Chapter 19 - Nathan’s Secret
I did not call Nathan.
I made him come to me.
We met that afternoon in an empty conference room at my company. No family. No champagne. No chandeliers. Just gray carpet, glass walls, and the city outside.
I placed the printed email on the table.
He read the subject line and went pale.
“Open it,” I said.
He did.
Martin’s message was short.
Richard is pushing the merger timetable. She still doesn’t know about the contingency trust. If you want to stop this, you need to act before the gala.
Nathan’s reply:
I’m working on it. Do nothing until I have the evidence.
I stared at him.
“You knew Martin was involved.”
“Yes.”
“For three months.”
“Yes.”
“And you still proposed.”
He looked at me with red eyes.
“I proposed because I wanted a life with you after this was over.”
“You built a future on top of a secret that could get me killed.”
“I thought the danger was financial.”
“Caroline was already dead, as far as you knew.”
He flinched.
“That should have told you it wasn’t financial.”
“I know.”
“No, you know now.”
He sat down.
I took off my engagement ring.
The diamond looked ridiculous in the fluorescent light.
Nathan stared at it in my palm.
“I love you,” he said.
“I believe you.”
Hope flickered in his face.
I closed my fingers around the ring.
“That’s what makes this worse.”
He looked down.
“I can’t marry someone who decides what truth I can survive.”
He nodded once, tears falling now.
I set the ring on the table.
“I need you to cooperate with the investigation. Fully. No family exceptions.”
“I will.”
“And I need you to stay away from me.”
His face broke.
“How long?”
“I don’t know.”
He wiped his eyes.
“Okay.”
He stood, then stopped at the door.
“There’s one more thing.”
I almost laughed. “Of course there is.”
He pulled an envelope from inside his jacket.
“My father gave me this the morning of the gala. He said to open it only if everything went wrong.”
He placed it on the table.
On the front, Richard had written my name.
Inside was a key.
May you like
And an address I recognized.
My late father’s old house.
