“Nathan.” His voice, gravelly and distant, made the distance between us feel even more suffocating. “I won’t be able to make it today.”
I exhaled sharply, a bitter laugh escaped before I could stop it. “Of course not.” I shouldn’t have been surprised. It’s been seven years, and he hasn’t once been to visit her grave. His absence had become a habit, a silent partner to the anger and guilt he wore so thickly. And I was learning that it was a habit I’d grown used to, too.
“I’m sorry,” he said. He wasn’t really sorry. If he was, he would’ve been here. But the apology was just part of the script he’d been reading from for years.
“I’ll be fine,” I told him, my voice sharper than I intended, but I couldn’t help it. “It’s just me out here, anyway.”
There was a long pause on the other end. I could hear him shuffling around, likely somewhere far away from this conversation, probably on a golf course or in one of his boardrooms, surrounded by the business of life that had consumed him after she died. His voice came back through the phone, strained but cold, like he was already checked out of this conversation.
“I’ll call you later,” he said, like he always did, when it was convenient for him.
“Yeah, sure.” I hung up before he could say anything more.
I stood there for a moment, the weight of the phone still heavy in my hand. I could feel the anger rising in my chest—anger at him, at the way he’d retreated into himself after my mom passed. I knew it wasn’t just the grief. It was the bitterness, the loss of something deep inside him that had snapped after her death. That man, the one who was my father, was gone. In his place was someone unrecognizable. Someone who buried himself in business, in distractions, in anything that kept him from having to deal with the person he’d lost.
And I’d be damned if I was going to let myself fall into that same pit.
I remembered, suddenly, that I’d promised myself that I wouldn’t end up like him. I’d promised myself I wouldn’t let love destroy me, wouldn’t let myself get lost in someone the way he did with her. The death of my mother, her sudden, painful departure, had changed him for the worse, and I had no interest in following that same road. I couldn’t.
So I made a vow. A promise. I would never fall in love. Not the way they did. Not the way he did.
It wasn’t worth the pain. It wasn’t worth the heartbreak.
I turned away from the grave, feeling that familiar ache settle deep into my chest. I wasn’t sure if it would ever go away, but I wasn’t going to let it consume me.
The sound of James’ car door opening broke my thoughts, and I climbed into the back seat, letting the door click shut behind me. The car hummed to life, the engine quiet as we pulled away from the cemetery. The weight of the morning still pressed down on me, but I pushed it aside, focusing on the road ahead.
The sound of approaching footsteps brought me back to the present. I forced my gaze away from the cemetery and turned my head in time to see another jogger passing by. A cold sweat dripped down my back, the rhythmic pounding of my heart against my chest providing a steady beat to the thoughts swirling in my mind.
Elise.
I couldn’t stop thinking about her. The way she looked at me, the way she made me feel like I was more than just the Edge heir. She was sweet, kind, good, and God help me, I wanted to be close to her. But I couldn’t afford to get distracted.
The marriage stipulation. My inheritance was tied to it, and there was nothing I wouldn’t do to get it. If that meant gettingclose to Elise, making her believe in something real, then so be it. I had to win her over. I had to make her think we were building something meaningful.
But somewhere in the back of my mind, my father’s voice echoed. Not the barking CEO he’d been in boardrooms or the cold, calculating man I spent most of my life resenting, but the one who, in the final days before he died, looked at me with something like regret in his eyes and told me not to become him.
Don’t sacrifice love for legacy. Don’t use people the way I did.
I’d sworn to myself I wouldn’t be like him. And yet, here I was. Manipulating a woman who had never been anything but good to me. Leading her on with no intention of giving her the truth. What did that make me, if not his son in every way that counted?
The question settled in my chest like lead. Was I already becoming the man I swore I wouldn’t be? And worse, if Elise ever found out the truth, would she look at me the same way I used to look at my father? Because right now, it didn’t matter how sweet or sincere she was. She was in the way of what I needed. And I was about to hurt her anyway.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
NATHAN
THERE WAS SOMETHINGmissing.
I leaned against the soundboard with my arms crossed as I watched the artist struggle with the take for the third time. I never believed in being the kind of CEO that ran a label from behind a desk. If something wasn’t working, I was in the room fixing it.
“Stop,” I called out to Charlie, the lead vocalist of the boy band I signed two years ago. He was hunched over the mic, catching his breath between takes. He shot me a frustrated glance, but I wasn’t moved. Not today.
He didn’t respond; he just wiped the sweat from his forehead and signaled the engineer to reset.
“I’m not hearing it,” I said flatly, leaning forward in my chair. “Your vocals are technically fine, but you’re holding back. You’re too safe. You need to feel the song, not just sing it. Youthink listeners are gonna care about perfect technique if you don’t make themfeelsomething? You think this track’s gonna make it to the radio on a technicality?”
I could see his jaw clench as he processed my words. Good. Let it sink in.
