didn’t understand. She wasn’t the fragile thing between them anymore—his heart was.
The entire drive to the cabin felt like torture. It took three hours to reach Dani’s grandmother’s cabin. Three fucking hours of imagining Dani alone somewhere, convincing herself she was doing the right thing by leaving him.
Jonnas gripped the steering wheel tighter as rain hammered against the windshield.
She loved him. That part kept replaying in his head over and over again.
Not in words, but in every terrified self-sacrificing instinct that made her run, because Dani loved like someone expecting punishment afterward, and Christ, that realization hurt.
His phone buzzed through the SUV speakers. It was Elias, and Jonnas answered immediately. “What?”
“Well, hello to you, too,” Elias mumbled.
“I’m driving,” Jonnas explained.
“Aliza told me.”
Jonnas exhaled harshly. “Dani shouldn’t have left.”
“She’s scared,” Elias said.
“I know she’s scared,” Jonnas shouted.
“No,” Elias said quietly. “I don’t think you do.” The rain blurred across the windshield while silence filled the SUV. Then Elias continued softly, “You’re a powerful man, Jonnas.”
“I know what my job title is,” he grumbled.
“That’s not what I mean.” Elias sighed heavily.
“You’ve spent your whole life having people respect you.
” His voice lowered. “Dani’s spent hers waiting for people to decide she’s too much trouble.
” The words settled heavily into Jonnas’s chest, because yeah, that tracked.
How many times had she probably heard those things without anyone saying them directly?
“She thinks this investigation is the moment you realize she’s not worth it,” Elias finished quietly. Anger flared instantly—not at Dani, but at the thought itself.
“She’s carrying my child,” Jonnas whispered.
“And she loves you enough to leave before you resent her,” Elias said. Fuck. Jonnas closed his eyes briefly at a stoplight, because that was the part killing him. Dani didn’t leave because she stopped loving him. She left because she loved him too much.
“Tell me something honestly,” Elias said after a long silence.
“What?” Jonnas barked.
“You really ready to burn your career down for her?”
The answer came instantly. “Yes.” There was no hesitation or uncertainty on his part, because the truth was horrifyingly simple now. Without Dani, none of it mattered anymore. Not the title, the hospital, or the board. None of it.
Elias let out a low whistle. “Damn.”
Jonnas laughed bitterly. “Yeah.”
“You gonna tell her that?” Elias asked.
“I’m gonna tell her whatever I need to if it gets her to come home,” Jonnas said.
Elias was quiet for a second before muttering, “Good luck, and let me know what happens.” The line disconnected, and Jonnas drove harder after that—faster, like every mile between him and Dani physically hurt.
The cabin sat hidden deep in the woods beside a lake and towering trees.
It was small, quiet, and exactly the kind of place Dani would run to when overwhelmed.
Jonnas parked hard beside the gravel driveway before staring at the warm light glowing through the cabin windows.
His chest tightened painfully because he knew that she was in there.
Hell, she was probably crying and blaming herself for all of this.
That thought alone made him feel violent.
Rain soaked through his shirt almost instantly as he crossed the yard toward the porch, then he stopped, because suddenly, panic hit him hard.
What if she didn’t want him there? What if pushing too hard only scared her further away?
Jonnas stood in the rain for a long moment, wrestling with something unfamiliar and ugly.
Fear—not fear of rejection, but fear of losing her.
The cabin door opened before he could decide what to do, and Dani froze instantly when she saw him standing there.
“Oh, my God.” Relief hit him so hard his knees nearly buckled.
She stood there in her oversized sweatshirt, bare feet, and her eyes already red from crying.
And she was still the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
“Baby girl,” he breathed. Her entire face crumpled immediately. Fuck. Jonnas crossed the porch in two long strides before she could retreat inside.
“You shouldn’t have come here,” she whispered shakily.
“And you shouldn’t have left me,” he said.
Fresh tears spilled instantly down her cheeks.
God, he hated seeing her cry. Even when he understood why she was doing it.
Dani stepped backward into the cabin slowly while he followed her inside.
Warmth wrapped around him immediately, but it did nothing to calm the storm raging in his chest.
“You’re soaked,” she whispered.
“I don’t care,” he insisted.
“Jonnas—”
“No.” His voice cracked rougher than intended. “You don’t get to disappear on me because you’re scared.”
Her breathing turned shaky immediately. “I was trying to protect you.”
“I know,” he breathed. The sincerity in his voice made her look wrecked all over again. Jonnas stepped closer carefully, not crowding her, and never wanted her to feel trapped. He stood close enough to touch if she let him.
“You left me a note,” he said quietly. “Like I’m some man you can walk away from to make my life easier.”
Emotion flooded her face instantly. “You deserve better than this mess I’ve created.” That did it—Jonnas closed the remaining distance immediately, cupping her face in both hands.
“Listen to me very carefully.” His voice turned firm enough that her eyes snapped to his automatically. “You are not ruining my life, and you didn’t create a mess.”
Tears spilled harder down her cheeks. “You don’t know that.”
“Yes, I do,” he breathed.
“How?” she challenged.
“Because before you, I had a career.” His thumbs brushed her tears away gently. “But that never really mattered. I know that now, because I have something worth coming home to.” That shattered her completely. Dani broke into sobs so suddenly that it physically hurt to hear.
Jonnas pulled her against his chest instantly.
“It’s okay, baby girl,” he murmured into her hair while she cried against him.
“I’ve got you.” And standing there holding the woman he loved while rain battered the cabin windows outside, Jonnas realized something with absolute certainty.
He would lose every damn thing in his life before he lost her again.