11. Orion
— ? —
Orion
The Cliff Holdings headquarters looked the same as always. Glass and steel, the kind of building that announced money and power before you even walked through the doors.
I used to feel like I belonged here. Like this building was an extension of myself, my ambition made concrete and chrome.
Now all I could think about was the way Gianna’s hands had shaken when she showed me that Instagram post. The way her voice cracked when she said the right thing. The way she still flinched sometimes when I got too close, like she was bracing for disappointment.
Three days on her couch. Of night feedings and milk stains and learning how to be useful instead of important. Three days of watching her move around that tiny apartment, beautiful even in sweatpants and exhaustion, and not being allowed to touch her.
It was killing me. And I deserved every second of it.
Sarah met me in the lobby, her face carefully neutral in that way assistants learn when they don’t know if their boss is about to get fired or fire everyone else.
“Mr. Barnes. We weren’t expecting you today. You said you’re-”
“Today’s an exception. Call an all-hands meeting. Main conference room. Everyone.”
“Everyone?”
“Everyone who’s in the building. Ten minutes.”
She blinked but recovered quickly. “Yes, sir.”
I took the elevator up alone. Watched my reflection in the polished doors. I looked like hell. I knew I looked like hell. I hadn’t slept more than three hours in the past four days, and the stubble situation had gotten out of control.
But I didn’t care about that anymore. There were more important things than looking like a Fortune 500 CEO.
There was Gianna. There was Alex. There was the look on my wife’s face when she finally let herself trust me again.
If she ever let herself trust me again.
The conference room was filling up when I walked in. Fifty, sixty people, maybe more. Department heads. Senior managers. Support staff who’d been pulled from their desks. Everyone looking at me with expressions that ranged from curious to confused to outright alarmed.
And there, near the front, polished and professional in a silk blouse and perfectly styled hair, was Demi Porter.
She smiled when she saw me. That confident smile she’d been using since the day she started, the one that said she knew exactly how valuable she was. The same smile she’d worn in that Singapore bar while my wife was being cut open in an operating room ten thousand miles away.
I used to think that smile was harmless. Professional charm and nothing more.
I’d been so goddamn blind.
“Orion.” She stepped toward me like we were old friends, like Singapore had been a triumph we’d shared instead of the beginning of the end.
“I’m so glad you’re back after I heard you had some drama with my sister back home.
We need to talk about the Hendricks deal, there are some developments that-”
“Sit down, Demi.”
She was surprised. And under it, the first hint of fear.
“I’m sorry?”
“I said sit down.”
She sat.
The room had gone quiet. That particular kind of silence that happens when everyone knows something is about to happen but nobody knows what.
I stood at the front of the room, looking out at the faces of people who’d worked for me for years. People who trusted me. People who deserved to hear this from me directly.
But mostly I was thinking about Gianna. About the way she’d looked at me this morning when I handed her Alex, that brief moment when our hands touched and she didn’t pull away. About the way she’d almost smiled at me yesterday, before she caught herself and locked it down.
I wanted that smile back. I wanted to be the reason for it again instead of the reason it disappeared.
“I called this meeting because I need to address something,” I said. “Something I should have addressed earlier.”
I could feel Demi’s eyes on me, watching.
“Weeks ago, I made a hiring decision. I brought a family member into this company. My sister-in-law, Demi Porter.” I nodded toward her.
“At the time, I told myself it was just business. She was qualified. She needed a job. My wife suggested it, hoping it might improve their relationship. What was the harm?”
I paused. Let the silence stretch.
“The harm was that I failed to maintain professional boundaries. My wife asked me to keep things appropriate, and I promised her I would. I broke that promise. Not once. Not twice. Repeatedly. And instead of listening when she told me something was wrong, I dismissed her concerns. I made her feel like she was overreacting. I chose my own comfort over my marriage.”
The room was absolutely still. I could see people exchanging glances, trying to figure out where this was going.
Demi’s smile had frozen on her face.
I thought about Gianna in that apartment. Probably feeding Alex right now. Probably exhausted. Probably wondering if I was actually going to do what I said I’d do, or if this was just another promise I’d break.
I was done breaking promises.
“That ends today,” I said. “Demi, you’re fired. Effective immediately.”
“Excuse me?” She was on her feet now, the polished composure cracking. “You can’t just-”
“I can. And I am.” I kept my voice level. “Security will escort you out. You have fifteen minutes to collect your personal belongings.”
“This is insane.” She laughed, but there was nothing funny in it. “I have contracts. I have access to files. The Singapore partnership is dependent on my-”
“I’ll take the lawsuit.”
“You’ll lose the partnership! You don’t know what to do!”
“Then I’ll lose it.”
The room stared at me. I could practically hear people calculating the cost in their heads. The Singapore deal alone was worth eight figures. Walking away from it would be a hit Cliff would feel for years.
I didn’t care.
What was eight figures compared to the way Gianna used to look at me? What was any amount of money compared to falling asleep next to her, waking up with her hair in my face and her body warm against mine? What was a goddamn business deal compared to being the man she deserved?
Nothing. It was nothing.
“This is about her, isn’t it?” Demi’s voice had gone ugly now, the pretty mask slipping to reveal something bitter underneath.
“You’re throwing away everything you’ve built for her?
She’s nobody, Orion. She was nobody when you met her.
A museum assistant at a charity gala, wearing a borrowed dress, and you’re ruining your career for-”
“She’s my wife.”
The words came out harder than I intended. The room flinched.
“She’s my wife,” I repeated, quieter now.
“And I spent years making her feel like she didn’t matter.
I let you cross lines I promised her you wouldn’t cross.
I let you post pictures from Singapore while she was alone in a hospital giving birth to my son.
I let you make her feel crazy for being uncomfortable when she had every right to be uncomfortable. ”
I looked at Demi, and for the first time, I saw her clearly. Not as a polished professional, but as a woman who’d spent two years trying to take something that wasn’t hers.
Something that had always belonged to Gianna, from the moment I saw her hiding by that bar at the gala, looking like she wanted to disappear, looking like she had no idea how beautiful she was.
I’d walked away from Demi that night. Twenty minutes of her polished pitch, and then I’d seen Gianna hiding by the bar and hadn’t hesitated. Because even then, even before I knew anything about her, I knew Gianna was the one I wanted.
I’d just been too stupid to keep showing her that.
“You’re fired,” I said. “And you should know that my wife was the one who suggested hiring you in the first place. She thought it might help your relationship. She was trying to be kind. You repaid that kindness by trying to destroy her marriage.”
Demi’s face went pale.
“Security will escort you out,” I said. “Don’t contact me. Don’t contact my wife.” I let the room hear the next part. “Daisy called you from that hospital. Told you Gianna was going into surgery. Told you to put the phone in my hand. You said you would. Then you ordered champagne. We’re done.”
I nodded to the security team by the door. They moved forward.
“You think this is just about money? You’re going to regret this,” Demi said as they reached her. “You’re going to regret choosing her over the money when it’s gone.”
“I already regret a lot of things,” I said. “Choosing my wife isn’t one of them.”
***
The drive back to Gianna’s apartment felt longer than usual.
My hands were shaking on the steering wheel. Adrenaline, probably. Or maybe just the reality of what I’d done sinking in.
Robertson had called twice before I even left the building. The Singapore partnership was already falling apart. Demi had been bluffing about some things, but not about the connections she made. Her contacts in Singapore were furious about the public firing. By tomorrow, the deal would be dead.
Eight figures, gone. Because I finally did the right thing.
I should have felt something about that. Panic, regret and the loss of that much money should have meant something.
But all I could think about was Gianna. The way she bit her lip when she was trying not to smile.
The way she hummed to Alex during night feedings, some old song I didn’t recognize.
The way she looked in the morning, soft and sleepy, before she remembered she was supposed to be keeping me at arm’s length.
I wanted to be close to her again. Not just physically, though God knows I wanted that too. I wanted to be the person she turned to. The person she trusted. The person she chose, over and over, the way I should have been choosing her all along.
I wanted to earn my way back into her heart, even if it took the rest of my life.
Gianna was in the kitchen when I walked in, Alex in one of those bouncy chair things that seemed to be the only place he’d sit quietly.
She looked up and studied my face.
She was wearing an old t-shirt, something faded and soft that probably came from a drawer she hadn’t opened in years. Her hair was pulled back in a messy bun. Dark circles under her eyes.
She was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.
“You went to the office,” she said. It wasn’t a question.
“Yeah.”
“And?”
“I fired her. In front of everyone.” I leaned against the doorframe, suddenly exhausted. “Called an all-hands meeting. Told them I’d failed to maintain professional boundaries. Told them I ignored my wife’s concerns because I thought I knew better. Then I fired her.”
Gianna was very still. “What did she say?”
“She threatened to sue. Mentioned the Singapore partnership. Said I’d regret it.”
“And?”
“I told her I’d take the lawsuit and lose the partnership.”
“The Singapore partnership.” Gianna’s voice was careful. “The eight-figure deal you’ve been working on for years.”
“Gone.” I shrugged, and the movement felt heavy. “Robertson’s already calling it. The contacts are pulling out. By tomorrow, it’ll be dead.”
Gianna stared at me.
I wanted to cross the room to her. Wanted to pull her into my arms and bury my face in her hair and tell her I’d burn down the whole company if that’s what it took to prove I was serious. But I didn’t have that right anymore. I hadn’t earned it back yet.
So I stayed where I was, leaning against the doorframe, aching with how much I wanted her and knowing I couldn’t have her. Not yet. Maybe not ever.
“You actually did it,” she said.
“You asked me to do the right thing.”
“I didn’t think…” She stopped and shook her head. “I didn’t think you’d actually do it.”
That hurt more than I expected. But I understood it. I’d given her no reason to believe I’d choose her over business. I’d spent two years proving the opposite.
“Well,” I said. “I did.”
She didn’t thank me. Didn’t reach for me. Didn’t make it into a bigger moment than it was.
But she didn’t look away either.
And right now, watching her watch me with something other than disappointment in her eyes, that was enough.
It had to be enough.