CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
ELISE
I WALKED INTO Edge Records with a box of cookies and the simple hope that I could pull Nathan away from his desk for a little while.
The glass doors of Edge Records gleamed in the afternoon light, and for a moment, I just stood there, staring up at the building.
The last time I’d set foot inside, Jax had slammed me against an elevator wall and left me shaking, my world tilted and bruised.
My heart skipped now, the ghost of that fear tugging at my chest, but I squared my shoulders and took a step forward.
I pushed through the doors, the hum of conversation and faint echo of music spilling from somewhere upstairs. The familiar scent of polished wood and strong coffee wrapped around me like a hesitant welcome, and before I could get lost in my thoughts, a booming voice broke through.
“Well, well, look who finally decided to bless us with her sunshine.”
The head of security stood near the front desk, arms folded, grinning wide enough to split his face. He was easily one of my favorite people here. He was steady, warm, and entirely unbothered by the chaos of the music industry.
The knot in my chest loosened instantly. “Hi, Carl,” I said, smiling for real this time as I lifted the small bakery box in my hands. “I come bearing gifts.”
His eyes narrowed playfully. “Is that what I think it is?”
“Homemade chocolate chip cookies. Your favorite.” I wiggled the box at him before setting it on the counter.
Carl groaned like I’d just handed him gold. “Elise, you know my wife’s gonna kill me. I swore to her I was laying off sweets.”
I smirked. “Then don’t tell her.”
He gave me a mock-serious look before leaning closer, lowering his voice conspiratorially. “Or… hear me out. You say the word, I’ll leave her and run away with you. Just me, you, and these cookies.”
I laughed, the sound bubbling out of me easier than I expected. “Carl, please. You’d last five minutes without your wife. Ten, tops.”
He snapped his fingers, feigning disappointment. “Dang. You’re right. Guess I’ll just stick with sneaking cookies on the job.”
“Smart choice,” I teased, shaking my head.
“Are you here to see the boss?” Carl asked.
“Yep.”
Carl leaned on his desk, his smile softening. “Well then I won’t keep either of you waiting.”
“Thanks Carl.” I gave a small wave before I headed for the elevators.
The doors slid shut with a soft hiss, and my reflection stared back at me in the polished steel. My pulse picked up, but this time it wasn’t fear, it was anticipation.
The elevator doors slid open and for the first time in weeks, I stepped onto the floor that had once felt more like home than my actual home.
Platinum records displayed like trophies, phones ringing, assistants scurrying with lattes in hand. It was the same whirlwind of energy I remembered, but walking through it now, it felt different.
The last time I’d been here, Jax had cornered me.
The memory still sent an icy ripple down my spine, though I forced myself to stand taller with my chin up.
Jax wasn’t here. I hadn’t received any more phone calls or cryptic messages from my ex, so I assumed Nathan had taken care of it like he promised.
“Elise?”
I turned and instantly broke into a smile. Marissa. We’d worked side by side for years, navigating late-night deadlines and Nathan’s infamous mood swings. She still looked polished as ever, her caramel hair falling over a cream blazer.
“Marissa!” I beamed, giving her a quick hug. “Wow, it’s been forever.”
“I know,” Marissa said, pulling back with a teasing twinkle in her eye. “Word on the floor is you’ve been keeping busy with the boss.”
Her playful tone made my cheeks warm, but it wasn’t embarrassing the way it might’ve once been.“Guess we weren’t as sneaky as we thought.”
Marissa smirked knowingly. “Not even a little bit. Everyone here has been saying for years, ‘when are those two finally going to admit it?’” Marissa smirked. “It’s about damn time.”
I shook my head, but I couldn’t fight the smile that tugged at my lips. “Well, I guess the rumors can finally rest.”
“But I’m happy for you, Elise. Really.”
“Thanks, Marissa.” I squeezed her hand before letting go, the warmth of her easy acceptance softening the last bit of tension in my chest.
With a quick wave, I continued down the hall, my heels clicking against the polished floor until I reached my old desk. It was neatly organized, with a fresh vase of flowers and a framed picture of a family brightening the corner.
I paused, my heart giving a weird little tug. This had been my homebase, my safe place before everything changed. Now, it belonged to someone else.
I smoothed my expression into a smile and cleared my throat gently. “Hey, Harper.”
“Elise!” Harper’s face lit up when she spotted me. She pushed back her chair and stood, smoothing down the fitted blazer she’d paired with jeans and heels, the perfect mix of corporate edge and LA cool.
“How are you?”
“Good. Good. You left some big shoes to fill though.” Harper admitted.
“You’re doing better than you think,” I said warmly. I had vouched for Harper when it came down to the final two candidates, and I was glad Nathan had listened. “Nathan tells me you’ve been killing it.”
Harper grinned, lowering her voice conspiratorially. “Well, I try. But he’s… Mr. Edge. You never really know if you’re impressing him or just mildly tolerated.”
I smirked, leaning a little closer. “Trust me, if he kept you, you’re doing more than impressing him. He doesn’t do ‘tolerated.’”
“Noted.” Harper chuckled, tilting her head toward Nathan’s office doors at the far end of the hall. “And between us, he’s been moodier than usual today. The kind of mood where people take the long way around to avoid him.”
I bit back a laugh, her lips curving with mischief. “Good to know. I’ll see if I can do something about that.”
“Oh, I don’t doubt it.” Harper winked, sliding back into her chair. “He’s in a meeting but you’re more than welcome to wait in his office.” Harper told me. “Go save the rest of us, please.”
I thanked her and slipped into Nathan’s office, shutting the door softly behind me.
It smelled faintly of leather and cedar, familiar in the way only his space could feel.
I leaned against the desk, smiling to myself as I remembered the late dinner we shared after I announced that I was quitting, the awkward silence, the way he’d tried to maintain that stoic exterior, and the tiny crack that first revealed him to be human. Look how far we’d come.
The door opened and Nathan stepped in. His usual composed expression softened immediately when he saw me, a flicker of delight in his eyes.
“Cupcake,” he said, and it was more than a greeting. It was relief, surprise, and something softer, almost vulnerable all in one.
“Hi handsome,” I stood up from his chair and erased the distance between us.
“What are you doing here?” Nathan wrapped his arms around my waist the second I was close enough.
“The dance class I was supposed to teach today got cancelled, so I figured I’d stop by and see if you wanted lunch...maybe even dessert?” I teased, wrapping my arms around his neck.
“Your timing is perfect, cupcake.” Nathan brushed his lips against mine. “Give me a minute. I left my phone in the conference room but when I return, I definitely want dessert.”
“I mean actual dessert, Nathan.” I said when I saw the way he was looking at me. “A new Bakery Bliss opened closer to the office.”
“Oh, I was talking about my dessert, baby,” he murmured, his voice low and teasing. I felt heat rush to my cheeks, a mix of embarrassment and excitement. I opened my mouth to respond but Nathan was already planting a kiss on my forehead and heading out of his office.
Alone once again, I headed back for his larger than life chair behind his desk and pulled out my phone to look at my upcoming schedule for what felt like the billionth time.
Tour prep for Titan’s North America tour began in a few days and I still couldn’t believe I was one of the lucky dancers who received the career changing opportunity.
I scrolled through my phone until the notification that my battery percentage was low. I opened a drawer, hunting for the spare charger I knew Nathan kept tucked away somewhere in here.
Instead of the charger, I found a thin envelope, neatly folded, the handwriting on the front instantly familiar.
My stomach lurched. Nathan’s father’s bold, meticulous script stared up at me.
I picked it up, flipping it over, and a flood of memories hit me.
Days spent as an intern under his exacting eye, the lessons he imparted with his signature mix of charm and authority.
I frowned. Nathan’s relationship with his father was strained even before Xavier’s death, which was why I was more than a little shocked that Nathad had kept ahold of anything from his father.
Curiosity nudged me forward. I opened the letter and froze. My name was there, written clearly and purposefully.
My hands trembled as I unfolded the thin paper some more.
The familiar scent of his father’s stationery hit me like a punch.
I skimmed the first few lines, thinking it was some corporate memo, some leftover piece of bureaucracy Nathan had tucked away.
But then my eyes locked on my name again, scrawled with deliberate precision, and everything stopped.
The words blurred for a moment as my mind tried to catch up.
Nathan was supposed to—no, had to marry me.
Before his thirtieth birthday. The stipulation wasn’t some vague suggestion or casual encouragement.
It was a mandate, a condition tied directly to Nathan’s inheritance.
The amount of money, the control over the company, the entire legacy he’d built his life around was gone if he didn’t comply and succeed.
And then it hit me. Every calculated move, every smile, every touch that had made my chest flutter, suddenly rewound in my mind like a cruel film reel.
The dinner he’d orchestrated, the “accidental” run ins after work, it had all been for this.
Not because of me, not because he’d fallen for me. But because he had to.
My throat tightened. I could feel the burn of betrayal settle into my chest, sharp and unrelenting.
Everything we shared—the laughter, the teasing, the intimacy, it had been built on a lie.
Nathan had wanted my yes, not because he loved me, but because he needed it.
And now I held the proof in my hands, the paper heavy with his father’s intentions and the crushing reality of Nathan’s duplicity.
I wanted to scream. To throw the letter across the office and storm out. But I couldn’t. Not yet. My heart ached with a strange, buoyant clarity. I could see every detail, every memory, and I understood how thoroughly I’d been caught in a carefully constructed web.
And just as the first tear slipped down my cheek, the door clicked open and Nathan stepped inside.
He froze mid-step, eyes landing on the letter in my hands. The look on his face was equal parts panic and disbelief, and it hit me harder than the words on the page. My chest heaved, my pulse hammering as the full weight of the betrayal pressed against me.
“Baby...” His voice was low, cautious, and tentative, as if the wrong word would shatter everything.
I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. The paper felt like a physical barrier between us. The betrayal, the love, the possibility of everything I thought we had? It all collided at that moment.
Nathan took a careful step closer, reaching for the letter. “Please. I can explain.”
I raised a hand, holding it up between us like a shield.
“Explain? Nathan, this...” My voice broke just a little, the anger and hurt mingling into something sharp and raw.
“This says it all. You weren’t with me because you wanted me.
You were with me because you had to be. Because of some damn stipulation your father wrote. ”
Nathan’s jaw tightened. His eyes flicked away, down at the envelope, guilt and panic etched into every line of his face. “Cupcake, that’s not…it’s not how it was.”
“Not how it was?” I echoed, laughter bitter and hollow. “Every touch, every kiss, every night you made me feel like the only person in the world? All of it was a game. And I was just a piece on your father’s board. Is that what I am, Nathan? Just a piece to gain your inheritance?”
His hands rose unsure, almost pleading. “No. I swear, I love you. You weren’t supposed to find out this way.”
“This way? Don’t you mean at all?” I laughed bitterly as I strode to the door to leave, needing to put as much distance between Nathan and I as possible.
“I can explain.” Nathan’s voice dropped to a whisper, raw and ragged.
“Explain what?” I finally let the words rip from my chest, my voice louder than I intended, sharp with pain and fury as I stopped just outside Nathan's office. Harper's eyes flew to the both of us. “Explain how every smile, every touch, every ‘coincidence’ was a fucking lie?!”
Heads were turning; people stopped typing, stopped talking, frozen like deer in headlights.
“Baby,” Nathan started to stay but I cut him off.
“Just stop!” I yelled. “I feel so stupid. I thought we were real.”
“We are real, cup—Elise.” He quickly corrected himself. “We are real.”
“How could you possibly say that? The only reason you started noticing me as more than your assistant is because of a stipulation. If it wasn’t for that, I would’ve quit and we both would’ve gone on living our lives.”
“That’s not true.” Nathan argued. “What I was doing before wasn’t living. I didn’t start living life until you became a part of it. And I’ve always noticed you. I may not have acted on it or said anything in the past, but from the very first time I saw you I hadn’t been able to look away.”
“That was beautiful Mr. Edge.” I called over my shoulder as I pushed towards the elevator. “Too bad the days of me believing anything that comes out of your mouth are over.”
“Don’t call me Mr. Edge.” He pleaded. “It’s Nathan. It’s me. The same man whose arms you fell asleep in last night. The same man you fell in love with. So don’t call me Mr. Edge like I’m just your boss because we’re way past that, baby.”
“You’re right about one thing, you’re not my boss anymore. You’re not anything to me anymore.” I paused just after I finished pressing the button that would take me down to the lobby. “Oh, but congratulations. You hurt me in a way I didn’t think was possible.”
A bullet to the chest would’ve hurt less than my words but I don’t take them back, needing him to hurt with the same ferocity that I was hurting. Nathan didn’t say anything nor did he move, and I took the opportunity to step onto the elevator, taking my bleeding heart with me.