Chapter 16 #2
She gives me a brief smile. “It’s so annoying that you always know the right thing to say.”
I lift her chin. “You’re the only one who says that. But then, you’re the only one that matters.”
Pressing my lips to her knuckles, I murmur, “Move in with me. I’ll behave myself.”
“I doubt that,” she says slowly. “I don’t exactly trust you.”
I give her a wicked smile. “I promise not to let you take advantage of me.”
She smacks me in the chest, and I laugh, pulling her closer and kissing her forehead. “We’re having a child, Natalie. I want you close to me. Independence is fine and good, but I also want to take care of my child and the mother of my child.”
“I won’t marry you,” she suddenly says bluntly. “I don’t know if you were gearing up to ask that, but I’m letting you know up front, I’m not going to get married because I’m pregnant.”
I study her, changing strategies. “Well. That’s good to know. Because I wouldn’t want to marry you just because you’re pregnant. I’m not that traditional.”
“Good,” she says decisively.
I squeeze her jaw lightly. “Don’t sound too pleased about it. You’ll hurt my feelings. ”
Amused, she bats my hand away. “Stop it.”
The laughter in her eyes makes hope rise within me.
“There is something you should know.” I reach into my jacket’s inner pocket and retrieve an envelope. “This is for you. I was having it made these past few weeks, which is another reason why I didn’t get in touch with you.”
As soon as she sees the envelope, a guarded expression forms on her face. “What is it?”
“Open it,” I advise.
She breaks the seal, bringing out two pieces of paper.
Her eyes skim over the content, and I see the blood drain from her face.
“What is this?” She waves the paper in my face, her eyes fierce.
“What the hell is this? I don’t want anything from you!
Why have you transferred all these properties to my name? ”
She gets to her feet, throwing the papers on the bench, and backing away from me. “What are you trying to pull here, Ethan?”
I expected some sort of reaction. Not an explosive one, but a confused one, at least.
“You told me you didn’t understand why I was interested in you or why I was pursuing you, that you didn’t trust my intentions.
” I pick up the papers and set them aside, watching her steadily.
“I’m not the most emotionally expressive man there is.
I don’t know how to tell you how I feel or how to convince you. But I could do this. A deal.”
“A deal?” she echoes, her expression flickering. “What deal?”
Even though she’s pregnant, I know her. I know her enough to be aware that a child would not change anything between us.
Even when I told her the truth about her brother and explained my own reasoning for what I did, it doesn’t change the fact that I used her and broke her heart.
And for some things, forgiveness is hard to earn.
I tell her as much. “You don’t want my money. You don’t want to live with me. And I have a feeling that if you could, you would have left without telling me about the child. Am I wrong?”
She flinches, and I try not to let her reaction get to me. “I don’t blame you. A year. I’m asking for a year for us to be together. I’m putting all these properties down as collateral.”
“Collateral,” she breathes, and I see the outrage in her eyes. “I’m not some business deal?—”
“No, you’re more than that. I want everything with you, Natalie.
I want the twenty children you wanted. I want the home you envisioned.
I want it all with you, and this is the only way I know how to get it.
Be with me for a year. And if I’m still unable to convince you of my feelings, you can keep all of this and walk away from me.
It’s all in the contract, and you can meet my lawyers?—”
She swallows. “I don’t need that. I don’t need these properties. Don’t insult me like that.”
“Making deals is what I’m good at,” I tell her quietly. “If you don’t want it after a year, I’ll transfer these to our child’s name. I’m asking for a chance. I messed up, and I want to fix it.”
She makes a strangled sound. “I’m already having your child. We’re already tied together. What more do you want?”
“I want a second chance with you.”
I get to my feet and approach her, lifting my hand and grazing her cheek with my thumb. Her breath catches.
“I’m sorry for what I did to you. I apologize for treating your heart so carelessly before. The realization came far too late, and I can’t undo the past, Natalie. But I want the opportunity to try again.”
Her eyes waver, and I press on. “I have looked for you in every woman I crossed paths with. None of them were you. None of them smiled like you. None of them looked at me the way you did. No other woman could hold a candle to you. I understand there are some things that are difficult to forgive, and what I did was one of them. ”
Natalie sucks in a breath, and for a moment, I think I see a shimmer of tears in her eyes. But she blinks and they’re gone.
“These are some of my highest earning properties. My blood and sweat have gone into these places. The shares I have allotted you will make you a very wealthy woman. Three quarters of my wealth. Billions of dollars. My life’s work.
I’m placing it all at your feet. In exchange for a chance.
One year, that’s all I’m asking for. And if you decide you don’t want me, I’ll accept your decision. ”
I see her eyes flick towards the papers on the bench, and then she looks back at me. “Why? Why are you gambling everything over me? I’m not worth it?—”
“You’re worth far more to me.”
The indecisiveness in her eyes kills me.
“You hurt me.”
Her voice is uneven. “You are the first man I gave my heart to, and you treated me so callously. My family always told me I was not deserving of anything good. You enforced that belief. I spent five years throwing myself into my work, trying to shine in the only place I possibly could. I deserved better.”
“Yes, you did,” I agree. “I was a bastard to you. I shouldn’t have hurt you like that.”
“You’re also pretty silly, carrying around some old scrunchie like an idiot.”
She looks down at the scrunchie I’ve still not let go of.
“An idiot,” she repeats, but her voice is wet.
“Maybe.”
Her lips tremble. “I’m still angry with you. But I don’t hate you.”
She’s clearly not done, so I wait, a strange tension building up within me.
After a few seconds, she whispers, “I can’t believe you kept this all these years. ”
She seems to care more about the scrunchie than the properties I’ve handed over to her.
“Natalie.” I get her attention. “If you agree with the deal, my lawyers have written up a contract you would have to sign.”
She blinks at me in rapid succession. “A contract? And what if I decide to leave before the year is up?”
“You walk away without anything,” I say slowly.
“Now that’s more like you.” She seems almost relieved for some reason. Picking up the papers, she looks at them once again, then presses them against my chest. “Fine. But I have my own conditions.”
Hope soars within me, although I don’t show it. I keep my voice even. “Which are?”
“Whatever happens between us, if we part ways, it will be civil. I want both of us to be in our child’s life.
We will share custody. Nobody will have sole custody, even if that means we have to live close by.
I don’t want our child to think they come from a broken home.
There will be no parental alienation, no matter what our problems might be.
And if things don’t work out between us, you will transfer the property to our child’s name and put it in a trust so once he or she grows up, he has a nice cushion to fall back on. ”
I give her a long, curious look. “In all of this, you’re not benefiting from anything. What do you get?”
Natalie reaches out and plucks the purple scrunchie from my hand, dangling it in front of me with a small smile. “I do. I’m going to get my scrunchie back.”
It’s not like Jake is the only lawyer I know. In Natalie’s matter, I know my brother would have had reservations about this contract. He normally doesn’t meddle in my affairs, but I would not put it past him to get involved and try to dissuade me or Natalie.
Although the terms Natalie has put forward are not in her favor, he would still be suspicious. She wants nothing to do with the money or the properties. She simply seems intent on our child’s happiness and future. I can’t put a pin on how she’s feeling or what’s going on in her head.
It doesn’t take long to get the contract signed.
“I thought Vanessa was doing a good job.” Natalie pries as I drive her to her apartment. “Honestly, Ethan. It might be better for us if I got another job. Things can get very messy at work given this new arrangement.”
“You can say dating.” I feel amused at how she’s dancing around the word. “And no, even if she’s doing a good job, I can’t trust her the way I trust you. Her work isn’t as refined as yours. I can’t work with her.”
My last statement is blunt, but I realize that it’s true.
I’ve worked with several HR heads over the past few years, but Natalie is simply unique.
It’s the way she organizes all the employees, their data.
She knows everybody. Even without having a document in front of her, she can recite their achievements and their flaws off the back of her hand.
She is Human Resources. It’s very rare for a company to have a department head so involved.
And right now, Thalvyn Maritime needs her.
“I told everyone you were on vacation.” I shrug. “That was the general memo around the office, so you have nothing to worry about.”
“I’m more worried about them seeing my stomach expand.” Natalie’s voice is tense. “They’re going to be able to put two and two together.”
“There’s nothing against employee relationships in the company policies,” I point out.
She shoots me a scathing look. “You’re not an employee, Ethan. You’re the boss. I’m basically sleeping with the boss. ”
I smirk. “So, at least we’ve clarified that. We will be sleeping together.”
“You’re so lucky you’re driving.” She narrows her eyes at me. “Or I’d show you exactly where you could sleep.”
I glance at her. She’s taking everything surprisingly well. I had been so sure she would resist my offer, fight me on it. I thought it would take me days to talk her into accepting my deal.
A fake relationship?
Is that what this is?
A secret relationship?
Or a contractual one?
I don’t know. The terms of the contract were simple, but I made a few amendments as well.
She would stay in my apartment. We would share a bed, but that was it.
Nothing sexual was mentioned in the contract.
I know because she poured over it three times to check.
A little insulting, in my opinion, but at least she signed it.
As we get closer to her apartment, Natalie begins fidgeting with her hands.
“It’s going to be fine. I don’t think Lucas is going to jump out at you from behind a car.”
She stares ahead, and I notice her fingers digging into her jeans, a sure sign of tension.
As the car slows down at a traffic stop, she murmurs, “You don’t know what he was like.
He always put up this front that I was his beloved little sister.
Having a younger sister made him seem approachable.
When his friends would come around, he would always have me bring up snacks and drinks.
He would act like we were close. But he could barely stand me.
And that night, I was just—I really needed someone.
I knew my mother wouldn’t understand, but Lucas? I thought Lucas would understand.”
My fingers flex around the steering wheel, my grip tightening. “We used to be close, Natalie. I didn’t know he had that side to him. I trusted him. If I had known for even a moment that because of me, he could do something so terrible to you?—”
She shakes her head. “It’s not your fault. It’s mine. I should never have called him.”
A heavy silence follows her words and then she continues, her voice low.
“When he was hitting me, at some point, I just stopped feeling anything. All I could taste was the blood in my mouth. I sometimes have nightmares. I saw a therapist for a while, a trauma counselor. I was beginning to suppress the memory, and she helped me do so. She said it wasn’t a healthy way of coping, but I couldn’t function in my daily routine.
But it still comes back to me in nightmares. ”
I remove one hand from the steering wheel and put it on her thigh.
She looks at me, and I give her a sharp smile.
“He won’t touch you. You’re no longer that young girl who was dependent on him or your mother.
He doesn’t know who you are now. And if he thinks he can get to you, I’m standing in his way. Nothing will happen to you.”
She doesn’t say anything, but I catch her touching her flat stomach, her lips pursed.
I keep my gaze ahead. There’s a chance she said yes to staying with me and to this contract because she’s worried about Lucas doing something to her and, as a result, to our child.
I don’t think he’ll be stupid enough to try. Not when he has far too much to lose this time around.
And I don’t care about Natalie’s reasoning. It’s going to be a slow, steady climb to win her over, but I am a patient man, and a year is a long time.
As I pull up in front of Natalie's building in the heart of the city, the cool September evening settling over the streets, I begin to strategize. Lucas may have strongarmed her into dropping the charges but that was before I was in the picture .
By the time I’m done with Lucas Thorne, sitting in jail will be the least of his worries.