The next morning. Felicia woke to find herself surrounded by three or four unfamiliar men. Trembling into hysterical sobs.]
“Kate, please… oh God, help me. I’ve been–they all took turns with me. What am I going to do?–]
guncontrollably, she called Nathaniel, her voice breaking
This is YOUR FUCKING FAULT she screamed her voice cracking. If you’d been at the bar like ALWAYS, this wouldn’t have happened! You’ve NEVER abandoned me like this before! Why now? WHY?]
Nathaniel sat in his office, the phone pressed against his ear, his bloodshot eyes staring vacantly at the wall. His face was gaunt from days without proper sleep or food. Unable to face returning to the Sinclair Estate–a house that felt like a tomb without Aurora–he had worked through the night, drowning himself in paperwork.
Leo had just convinced him to rest when Felicia’s shrieking call jolted him back to consciousness.
Her voice spiraled into increasing desperation as Nathaniel remained silent.
“Nate, my life is OVER! The Rhodes family will throw me out on the street when they find out I’m damaged goods! How will I get married now? Who would want me?
You have to help me. You have to fix this. The Rhodes family will send me to be some ancient CEO’s hidden mistress–locked away in some apartment where no one will ever see me again! Her breath came in panicked gasps. “And they didn’t use protection. What if I’m pregnant? What if I’m fucking PREGNANT, Nate?!“]
As her hysterical sobbing intensified, the men around her began to stir. Seeing her crying,
g, they exchanged amused glances before one spoke up
“Cut the bullshit, sweetheart,” one drawled crudely. “You were begging for it last night–riding me like a goddamn rodeo star.
“Yeah, another chimed in, scratching his bare chest. “Kept saying how you’d never had it so good. Even showed us that little trick with your tongue.
Felicia frantically hung up, her face drained of color as she realized Nathaniel had heard everything.]
hut contrary in the gut wrenching panle she expected to feel. Nathaniel experienced a profound sense of release. For the first time in his life, Felicia’s. catastrophe felt like someone else’s problem–a burden he was no longer obligated to carry
When Nathaniel arrived at the hotel with police, he discovered a scene that would have once destroyed him
The room was in chaotic disarray. Felicia lay on the bed, her skin flushed and makeup streaked down her face, her body mottled with finger–shaped bruises.
After a long silence, Nathaniel mechanically took a blanket and covered her, his movements devoid of their usual protectiveness.
When Felicia finally regained consciousness in the hospital, she immediately searched the room for Nathaniel, finding only empty chairs.
For the first time since childhood, he had truly abandoned her. The realization hit her like a physical blow. Overwhelmed by rage and self–pity, Felicia screamed and hurled a nearby vase against the wall
“GET OUT!” she shineked at the startled nurse. “WHERE’S NATE? I WAS VIOLATED BECAUSE OF HIM, AND HE CAN’T EVEN BE BOTHERED TO SIT WITH ME?
Watching her demolish the hospital room, Leo shifted uncomfortably before stammering||||
Mr. Khodes went to Miss Sindar and Mr. Wolfe’s engagement celebrations…
Leu stopped himself, not daring to reveal the full myth.||
Aurora and Damian were already legally married. This engagenwat party was Danian’s gift to Aurora–the formal ceremony her previous relationship had dented her. And Nathaniel bad gone there with one desperate purpose: to win her back []
Kalhandel had dressed with painstaking care, dark cardes concealed under his eyes, his custom Tom Ford suit making him look more like the groom than Damian himself
Before the ceremony began, he bribed hotel staff for access to the upper floors, making his way to Aurora’s preparation suite
Every step fell heavier than the last, his chest fight with a mixture of hope and desperation. The bone–deep exhaustion of the past days clung to him, but the possibility of regaining Aurora gave hin enough strength for this final allergi
He clung to the belief that Aurora’s decade of devotion couldn’t have been completely erased that beneath her coldness, souse ember of their connection must
We chose this dramaise monent believing it would pruve bumiliation, to win her back ||
| Transformation–that the man who had once discarded her was now willing to risk everything even
As he stood catside her door, hand poised to knock, memories of their shared past flooded through him–her childhood laughter, her teenage blushes, I tros. All the moments he’d taken for granted, all the love he’d carelessly trampled
her adult
What he wouldn’t give to return to those days, to make different choices, to recognize the treasure he’d held in his hands before shattering it beyond repair..[]
