Chapter 3 - The Woman He Forgot Owned the Beginning
I stared at Rebecca.
“I don’t own Carter Development.”
“Maybe not directly.”
She tapped the document.
“But you may own something Nathan needs more.”
Six years earlier, when I sold my grandmother’s cottage, I had transferred $186,000 into Nathan’s struggling company.
I remembered the day clearly.
Nathan had been embarrassed.
He sat on the floor of our tiny apartment surrounded by architectural plans and overdue notices.
“I can’t take your inheritance.”
“You’re not taking it.”
“What do you call this?”
“Betting on you.”
He had cried.
Nathan almost never cried.
The next morning, his attorney prepared documents protecting my contribution.
Neither of us paid much attention.
We were young, in love, and certain divorce happened only to people who stopped trying.
Apparently one provision granted me approval rights over the sale or transfer of several foundational assets purchased with my investment.
Those assets had later become extraordinarily valuable.
Nathan had built luxury condominiums, commercial buildings, and waterfront developments around them.
Rebecca leaned back.
“This restructuring appears designed to move assets before a larger transaction.”
“With whom?”
“We don’t know yet.”
“And Victoria?”
“She appears to be connected to the buyer.”
My stomach tightened.
“So the affair and the business deal are connected?”
“I’m saying we need facts before assuming that.”
That was why I liked Rebecca.
She didn’t sell anger.
She sold clarity.
My phone rang.
Nathan.
Again.
I declined it.
“Do you want the divorce filed immediately?” Rebecca asked.
I thought about the restaurant.
Eight months.
Victoria.
Nathan’s wish.
“Yes.”
By noon, it was filed.
Nathan arrived at my sister Sophie’s house at 2:14.
I knew because Sophie looked through the window and said, “Your husband appears to have aged approximately twelve years overnight.”
“I don’t have a husband anymore.”
“Technically—”
“Sophie.”
“Right. Bad timing.”
Nathan stood on the porch.
I went outside but didn’t invite him in.
He looked exhausted.
His shirt was wrinkled.
His hair was uncombed.
The watch box was in his hand.
“You opened it,” I said.
He looked down.
“Yes.”
The repaired watch was on his wrist.
That almost broke me.
Almost.
“I didn’t know you remembered,” he said.
“I remembered everything.”
“Clara…”
“What do you want?”
“To explain.”
“You have five minutes.”
He swallowed.
“Victoria works for Meridian Capital.”
“The company buying yours?”
His eyes widened.
“You talked to an attorney.”
“Four minutes.”
Nathan rubbed his face.
“Meridian approached me last year. They wanted Carter Development’s waterfront portfolio.”
“And Victoria?”
“She led the negotiations.”
“And then somehow fell into your bed?”
He flinched.
“I’m not going to defend that.”
“Good.”
“It started after a conference in Atlanta.”
“Eight months ago.”
“Yes.”
“And while sleeping with her, you negotiated a deal that required my consent?”
“I was trying to separate the two things.”
I stared at him.
“That may be the stupidest sentence you’ve ever said.”
“I know.”
“No, Nathan. I don’t think you do.”
He stepped closer.
“I never intended to cheat on you.”
“Yet you repeatedly did.”
“I was lonely.”
“So was I.”
That silenced him.
“I was lonely in the same marriage,” I continued. “The difference is I came home.”
Nathan looked away.
For a long moment neither of us spoke.
Then he said, “Meridian’s offer expires in seventeen days.”
I almost smiled.
There it was.
The real reason for the visit.
“And you need my signature.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Clara—”
“You wished I wasn’t your wife. Congratulations. Soon I won’t be.”
“This deal affects hundreds of employees.”
“Then perhaps you shouldn’t have endangered it.”
His expression hardened slightly.
“Are you going to destroy the company because you’re angry with me?”
That sentence finished what the affair had started.
I stepped closer.
“You still think the company is yours and my pain is an inconvenience.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
I went inside.
Nathan called after me.
“Victoria says Meridian may walk.”
I turned.
“Then Victoria can explain why.”
His face changed.
“What does that mean?”
“It means I’m done solving problems created by people who betrayed me.”
I closed the door.
Three days later, something unexpected happened.
Victoria Lane contacted me.
Her message was brief.
We need to meet. Nathan hasn’t told either of us the whole truth.
I stared at the screen.
Sophie read it over my shoulder.
“That sounds like either a trap or the beginning of a very expensive television series.”
“I’m not meeting her.”
Then another message arrived.
A photograph.
It showed Nathan sitting in a hotel lobby with a man I recognized from business news.
Graham Voss.
CEO of Meridian Capital.
The date stamp was eleven months earlier.
Three months before Nathan claimed the affair began.
Below the photograph, Victoria wrote:
Ask Nathan why he was discussing your signature before he ever met me.
I felt something inside me go still.
The affair was horrible.
But perhaps it wasn’t the first betrayal.
Perhaps it had simply been the easiest one to see.
I called Rebecca.
“Can you meet tonight?”
“Of course.”
“I think we need to find out exactly when Nathan decided I was no longer part of his future.”
Rebecca paused.
Then said, “Clara, I already found something.”
“What?”
“A draft agreement from eleven months ago.”
My fingers tightened around the phone.
“What agreement?”
“An authorization bearing your name.”
I stopped breathing.
Rebecca continued carefully.
“There’s a signature on it.”
I sat down.
“I never signed anything.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Because I compared it with the signature on your filing today.”
May you like
My throat went dry.
“It isn’t yours.”
