Chapter 10
554words
Nolan practically tore the mountain apart.
Soaked straight through, he wouldn't stop. To the bodyguards, he looked totally unhinged.
"Mr. Thorne, the rain's insane. You haven't slept in over a day. Keep this up, and you'll pass out before you even find Ms. Hart!"
"Yeah, let us take it from here. You've got a mountain of work piling up at the office."
Nolan's bloodshot eyes kept scanning like he didn't hear a thing.
One of the newer bodyguards, still freaked by how brutal Nolan had been to Hailey, figured he just wanted proof she was dead.
"Mr. Thorne, this place is a death trap. Even if the rocks didn't skewer her, the fall alone would've wrecked her. There's no way she—ah!"
Nolan snapped. He lunged like a psycho, slamming punch after punch into the guy's face.
The others jumped in fast to pull him off.
That's when they noticed—his arm was ripped open, blood soaking through his shirt.
Peter, Nolan's assistant, usually kept cool no matter what—but right then, even he looked like he'd seen a ghost.
"M-Mr. Thorne... you don't feel that?"
Nolan shoved the guy off like trash.
He staggered up, shaking hard.
"Keep searching! Hailey's not dead. Find her!" His voice cracked.
No way she was gone. No way.
Right as he opened his mouth again, the world spun. He hit the muddy slope hard.
Out cold, his mind jumped like a glitchy slideshow.
Hailey tugging his sleeve, begging him to help find that love-wish tree.
She'd gone on and on about how magical it was—tie a red ribbon with their names, and boom, happily ever after.
That smile on her face back then—it burned.
Happy together?
Donovan, wasted, had forced himself on Nolan's mom—Claudia.
When Frederick found out, he went straight to Donovan. Tried to confront him.
Didn't make it out alive. Donovan shoved him off a balcony.
Dead, just like that.
Claudia broke. Guilt ate her alive. She snapped.
She screamed at Nolan, beat him down—until one day she whipped him so bad, he landed in the ICU.
By the time he got out, she was locked away.
After that, Nolan raised himself—until the Harts took him in.
He hated Donovan. If it weren't for him, his family wouldn't have fallen apart.
He hated Hailey, too. Every time she talked about that monster like he was some hero, it lit him up inside.
She dreamed about forever. Nolan never planned for one.
Donovan wrecked everything. So Nolan tore his world apart.
And he nailed it.
Donovan died. Hart Corp crumbled. Hailey was stuck with him—eight straight years of payback.
Nothing hit harder than watching justice land.
But the night she ran, Nolan drank till sunrise.
Ever since he dragged Hailey from that wedding...
He never thought she'd wear white for anyone else.
That day, all he wanted was to kill the guy standing next to her.
He didn't care why she got under his skin so bad.
There were other Hart women around. Always were.
But somehow, it was only ever her he wanted to break.
***
When Nolan opened his eyes again, someone stood by his hospital bed.
A rush of hope slammed into him.
"Hailey," he rasped.
The woman froze.
