Chapter 3 - The Ghost at the Window
For five years, I had rehearsed this exact moment in my head.
In my fantasies, I threw my coffee in his face. I screamed at him until my lungs bled. I told him he was a coward, a monster, a weak boy hiding behind his mother's skirt.
But standing there in the cold, marble hallway of the Mecklenburg County Government Center, looking into the eyes of the man who had abandoned me at the altar, none of those speeches came out.
Instead, a cold, icy wall dropped inside my chest.
"Mr. Prescott," I said, my voice entirely flat, devoid of any emotion whatsoever.
Nathan flinched as if I had struck him with an iron bar. He took another step forward, his large hands reaching out slightly before dropping back to his sides. Up close, I could see the lines etched around his mouth, the faint dark shadows under his eyes that no tailor or expensive haircut could hide.
"Please don't call me that," he said softly, his gray eyes frantically searching my face. "Claire... I didn't know you were going to be here today. I didn't know about the Davidson project."
"Of course you didn't," I replied, stepping back until my shoulders touched the cool glass of the elevator shaft. "Your mother handles the dirty work. You just sign the checks."
Nathan's jaw tightened, a dark muscle pulsing along his cheekbone. "It's not like that."
"Isn't it?" I let out a short, humorless laugh. "Five years ago, she told you to jump, and you didn't even ask how high—you just left me standing in front of two white chapel doors while one hundred and eighty people watched me break in half."
Nathan closed his eyes for a brief second. When he opened them, the raw pain in them was so vivid it almost made me step backward.
"I spent five years believing you hated me," he whispered. "I spent five years going to that chapel every November 14th, sitting in my car outside, wishing I had been strong enough to walk through those doors."
"Then why didn't you?" I demanded, my voice finally cutting through the quiet hallway like a razor blade. "Why didn't you walk through those doors, Nathan? You were half a mile away! You sat in your black SUV in your charcoal suit and you watched me leave!"
Nathan swallowed hard, taking a swift step closer, dropping his voice into a low, urgent murmur so the passing security guards couldn't hear.
"Because she didn't just threaten to strip my position, Claire!" he hissed, his gray eyes blazing with a dark, desperate fire. "You think I gave a damn about the money? You think I cared about the Prescott title? That morning... two hours before the ceremony... she showed me a file."
I frowned, my satchel slipping slightly against my shoulder. "What file?"
"A file on your father," Nathan said, his breathing shallow. "She had three dirty federal prosecutors ready to indict your dad on false corruption charges from his thirty years as a school custodian. She had men ready to seize your parents' house, freeze your mother's pension, and ruin your family before sunset. She told me if I married you, she wouldn't just take my empire—she would destroy everyone you loved."
The air left my lungs in a sharp, painful gasp.
I stared at him.
"You... you never told me," I whispered.
"How could I?" Nathan stepped closer, so close I could smell the familiar, painful scent of cedarwood and dark tobacco that had lingered on his pillows six years ago. "If I told you, you would have fought her. You would have let her ruin your family just to prove a point because you're brave and stubborn and good. I couldn't let her destroy your father, Claire. He worked his whole life for that tiny house. I couldn't let my toxic family crush you."
He reached out, his long fingers trembling as he hovered them an inch above my arm, not daring to make contact.
"So I made a deal with the devil," Nathan whispered, his voice thick with five years of unshed tears. "I gave up the only woman I ever loved so she would leave your family alone. I spent five years tearing her control apart piece by piece. I broke her banking alliances. I bought out her shares. I took total control of the Prescott syndicate three months ago so she could never hurt anyone again."
He looked at me, his storm-gray eyes begging for something I couldn't give him.
"I did it for you, Claire."
The world seemed to spin on its axis.
For five years, I had built my hatred on a foundation of pure rejection. I had believed he was a weak coward who chose wealth over love. But standing here now, hearing the terrifying truth of Victoria's cruelty, the ground beneath my feet felt completely unstable.
He hadn't abandoned me because he didn't love me.
He had abandoned me to protect my parents.
PING.
The glass elevator doors behind me slid open with a soft, mechanical chime.
I stepped backward into the elevator car, my hand gripping the chrome handrail. Nathan stepped forward, reaching out to block the closing doors with his hand.
"Claire, please," he begged, his voice raw. "Talk to me. Let me make this right. Let me fix the Davidson project. Let me—"
"No, Nathan," I whispered, tears finally welling up in my eyes as I looked at him.
"Why?"
"Because it's too late," I said softly as the automatic doors began to glide shut between us. "Five years is too long. The world didn't stop turning when you walked away."
"Claire!" he yelled, thrusting his arm between the sensor beams.
The doors snapped open again.
Nathan stood in the doorway, his chest heaving, refusing to let me go. "Give me one chance. One dinner. Just let me talk to you properly."
I looked at his gray eyes—the exact gray eyes that had looked up at me this morning from four small faces eating oatmeal at my kitchen table.
If I let him back into my life, he would eventually see them. He would find out about Ethan, Caleb, Julian, and Mason. And if Victoria found out... if she realized four male Prescott heirs existed in a rented cottage in Davidson...
The horror of that possibility snapped my spine straight.
"If you ever cared about me, Nathan," I said, my tone turning into absolute, unyielding ice, "you will leave me alone. Do not call me. Do not come to Davidson. Do not look for me."
May you like
I reached out and hit the DOOR CLOSE button override.
Nathan stood froze on the polished marble floor as the heavy glass doors sealed shut. The last thing I saw before the elevator plunged downward was his face—twisted in pure, unadulterated heartbreak as he watched me disappear into the shadows of the building.
