Chapter 15
NATE
Halfway through answering emails I hadn’t actually read, I looked up from my computer when my office door flew open without a knock. Kate walked in carrying her laptop like today was just another workday and we hadn’t both had a live grenade thrown into our lives just twenty-four hours ago.
She hadn’t come back to the office after the big reveal yesterday.
I’d thought about knocking on her door a few more times after I’d gotten back from my run, but in the end, I’d left her to process in whatever way worked best for her.
All I knew was that having me in her space would probably only make things worse.
Before I could say a word to ask if she was okay or even to say hello, she crossed the room, set her laptop and bag on the conference table, and faced me with that sharp, unflinching composure I’d come to admire about her.
“My parents are leaving for New York this morning,” she said curtly. “You should know that I’ve agreed to this scheme, but I have some conditions.”
I leaned back in my chair, working hard to keep my expression carefully neutral even though my heart had just popped like a firework in my chest. There was no tremor in Kate voice and no hesitation about her at all.
Her ponytail was pulled tight, her hair hanging smooth and sleek behind her back and her makeup flawless.
If I hadn’t known any better, I would have thought that she was taking all this completely in her stride, but I’d seen her yesterday. Enough to know that this was a meticulously polished veneer and no more.
For at least a little while, I was going to have to tread lightly with her. This was hard enough for both of us without one of us scratching at scabs in the other that hadn’t even started to heal. I’d do well to remember it.
“I have some conditions too,” I replied, nodding. “Is this where you want to have the conversation or do you want to go somewhere else?”
“We’re already here.” She gave a small shrug. “We might as well.”
I stood and walked around my desk, sitting down across from her at the table as she lowered herself into a seat. From this vantage point, looking at her head on, I could see the faint shadows beneath her eyes that she hadn’t quite managed to conceal.
“I don’t want to live together,” she said bluntly, folding her arms neatly on the table and holding my gaze.
Surprised at how quickly she’d fired the first shot, I just nodded in response and waited for her to continue. Honestly, as much as it surprised me that she’d dived in head first, I wasn’t shocked at the condition itself. It wasn’t uncommon at all in situations like ours.
Hell, Jane and Alex had only moved in together after she’d had a falling out with her mom.
Callum’s wife, Maisie, had refused to move out of her tiny suburban home because it would’ve disrupted their son’s routine too much.
Charlotte had only moved in with Trent because we’d sent her to Texas to get her off Dad’s radar.
“Westwood and Sons will continue renting that apartment for me until the deal is settled and we’re married,” Kate said, drawing me back out of my thoughts. “After that, I’ll decide on next steps, but long term, I’m going back to New York.”
My jaw tightened slightly. “The plan was to transfer Hinds’ financial portfolio here.”
“I don’t agree with that,” she said evenly. “Hinds’ businesses have always been managed from New York. The investment network is established there. Uprooting it weakens the infrastructure.”
“You’re already negotiating?” I said. “I thought we were just discussing conditions on a more personal level.”
“I’m surviving,” she countered, then let out a slow breath and carried on as if I hadn’t interrupted her at all. “We’ll be married on paper, but I don’t expect you to remain loyal.”
I blinked hard, frowning before I could help myself, but Kate didn’t even notice my reaction, talking as if she was reading from a script in her head. “This isn’t a marriage for love, but for business. For shared wealth and securing the relationship between two firms that don’t trust each other.”
An ugly twist in my chest said I definitely wasn’t looking at this the same way, but I let her get it all out first. She gave me an expectant look across the table. “Is the prenup finalized yet?”
“No. Not that I know of.”
She slid a thick stack of papers across the polished wood toward me. “I’ve drafted these additions that I’d like to have included in the final document. They’re safeguards to protect myself and my father’s company.”
I flipped through the pages, and even though I was skimming at best, I spotted several contingency plans so thorough, they could survive a nuclear winter. My eyebrows arched when I looked back up at her. “You didn’t waste any time.”
“I didn’t have time to waste.” Her calmness grated against something feral inside me. This was fucking awful. I hated every last second of it. She drummed a nail against the tabletop and suddenly sighed, managing to make it even worse. “I know you’re seeing someone.”
It was just a fact. We’d talked about this after the game, after all, but hearing her say it so nonchalantly in this context felt like a full-body blow. My eyes narrowed of their own accord. “We both are.”
“Yes, and I don’t care if keep you seeing her. Truly, but I’m going to ask one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“Please be discreet,” she said. “Public sentiment about our firms working together to buy Hinds’ company is already growing. This marriage will send it into a tailspin and any sign of a scandal would only serve to destabilize investor confidence in both firms.”
“I won’t do anything to hurt you, Kate,” I said quietly, but I meant every word. Judging by the way her calm, professional expression faltered, I must’ve sounded as sincere as I felt.
Honestly, it was worse than that. The look on her face absolutely crushed me, but I swallowed hard, forcing the knot in my throat down as I tried to shove my own conflicting feelings to the wayside before they showed.
“Look, I get where you’re coming from with all this,” I said. “How long have you been with your boyfriend?”
She inhaled sharply, almost like I’d pressed on a bruise she’d forgotten was there. “Long enough to know that telling him the truth is going to hurt. A lot.”
Her voice caught on the last word, splintering into something raw and agonized. She blinked rapidly, staring down at the stack of papers like they were the only thing keeping her anchored to the chair.
God, I hate this.
I hated the strain lining her shoulders and the tremor she tried to hide when she exhaled. Hated that this entire situation had carved that look into her face. The instinct to reach across the table and steady her hit me so hard, I had to curl my hand into a fist just to stop myself from doing it.
She was all torn up, but I wasn’t the person she wanted to be comforted by anyway. As odd it was to give my fiancée permission to run into the arms of another man, we both had a lot of shit to work through, and right now, she obviously didn’t need or want me.
I cleared my throat in an attempt to hide the frustration coursing through my veins. “The deal is practically done. There’s nothing you need to do in the office as it stands. If you want to take a few days—”
“I don’t.” She cut me off sharply, then exhaled and reached into her bag, pulling out her laptop and setting it down in front of her with deliberate care. “I have to do something. Anything that isn’t sitting around, thinking about how messed up this is.”
I watched her for another beat before I nodded. “Okay.”
She opened her laptop, the glow of the screen on her face making the exhaustion under her eyes even more visible. Her fingers hovered over the keyboard for a moment before she started typing, the soft staccato of keystrokes filling the office.
Finally standing up, I sank into my desk chair and went back to my own laptop, pretending to review emails that had already been answered hours ago. Every few minutes, against my better judgment, I glanced up at her, and each time, the tension in my chest twisted itself into another, tighter knot.
She worked with a fierce kind of focus, her jaw set and her shoulders rigid, but as much as I wanted to offer some kind of reassurance, I had a feeling that the less she heard from me right now, the better.
Besides, my heart was tugging me in two directions so violently right now, it felt like something inside me might split. The woman sitting ten feet away was about to become my wife, but she was in love with someone else—and so was I.
Someone I couldn’t just forget about overnight after spending the last half decade baring my soul to her and getting to see hers in turn. Hours later, I still hadn’t figured out what to do about it.
I paced the length of my apartment for two hours straight, the city lights bleeding through the windows as dusk surrendered to night. My jacket lay discarded over the back of a chair. My collar was unbuttoned and my sleeves were rolled halfway to my elbows.
All day long, I’d been pondering the same questions. The same consequences. Stuck at the same impossible crossroads.
Kate’s strained voice replayed in my head. The way she’d said telling him the truth would hurt. A lot.
I stopped in the center of the living room, dragging both hands down my face. Emma’s familiar, sharp-witted sense of humor surfaced in my mind next. Everything with her had always been warm and easy, uncomplicated in a way nothing else had ever been for me.
My heart twisted again, torn in those same directions I’d been caught between for the last couple days. Finally, I walked to the kitchen island and stared at my phone for a long moment before I picked it up, typed out a text, and hit send.
It was short and simple, just a time and a place to meet up.
To either put an end to our relationship because I was getting married.
Or just to see her. At least I’d finally get to confirm the suspicion that had been building in the quiet corners of my mind for years—that Emma was my soulmate.
I was ninety-eight percent certain of it, but I had to know for sure.
Because unlike Kate, who had agreed and was moving forward with this plan, I wasn’t ready to decide yet. If I said no, I’d hurt her, but if I said yes, I’d hurt Emma.
The irony twisted bitterly in my throat. Out of all my brothers, I’d always been the quiet one. The careful one. The one least likely to end up splashed across gossip columns or to get tangled up in scandal.
So why the hell is this happening to me?