Chapter 42
Audrey
The bell above the door of the small, independent coffee shop chimed, signaling Audrey’s arrival.
It was a quiet Tuesday afternoon. The lunch rush had cleared out, leaving the shop half-empty and smelling intensely of roasted espresso and warm pastries. Audrey scanned the room and immediately spotted him sitting in a corner booth by the window.
Nathaniel looked up from his phone, his face breaking into a soft, familiar smile when he saw her. He stood up as she approached, pulling out the chair across from him.
"Hey," Nate said warmly.
"Hey, Nate. Thanks for meeting me," Audrey replied, taking a seat. She placed her purse on the chair next to her, suddenly feeling a knot of nervous energy in her stomach.
When she had called him yesterday, she hadn't given him a lengthy explanation.
She just asked if he had time for a coffee.
It had been weeks since the night of her first therapy session with Simon—the night Simon had found them in the car.
They hadn't spoken since, caught in a heavy, unspoken limbo while Audrey navigated the wreckage of her marriage.
Nate signaled the barista and ordered Audrey her usual oat milk latte without even having to ask. He leaned back in his chair, studying her face with those perceptive, kind eyes.
"You look different, Audrey," Nate observed quietly. "Lighter, I think."
Audrey offered a genuine, though slightly wistful, smile. "I feel lighter. The last few weeks have been... intense. But good."
The barista dropped off their mugs. Audrey wrapped her hands around the warm ceramic, taking a deep breath. She owed him the truth, delivered with the same grace and absolute honesty he had shown her when she was at her lowest.
"Nate, I wanted to see you today because I needed to talk to you about Simon and me," Audrey began, her voice steady but incredibly gentle. "The ninety-day stipulation we had on the divorce ended a few weeks ago."
Nate nodded slowly, his expression remaining perfectly calm. "And you made a decision."
"I did," Audrey confirmed softly. "We aren't moving back in together right now. We have a mountain of trauma to work through. But... we are trying again. We're starting over from scratch, and I'm committing to rebuilding my marriage."
Nate didn't look angry, and he didn't look entirely surprised. He let out a long, quiet exhale, looking down at his dark coffee.
"I wanted to tell you in person," Audrey continued, a sudden wave of emotion tightening her throat.
"I needed to look you in the eye and thank you.
You found me when I was completely shattered, Nate.
I was drowning, and you didn't ask me for anything.
You just pulled me out of the water. I don't know how I would have survived those first few months without you, and I will always be incredibly grateful for that. "
Nate looked up, a sad, understanding smile touching his lips. He reached across the small table, resting his hand over hers for just a brief, comforting moment before pulling back.
"You don't owe me a thank you, Audrey," Nate said sincerely. "You were exactly what I needed, too. Two people bleeding out in a breakroom. I'm just really glad you found your way back to a place where you feel safe."
Audrey felt a tear prick her eyes, touched by his absolute lack of bitterness. "How are you doing, Nate? Really. How is the divorce going with Victoria?"
Nate let out a dark, exhausted laugh, running a hand over his face. The easygoing facade cracked just a fraction, revealing the profound, agonizing exhaustion underneath.
"It's a nightmare," Nate admitted, his voice dropping an octave. "Victoria is a shark, which is exactly why I hired her, but Claire is doing everything in her power to drag this out and completely ruin me."
"Why?" Audrey frowned, her heart aching for him. "I know you said it was contentious, but I never asked what happened between you two."
Nate stared out the coffee shop window for a long moment. When he finally looked back at Audrey, the raw, visceral pain in his eyes mirrored the exact devastation she had felt all those months ago.
"She cheated on me," Nate confessed quietly.
Audrey gasped softly, her hand flying to her mouth. Suddenly, his profound empathy, his quiet understanding, and the way he had known exactly how to handle her panic attacks made agonizing sense. He hadn't just been a good listener. He had been standing in the exact same burning building.
"I found out about four months ago," Nate continued, his jaw locking tight as he forced the words out. "It wasn't just a one-time mistake, either. It was an affair with her best friend."
Audrey’s heart plummeted into her stomach. The sheer, intimate betrayal of it was staggering. "Her best friend?"
"Yeah," Nate offered a bitter, self-deprecating smile. "When I confronted her, she didn't apologize. She didn't even try to deny it. Honestly, Audrey... looking back now, I think she might have been cheating on me for our entire marriage."
He stared down at his coffee, the weight of the last decade visibly pressing down on his shoulders. "It makes so much sense now. The distance. The excuses. Maybe that's the real reason she never wanted to have children with me."
"Nate, I am so incredibly sorry," Audrey whispered, her chest physically aching for him. To have your entire shared history rewritten by a lie, to realize the family you wanted was denied because of someone else's secrets—it was monstrous. "No wonder you understood what I was going through."
"Yeah," Nate sighed, his shoulders slumping slightly. "But because I was the one who pulled the plug, and because I refused to sweep her betrayal under the rug and play the happy couple, she went nuclear. Now she’s trying to take the house, my savings, my pension—everything. She’s dragging the settlement out, demanding spousal support she knows she isn't entitled to, just to bleed me dry in legal fees.
It's her way of punishing me for not letting her get away with it. "
"That is so incredibly cruel," Audrey said fiercely. "She broke her vows, and now she’s trying to ruin your life because you held her accountable?"
"That's the reality of a bitter divorce," Nate said, a tired resignation in his tone. "She is fighting a war of attrition, hoping I'll eventually just give up and sign whatever she wants just to make it stop. But I won't. I'm taking the hits, and I'm going to get out clean, eventually."
Audrey looked at him, feeling a deep, profound respect for the man sitting across from her. He was fighting a brutal, agonizing battle on his own front, and yet he had still found the capacity to be gentle with her.
"You will get through this, Nathaniel," Audrey said, her voice fiercely convicted. "You are too good of a man to let her break you."
"I'm working on it," Nate smiled, the darkness in his eyes receding just a little. He picked up his coffee cup. "And knowing that you're finding your way out of the dark actually helps. It gives me a little hope."
They spent another half hour talking, the heavy, romantic tension of their past encounters entirely replaced by a deep, grounded camaraderie. They had survived a terrible season of their lives together, and now, their paths were officially diverging.
When they finally finished their coffees, they walked out of the shop together, stepping onto the sunlit sidewalk.
Nate turned to her, putting his hands in his pockets. "Well. This is it, then."
Audrey stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into a tight, genuine hug. It wasn't the desperate, grasping embrace of two drowning people anymore. It was the warm, grounded hug of two friends saying goodbye.
Nate hugged her back firmly, resting his cheek against her hair for a brief second.
"Thank you, Nate," Audrey whispered into his shoulder.
"Take care of yourself, Audrey," Nate replied, stepping back and offering her one last, brilliant smile. "Send me a text every now and then, alright? Just to let me know you're okay."
"I promise," Audrey smiled back. "You do the same."
Audrey stood on the sidewalk and watched Nathaniel walk away, his tall frame disappearing into the afternoon crowd.
A chapter of her life closed cleanly and respectfully behind him.
She took a deep breath of the crisp air, turned on her heel, and started walking back to her car, ready to go home to the life she was finally rebuilding.