«You should go to therapy. Real therapy, not just medication. You’re going to work on your issues like a grown man instead of hiding behind your money and your control.» Mama pointed a finger at Damon. «And you’re going to release my daughter from this contract, immediately.»
«Mama,» Imani protested.
«Hush, baby. I’m not done.» Mama turned that finger toward Imani. «And you. If you want to keep working for this man, that’s your choice. But it has to be a choice, not an obligation. You understand me?»
Imani nodded, too stunned to speak. Mama looked back at Damon.
«You love my daughter?»
«I…» Damon swallowed hard. «I think I might.»
«It’s complicated. Love is always complicated. But it shouldn’t be transactional. So if you want to be with Imani, you court her properly. You date her. You treat her with respect and dignity. And if she chooses you, it’s because she wants you, not because she owes you. Clear?»
«Yes, ma’am.»
«Good.» Mama leaned back against her pillows, suddenly looking exhausted. «When you’re done, then I can thank you properly for saving my life without feeling like my daughter enslaved herself for it.»
Imani and Damon stood in the hospital parking lot, neither one knowing what to say. Finally, Damon broke the silence.
«Your mother is terrifying.»
Despite everything, Imani laughed. «Yeah, she’s something else. She’s also right.»
«About everything.» Damon turned to face Imani fully. «I’m releasing you from the contract. Effective immediately. The debt is forgiven. You’re free.»
Imani’s heart dropped. «What? No. Damon, the money?»
«The money doesn’t matter. It never mattered.» Damon’s voice was intense. «What matters is that I trapped you in a situation you never chose. And that was wrong. So I’m making it right.»
«But I don’t want…»
«Let me finish.» Damon took a breath. «I’m releasing you from the contract. But I’m also asking if you’d consider staying. Not as my employee. As… something else.»
«Something else?»
«I don’t know what to call it yet. But I know that when you’re around, my apartment feels like a home instead of a sterile cage. I know that when you touch me, I feel alive for the first time in 24 years. I know that you make me want to be better. To get help. To actually live instead of just existing.»
Imani’s eyes were burning with tears she refused to let fall.
«Damon…»
«You don’t have to answer now. Take time. Think about it. But Imani, I need you to know that if you walk away right now, I’ll understand. And I’ll still make sure your mother gets the best care for the rest of her life. No strings. No debt. Just because you deserve it.»
This man. This broken, complicated, impossible man was offering her freedom. And all Imani wanted to do was choose him anyway.
«I need to think,» Imani said finally. «This is a lot.»
«I know. Take all the time you need.»
Three days later.
Imani hadn’t gone back to the penthouse. For three days, she stayed away, thinking, processing, trying to figure out what she wanted. Damon had been true to his word. He’d sent her a formal release from the contract, signed and notarized. Her debt was forgiven. She was free.
On the third day, Keisha came over with pizza and wine.
«Okay, talk to me,» Keisha said, flopping onto Imani’s couch. «You’ve been radio silent for three days. What’s going on?»
Imani told her everything. The contract release, Damon’s confession, Mama’s intervention.
When she finished, Keisha was quiet for a long moment. Then she said, «Do you love him?»
«I don’t know. Maybe. It’s complicated.»
«It’s always complicated with you.» Keisha took a bite of pizza. «But here’s the real question. Do you want to find out if you love him? Because that’s different from knowing for sure.»
Did Imani want to find out? She thought about Damon’s vulnerable eyes when he talked about the fire. The way he’d faced his hospital phobia just to meet her mother. The electricity that sparked between them every time they touched.
«Yeah,» Imani said softly. «I think I do.»
«Then what are you waiting for? Go get your man.»
Imani showed up at Damon’s penthouse at 6:00 p.m. on a Thursday. She used the keycard he’d never asked her to return and rode the elevator up. The penthouse was dark when she arrived. No lights. No sound.
«Damon?» Imani called out.
No answer. She walked through the living room and noticed something that made her stop dead. There were dishes in the sink. A coffee mug on the counter. A jacket thrown over a chair instead of hung in the closet. Damon’s perfect order was falling apart. He hadn’t called his house staff back yet.
She found him in his bedroom, sitting on the floor with his back against the bed, staring at nothing. The room was a mess. Not as bad as after his nightmare, but definitely not the pristine space Imani was used to seeing.
«Damon?»
He looked up, and the surprise on his face was almost comical. «Imani? What are you doing here?»
«I came to give you my answer.»
Damon stood up slowly, his expression carefully neutral. «And?»
«But first I need to know something.» Imani stepped closer. «That first night, in your office, did you really feel something when we touched? Or was that just a line to trap me?»
«I felt it.» Damon’s voice was raw, honest. «I’ve spent my whole life recoiling from human touch, and then you grabbed my wrist and I felt alive. It terrified me, so I trapped you because I’m selfish and I wanted to understand it. To understand you.»
«And do you? Understand me?»
«No. But I want to spend however long it takes learning.»
Imani closed the distance between them until they were standing inches apart. «I have conditions,» she said firmly.
«Anything.»
«First, you start therapy. Real therapy, this week.»
«Done.»
«Second, you stop using your OCD as punishment. You work on getting better because you deserve to heal, not because I’m asking you to.»
«Okay.»
«Third, we date like normal people. You take me to dinner. We go to movies. We figure out if this electricity between us is real or just some weird psychological reaction to trauma and desperation.»
Damon’s lips twitched into an almost-smile. «Those are fair conditions. And fourth?»
Imani reached out and took his hand, feeling that familiar shock run through both of them.
«You let me help you clean up this mess. Because partners don’t let partners drown alone.»
Damon’s eyes went bright with emotion. «Partners?»
«If you want to be.»
Instead of answering with words, Damon did something that shocked them both. He pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her in a full embrace.
Imani gasped. Damon touching her freely like this still shocked her to the bone. «Damon, your OCD… won’t this make you panic?»
«I thought it would,» Damon murmured into her hair. «But it doesn’t. With you, it doesn’t.»
They stood like that for a long moment, holding each other. Finally, Damon pulled back slightly to look at her.
«I need to test something,» he said quietly.
«Test what?»
«A theory, about why I can touch you without feeling contaminated.» Damon’s thumb traced her jawline, his eyes intense. «I think you might be my antidote. The one person who can break through my compulsions. But I need to be sure.»
«How do you test that?»
Damon’s eyes dropped to her lips. «If I can kiss you without recoiling or panicking, I’ll know for certain that what I feel for you is stronger than my disorder.»
Imani’s heart was racing so fast she thought it might explode. «And if you can’t?»
«Then we figure it out together. But Imani, I need to know. Can I kiss you?»
Instead of answering, Imani rose up on her toes and closed the distance between them. The moment Damon’s lips touched Imani’s, the world stopped. It wasn’t just the way it sent pleasant tingles through every nerve ending. It was the way Damon kissed her like she was precious.
He didn’t pull away. Didn’t panic. He just kissed her deeper. When they finally broke apart, both breathing hard, Damon pressed his forehead against hers.
«I think I’ve found my antidote,» he whispered.
Imani’s laugh was shaky. «That was very smooth.»
«I’m serious. You’re the cure to everything that’s broken in me.»
«I’m not a cure, Damon. I’m just a person. You still need therapy. You still need to work on yourself. I can’t fix you.»
«I know. But you make me want to fix myself. That’s more than anyone’s ever done.»
They kissed again, slower this time. And then Imani’s phone rang. She groaned and pulled it out. The hospital.
«Hello? Ms. Banks? This is Dr. Smith. I wanted to let you know your mother is being released in about a week. Her recovery has exceeded all our expectations.»
Imani felt tears spring to her eyes. «Really? She can come home?»
«Yes. She’ll need follow-up care and ongoing monitoring, but the cancer is in remission. Your mother beat it, Ms. Banks.»
After Imani hung up, she turned to Damon with tears streaming down her face. «Mama’s coming home. She beat it. She actually beat it.»
Damon pulled her into another hug, and Imani felt his chest shake with emotion too. They stood like that in his messy bedroom, holding each other, two broken people who’d somehow found healing in each other.
One week later.
The knock on Damon’s door came at 3:00 p.m. on a Tuesday. Damon opened it to find a woman he hadn’t seen since he was eight. His mother.
«Hello, Damon.»
Everything inside Damon went cold. «How did you find me?»
«You’re a billionaire CEO. You’re not exactly hard to find.» His mother, Catherine Castellano, stepped into the penthouse without being invited. «We need to talk.»
Just then, Imani came out of the kitchen, having heard the muffled conversation. Catherine took one look at her and sneered.
«Who is this? Your girlfriend? Your wife?» She asked it with so much spite that Imani took a step back.
«Why do you care?» Damon shot back, noticing Imani’s unease. «You stopped caring about my life several years ago, remember?»
«You don’t deserve happiness, Damon. Not after what you did to this family.»
«Mom, please.» Damon’s voice was strained, his usual confidence completely gone.
«Don’t call me that,» Catherine snapped. «You lost the right to call me that years ago when you ended my husband and daughter.»
Imani’s breath caught. This was Damon’s mother?
«I didn’t murder them. It was an accident.»
«An accident you caused. An accident that destroyed everything.» Damon’s mother stepped closer, her finger jabbing at his chest. «And then you abandoned me, left me in that facility to rot while you went off to live in luxury with your uncle’s money. You didn’t even visit. Not once. You told the doctors you didn’t want to see me.»
«Damon’s voice was rising now, desperate. «You said looking at me made you sick! So you just gave up? Just walked away from your own mother?»
«I was eight years old!»
The words hung in the air like a bomb. Damon’s mother’s face twisted with something between grief and fury.
«And now I hear you’re playing house with some girl? Planning to be happy? Planning to just forget what you did and move on with your life?» She turned and looked directly at Imani. «Is that her? Is that the girl you think can save you? You heartless…»
«Stop!» Imani said firmly, stepping between Damon and his mother. «Just stop.»