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 tuckedaway. 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,hadto 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.Everythingwe 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 Ithoughtwe 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 tothe 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.”
