Scarlett doesn't drive home.
She drives around London for hours. Past the bridge where she tried to convince herself she was stronger than she was. Past the park where Elle found her crying in her car. Past all the places that remind her of who she used to be.
By midnight, she finds herself back at his building.
She tells herself she's just checking on him. She tells herself she's not hoping for anything. She tells herself this is temporary weakness and she'll leave before he even sees her.
The security guard at the desk nods. He's used to seeing her come and go at odd hours now. She's a fixture in Cameron Ashford's life, even if he doesn't want her to be.
The elevator rises. Forty-seven floors of her growing resolve that this is a mistake.
His office door is unlocked.
She finds him at his desk, head resting on papers, completely asleep. The lamp above him casts a soft glow. His suit jacket is draped over the back of his chair. His sleeves are rolled up. His tie is gone.
He looks like someone defeated.
His dark hair falls across his forehead. His face, relaxed in sleep, shows something she's never seen in him awake. Loneliness. Not the performed coldness or the calculated distance. Just pure, raw loneliness.
For the first time, he doesn't look like armor. He looks like a person. A broken person. Someone who's been carrying too much weight for too long.
Scarlett approaches quietly. She doesn't want to wake him. She doesn't want him to build walls again.
Without letting herself think, she removes her jacket and drapes it gently across his shoulders. It's not a grand gesture. It's not romantic. It's just an act of care. The kind of thing you do for someone you love when they're too hurt to accept it directly.
She finds a glass by the window. She fills it with water from his private bathroom and sets it on his desk within reach. In case he wakes up thirsty.
She should leave. She should let him sleep and go home to her own apartment and pretend this night never happened.
But she can't.
She sits in the chair across from his desk and watches him sleep. She watches his chest rise and fall. She watches a man who's spent so much energy keeping people at a distance finally let his guard completely down.
Around 3 AM, she forces herself to leave.
She doesn't touch him again. She doesn't say anything. She just leaves, hoping the jacket and water are enough to show him that despite everything, she came back.
Cameron wakes hours later to the weight of fabric across his shoulders.
His eyes open slowly. For a moment, he's confused. Then he sees the jacket. Her jacket. He picks it up and the scent of her hits him like a physical blow.
He looks at the glass of water on his desk. Full. Untouched. Left for him.
His eyes close.
When they open again, they're wet.
He sits there in the early morning light, holding her jacket, and finally admits to himself what he's been fighting for weeks. She came back. After he told her to leave. After he told her he'd destroy her. After he told her to stay away.
She came back anyway.
He drives to her apartment at 6 AM.
Scarlett is still asleep when her doorbell rings. She stumbles to the door in bare feet and sleep clothes, expecting anything but him.
Cameron stands in her doorway looking like he hasn't slept. His eyes are red. His jaw is shadowed with stubble. He's still wearing the same suit from yesterday.
"Don't," he says before she can even speak. "Don't say anything."
Scarlett closes her mouth.
"Don't come back to my office," he continues, and his voice is shaking. Actually shaking. "Don't care about me. Don't leave your jacket on my shoulders like I'm worth saving. Don't bring me water like I matter. You're going to get hurt, Scarlett. And I can't let that happen."
"Cameron," she says.
"I'm serious," he says. His hands clench at his sides. "This arrangement, it ends now. I'll pay out your contract. I'll give you a reference for any job you want. I'll make sure the legal issues with your father are completely resolved. But you need to stop. You need to stop caring about me. You need to stop coming back."
"Why are you really here," Scarlett asks quietly.
"Because I can't do this anymore," he says. His voice breaks. "I can't wake up and find your jacket on my shoulders and pretend it doesn't destroy me. I can't let you sacrifice yourself for someone who doesn't deserve it."
"Is this about Victoria," Scarlett asks.
"No," Cameron says harshly. "This is about you. This is about the fact that I'm not just a cold businessman who broke things. This is about the fact that there are things about me, about my family, about the things I've done, that would terrify you if you knew. This is about protecting you from a life that would ruin you."
He steps closer. Not to touch her. Just to make sure she hears him.
"I have enemies, Scarlett. Real enemies. People who want to destroy me. People who would use you as leverage. The moment you become publicly important to me, the moment they know you're not just some actress in this arrangement, you become a target. And I won't do that to you. I won't put you in that kind of danger."
Scarlett's breath catches.
"When I said love destroys people, I wasn't just talking about my family history. I was talking about this. I was talking about the life that comes with loving me. I was talking about the fact that being close to me puts you in danger. Real danger. Not metaphorical danger. Real threats from real people who want to hurt me."
"You should have told me this before," Scarlett says.
"I know," Cameron says. "I should have. But I couldn't because once you knew, you'd feel obligated to stay. You'd convince yourself you could handle it. And then something would happen and you'd get hurt and it would be my fault. It would be because I let you in."
He turns to leave.
"That's why I'm ending this. That's why you need to walk away from me. Not because I don't care about you. But because I care about you too much to risk your safety."
"Cameron," Scarlett calls out.
He pauses at the door but doesn't turn around.
"I already knew," she says.
He turns back.
"When you told me you'd pay off Alexander. When I found out you created a job for me. When you sabotaged the people trying to hurt me. I already knew you had enemies. I already knew loving you came with risk. I just didn't know you were trying to protect me from it."
"Then you understand why this is over," Cameron says.
"No," Scarlett says. "I understand that you're terrified. But I don't understand why you get to make this decision for both of us. I don't understand why you get to decide I'm not strong enough to face whatever comes next."
"Because I've already lost people I cared about," Cameron says. His voice is raw. Desperate. "And I can't lose you too. I can't watch someone I love get destroyed because of who I am. I won't survive that."
He leaves before she can respond.
Scarlett stands in her doorway in bare feet and sleep clothes, understanding for the first time what she's really up against.
It's not Victoria.
It's not even his fear of love.
It's the fact that he's willing to give up everything to protect her from a danger she's not even sure she understands yet.
And she realizes something that terrifies her.
He's not protecting her from his enemies or his past or the risks of being with him.
He's protecting her because he loves her so much that losing her would destroy him completely.
And that kind of love is the most dangerous thing of all.