He shakes his head again, narrowing his eyes. “Then don’t let him take it away from the rest of the world who needs it.”

“From the rest of the world? Or from you?”

Ryan flinches, and his fingers go stiff where they rest at my temples, but he doesn’t say anything.

“I’m not leaving you. I already told you that. But I think you need to decide if you can be with a different version of me. One who isn’t a best-selling author. One who is messier than maybe you even thought, given everything we talked about yesterday. Because that’s all I have to offer.” I take a deep breath. “This is me, and this is what I need. And I know now that I’m worth more than my job, but instead of supporting this decision, you’re yet again ignoring what this is going to do to me and begging me to make the best of the cards I’m being dealt. For what? For some anonymous audience who might feel something when they read my books? Or for you? Because this stopped being about me the minute they mentioned book clubs and tours and saving their own asses, and you know it.”

“It’s not about me,” he says, but I’m not convinced. “Where is the Scarlett who told Charles where he could shove it earlier today? You’re stronger than this. I know you are.”

“This is strength, Ryan. I need to be strong enough to recognize that no matter what I do, this is going to keep happening. And then, I need to be strong enough to walk away and stay away.”

“No,” he says quietly, disappointment stretching the word and making it linger in the space between us. He rocks back on his heels and drops his hands to my knees. “I don’t believe this is what you truly want.”

I throw my hands up. “Of course this isn’t what I want!” I exclaim. “All I’ve ever wanted is to write my little books and live my life and love you. Things just keep getting bigger and bigger without any input from me. I can’t write myself out of this one.”

Ryan jumps to his feet. “Yes, you can.” He punctuates each word with a point of his finger at me. “I saw you take Charles down about five pegs today. I was going to jump in and help, but you didn’t even need me. You weren’t going to let him have any satisfaction. I saw a fire in you that I haven’t seen in so long. But it’s still there. You still have it. Stoke those flames, Scarlett. Take the life you want. Grab it and make it yours.”