Meanwhile in his study, Vance stared at the sent message.

Personal feelings can't matter. He'd built his life on that principle. Yet he'd just arranged a doctor for a woman who wasn't his wife, because he'd seen pain in her eyes that mirrored something he refused to name.

It was strategy, he told himself. Nerissa was valuable to the project. Stable leadership required stable personnel. Ensuring her health was an investment, nothing more.

But he remembered the hospital. The silent car ride home after. How Jovi had never once asked how he was. Only what it meant for their image.

He'd sent the text to Nerissa as much to remind...