13
580words
"You okay?" he asked softly, fingers tracing patterns on my shoulder.
"Yeah," I said, feeling surprisingly at peace. "Better than okay."
He kissed the top of my head.
"I've dreamed of this moment my whole life."
I looked up at his face in the moonlight.
"Really waited six years?"
"Since that summer in Napa," he confirmed.
"You running toward me with that EpiPen, terror written all over your face. I knew right then."
I snuggled closer. "I'm glad I made that call."
"Me too, Mrs. Black," he whispered. "Me too."
But as we drifted toward sleep, his phone buzzed on the nightstand.
He reached for it, and I felt him go rigid as he read the message.
"What is it?" I asked, fear creeping in.
He took a breath and handed me the phone. An anonymous text:
Enjoy tonight.
It won't last long.
The next morning, we called Michael and Sophia over.
Nathan showed the anonymous text to Michael.
"Can we trace it?" Nathan asked.
Michael shook his head. "Burner phone. Untraceable."
He looked at us with concern. "But this means someone knows about your... activities last night."
I felt sick. "They're watching us?"
"Seems so," Nathan said coldly.
"Time to upgrade security."
He placed guards around the property and insisted I have an escort whenever I left the house.
Meanwhile, we decided to go on the offensive. Nathan used Chloe's recordings against Brandon.
He arranged a meeting with Brandon's father.
"What are you going to do?" I asked, watching him prepare to leave.
"End this war," he said simply, kissing my forehead.
"Once and for all."
After he left, Sophia and I stayed at the house. Hours later, I got a text from Nathan:
Need more time. Brandon denies everything.
Insists on seeing you.
Says only you can end this.
My heart sank.
Seeing Brandon was a terrible idea.
But if I didn't, this conflict might never end.
I made a decision. "Sophia, I need to go out."
She widened her eyes. "Are you crazy? Nathan said—"
"I know what he said. But sometimes a woman has to do what a man can't."
I had the driver take me to the Scott mansion.
Brandon was waiting at the gate, looking even worse than the last time I saw him.
"Emily," he said, voice weary.
"Thank you for coming."
"You said only I could end this," I said directly.
"How?"
He led me into the study and closed the door.
"Simple. You make a public statement that Nathan manipulated you, that you were emotionally unstable when you decided, and the marriage can be annulled."
I looked at him in disbelief.
"You still think this is about you and me?"
"It's always been about you and me!" he exploded.
"Emily, we have three years of history! You can't just throw that away!"
"The moment you threw it away was when you chose Chloe over me at City Hall!" I shot back.
"I always chose you!" he yelled, then stopped abruptly, expression shifting.
"I always chose you," he repeated, voice dropping.
"Just... not always in the way you saw."
He took a deep breath.
"Chloe... she wasn't just a friend."
I stared at him. "What?"
"We... had a thing. On and off. When she needed it."
I felt the room spin. "You... and Chloe? When?"
He looked down. "The whole three years."
