Chapter 2
CHAPTER 2
NATE
N ate narrowed his eyes at the scathing company-wide email his brother had sent, his mind flashing back to his past mistakes and the guilt he still carried from them.
It took all in him not to roll his eyes at the implications that Stephen made regarding his commitment to the business.
Rumors had already begun to swirl within the GenoTech offices that Nate would no longer be serving as a vice-president after his trip to Eldoria.
The engagement hadn’t been formally announced yet, but everyone whispered behind closed doors about it.
What he hadn’t needed, though, was Stephen more or less making the announcement in an email entitled Changes Coming to GenoTech.
His fingers curled into fists, and he smashed one against his desk. Nothing had been decided yet about how this was going to work. He’d planned to stay a part of the company–unless he was being pushed out by his angry brother.
Nate chewed his lower lip, his nose wrinkling as he read through the words one more time. A knock at his door pulled him from his thoughts.
His father, Charles, stuck his head into his office. “Hey, Nate, got a minute?”
“Are you here to discuss the changes coming and my impending departure from GenoTech?”
His father flicked his eyebrows up as he stepped inside the office and shuffled to a chair. “That email went out without anybody’s approval but Stephen’s.”
“Well, maybe someone should monitor his email account because this is crap.” Nate waved a frustrated hand at the screen with a heavy sigh.
“I realize you’re frustrated, but–“
“Frustrated doesn’t capture it. This was completely uncalled for. He did it on purpose. He’s still mad at me about Chloe. I didn’t do it. She did.”
“Stephen’s hurting, that’s true. And I can’t help but think this is…payback.”
“For that financial investigation, yeah, I get it. He’s finally turned the tables on me. And all over that witch, Chloe. I’m so glad she’s out of our lives.”
“Well, not yet,” Charles answered with a sigh. “She’s contesting the divorce.”
“She’s what? That’s crazy.”
“Do you still have that recording of Prince Julian admitting to their affair?”
“I do,” Nate answered as he grabbed for his phone, finding a message from Elena. He scrolled past it in search of the message thread with Charles.
“Send it to me. The lawyers want to use it to pressure her. Unfortunately, though, Stephen didn’t have a prenup, so there’s no cheating clause we can use to ensure she gets nothing.”
Nate winced. “Oh, please tell me you aren’t going to pay her off. She doesn’t deserve a nickel from this family.”
“What she deserves and what she’s going to get are two different things, Nate. We can either keep going round for round with her or pay her off and get her out of our lives for good.”
Nate heaved a sigh as he shook his head. “What does Stephen say?”
“Pay her off. He wants no parts of her.”
“I can’t blame him for that,” Nate answered ruefully. “Just…don’t make her rich off his stupid mistake.”
Charles wiggled his eyebrows before he slouched a little in his chair. “Speaking of mistakes…”
Nate shot his father a questioning glance. “Please don’t tell me you’re here because you think I’m making one.”
“No, I don’t think you are. Ellie’s a lovely woman. But…”
“But what?”
“I still think a prenup is wise.”
Nate guffawed. “To protect me or her? She’s going to be queen of a country, Dad. This is hardly a shakedown.”
“I didn’t say it was. But in the event that you split…I think it’s wise for you both to have your assets protected. I’m certain she’ll feel the same way. In fact, I can’t believe she hasn’t mentioned this to you already. She stands to lose if you two divorce, too.”
Nate shifted in his seat, annoyed with the conversation. “Okay, fine, I’ll mention it to her. But…I don’t like the idea.”
“No one does, son, but it’s important to protect yourself.”
“It’s like assuming our marriage is going to fail.”
“No, it isn’t. Don’t think of it that way. But…you never know what could happen. Someone’s eyes get turned, someone changes their mind. ”
“Marriage is forever. We should work through our problems.”
“Nate, that’s easy to say, and quite a different thing to do…especially if you go through something…”
Nate puckered his lips, his nose wrinkling. “Go ahead and say it. Especially if Ellie cheats. That’s what you were going to say, wasn’t it?”
“No one is accusing her of anything. And I doubt this will ever come into play. I certainly hope it doesn’t, but things happen. People stray.”
“You and Mom are fine.”
“Your mother and I are from a different generation. You kids these days run away from the first little problem. Case in point, you almost weren’t engaged to Ellie. If your mother and I hadn’t rigged that plane–“
“Wait, what?” Nate asked, his jaw falling open.
Charles pressed his lips together. “There was nothing wrong with the plane. Your mom just…thought you could use a minute to cool off and think things through. And she knew if you got on that plane, it’d take you far longer to realize you were being…well, never mind.”
“I can’t believe this. I can’t believe you manipulated me like that.”
“It worked, didn’t it? You’re happy, aren’t you?”
Nate slouched in his seat, bobbling his head. “Yes, I am. I was being an idiot, but…that’s beside the point.”
“Well, there you are. What if you’re an idiot again? Or she is? She nearly married someone else.”
“That was my fault.”
“What if you have another lapse in judgment that leads her to make a mistake?”
Nate massaged his temples. “Maybe you and Mom shouldn’t have messed around and lied to me, because clearly you think this isn’t going to work out. ”
Charles let his head loll to the side. “Now, Nate, no one is saying that. But every marriage goes through rough patches. And if it gets too rough to bear, you want to be prepared. You want to make things clean.”
“I said I’d talk to her about it. But…I don’t want to insult her or her family.”
His father raised his hands in the air. “You bring it up however you’d like. Just make sure you bring it up. We don’t want another Chloe situation.”
“Blame Stephen for that. At least I wasn’t stupid enough to marry her after what she did.”
“Try to give your brother a little leeway. He’s hurting.” Charles rose from his seat and buttoned his jacket.
“Oh, boo-hoo for Stephen. Maybe he should grow up like he told me to.”
Charles offered him a warning glance. “You are the big brother. Try to be nice.”
Nate shook his head as his father strode from the room. “Yeah, yeah, put it all on me as the big brother.”
He sat staring at his blank monitor for another few minutes before he grabbed his phone and answered the text from Elena, allowing the warmth of their relationship to wash over him again.
With a heavy sigh, he pushed himself to stand and leave his desk behind. He strode through the office, smiling and nodding at the few people who said hello. Many of them raised their eyebrows at him as he passed. Word had really gotten around about his recent royal adventures.
He cleared his throat as he slipped into the hall leading to the corner office opposite his. With a wave at the secretary outside the office he sought, he bypassed her wide-eyed stare.
His knuckles rapped against the wooden door as he stuck his head in .
Stephen glanced up from his monitor, his shoulders rolling back. “What do you want?”
“To talk,” Nate answered.
Stephen huffed out a breath. “I assume you’re going to complain about the email I sent, but it’s inevitable, and people don’t like change sprung on them.”
“Yeah, I know,” Nate answered, reading more into the comment than just what was on the surface, “but I’m not stepping down just yet. I just…wish you would have run it past me first.”
“I’ll bet. I would have appreciated your running the financial investigation past me first, too, but here we are.”
Nate pushed further into the office and closed the door behind him. “Stephen…I know we’ve had a rough couple of years…”
“You got that right. And you just keep beating me over the head.”
Nate furrowed his brow as he stopped just shy of the chair across from Stephen’s heavy wooden desk. “I’m not doing anything to you, Stephen.”
“Oh, really? You probably skipped down to Mom and Dad’s room in the palace to tell them Chloe was cheating. I wouldn’t be surprised if you and Ellie didn’t cook this all up and ask Julian to go after her.”
Nate perched on the edge of the chair, his features wrinkling. “Oh, come on, Stephen. That’s ridiculous. I would never do that to you.”
“Yeah, right. You hated that I married her. You couldn’t stand to see us happy.”
“That’s not true,” Nate shot back. “We have a complicated history, and I didn’t think Chloe was going to be true to you either, but I didn’t want this to happen to you. Heck, I thought she’d last at least a few months before she made me right. ”
“You bastard!” Stephen leapt from his seat, his hands curled into fists.
Nate rose, too, his hands in front of him. “Whoa, Stephen, calm down. I’m not here to fight.”
“No, you’re just here to rub it in. To tell me how terrible Chloe is and what a screw up I am.”
Nate snorted a laugh. “Stephen, no one is more of a screw up than I am. Come on, man, I asked Chloe to marry me when she was clearly not the woman for me, and after I found you two together, I drown myself in a bottle. You’ve yet to hit that level of screwed up.”
“Oh, but everything worked out for wonderful Nate, didn’t it? You screw up, and then you stumble on a princess. And like a moron, you walk away from her, and then she takes you back.”
“Yeah, I messed up, okay? But every time I did, I got back up and tried again. I didn’t just wallow in it.”
“Nah, you wallowed at the bottom of a bottle.”
“For a while, yes. But I’m trying to stop you from making the same mistakes I did.”
“Oh, well, thanks, Nate. I really appreciate you helping me out.” The sarcasm in his sharp voice was obvious.
Nate shook his head. “All right, maybe this was a mistake.”
“Oh, you have no idea how much of a mistake it is. Go back to Eldoria and plan your royal wedding. Dad and I can handle GenoTech.”
“Hey, I told you I’m not quitting, Stephen.”
“And I told you you’re not welcome here anymore, Nate. I’m going to make sure of that.”
Nate held back rolling his eyes as he set his hands on his hips. “Okay, fine. If you need to come at me to make yourself feel better, that’s fine. You can do that. I probably have it coming after what I did to you. ”
“Gee, thanks, bro. I’m glad you’ve given me permission to dismantle your life.”
“I haven’t. I’m just saying I understand where you’re coming from. Look, instead of tearing each other apart, maybe we could…I don’t know…go to lunch and discuss strategies for making sure this company runs smoothly once I’m splitting my time between here and Eldoria.”
Stephen glanced down at his desk before he snapped his fingers. “Aw, darn, I’m all booked up planning ways to destroy your life. Though I may have a break, because you’re pretty good ruining your own life. I may be able to just sit back and watch you implode under the pressures of royal life.”
Nate shifted his weight as the words sliced through him. His role in the royal court was something he felt unprepared for, and Stephen was using that to his advantage. “This was a mistake.”
“No kidding,” Stephen snapped.
“Think about what I said. I’d really like to be brothers again. In fact, I actually came here to ask you to be my best man at the wedding.”
Stephen huffed out an amused chuckle. “You’ve got to be joking.”
“I’m not.” Nate pressed his lips together as he stared at his brother. “Stephen, I really want to be brothers again. I don’t want this between us. I want to go back to the way things were.”
“Well, it’s too late for that. Way too late, Nate. Find someone else to be your best man. I don’t want any parts of your wedding.”
Nate let his gaze fall to the floor. “If you change your mind, let me know. I’d like you to stand beside me at my wedding.”
He flicked his brother one last glance, hoping he could read the emotion in his eyes. With a nod, he stepped back toward the door.
“Hey, Nate,” Stephen called as Nate pulled the door open and stepped into the hall.
“Yeah?” Nate asked, hoping for a change of heart on Stephen’s part.
“Don’t count your royal blessings just yet,” Stephen said with a tone that sent a shiver down Nate’s spine. “I’m going to do everything I can to make sure that wedding never happens.”
Nate’s jaw dropped as he stared at his brother. Anger contorted Stephen’s face, concealing the hurt he harbored from Chloe’s betrayal. A hurt Nate knew all too well. It had almost destroyed his life once before. Would it happen again?