Belles POV
The call from Jasper came just after noon. I had been in my office at the Whitmore building, pretending to sort through a stack of contracts, though I hadn't truly read a single page. My mind kept drifting back to the lawsuit.
When his name flashed across my phone, I answered in a heartbeat. "Jasper?"
His voice came through tight, clipped. "Belle, I just wanted to check in. I won't be back until late. We're knee-deep in meetings."
There was something in the way he said it that made my stomach twist. He wasn't just busy he was barricading himself, drawing a line between his world and mine.
"Are you eating?" I asked, softer than I intended.
A pause, then a sigh. "I'll grab something when I can."
I wanted to press him, to tell him he couldn't run on fumes while fighting something this big, but I heard the steel in his voice, the way he was holding himself together by sheer force. Instead, I said, "Just… remember I'm here. You don't have to carry all of this alone."
