Chapter 5 - The Fall of the House of Carter
The ballroom erupted into chaos as Nathan spoke.
Elias Carter looked like he was having a stroke,
his face contorted with a rage that was almost physical.
"You fool!"
Elias screamed,
forgetting the audience and the cameras.
"You are throwing away a century of work for a nobody!"
Nathan didn't flinch,
he didn't even blink.
"She isn't a nobody, Father,"
he said,
his voice calm and cold as ice.
"She is the first person who saw me as a man,
not a balance sheet."
Clarissa Vance looked less heartbroken and more humiliated,
her perfect mask cracking as she turned and fled the stage.
Security guards began to move toward us,
but Nathan raised a hand,
halting them with a look of pure authority.
"I have already filed the paperwork with the board,"
Nathan continued,
pulling a folded document from his tuxedo pocket.
"Under the legacy agreement,
I cannot be removed unless I am found mentally unfit."
"And I have spent the last three hours with a team of doctors,
proving that I am perfectly sane."
"The marriage clause is archaic,
unenforceable in the modern court,"
he added,
tossing the paper onto the stage at his father’s feet.
"I’m taking Northstar private,
and I’m doing it without your blessing."
Elias let out a guttural sound,
lunging toward Nathan,
but his own assistants held him back.
"Let's go,"
Nathan whispered to me,
his eyes never leaving mine.
We walked out of that ballroom as the world burned behind us.
The cameras flashed,
reporters shouted questions,
but I felt like I was in a bubble of silence.
When we reached the car,
Nathan slumped against the leather seat,
all the tension leaving his body at once.
"Is it over?"
I asked,
my heart still racing a mile a minute.
"The war is just beginning,"
he said,
closing his eyes.
"But the cage is open."
We drove back to his penthouse,
the city of Chicago passing by in a blur of neon and shadow.
When we arrived,
the apartment was quiet,
a sanctuary of glass and steel.
He led me to the balcony,
where the wind was softer than on the roof of the office.
"Why did you do it, Nathan?"
I asked,
leaning against the railing.
"You lost your father,
your reputation is in shambles,
and your stock price is probably crashing right now."
He turned to me,
his face illuminated by the moon.
"Because for twenty-eight years,
you waited for something real,"
he said,
stepping into my personal space.
"And I realized I had been waiting for the same thing."
"I didn't want to be the man behind the door anymore,"
he confessed.
"I wanted to be the man who deserved to walk through it."
He reached out,
his fingers trembling as he brushed a stray lock of hair from my face.
"Maya, I know you’re afraid."
"I know your secret is a burden you’ve carried alone."
"But you don't have to carry it anymore."
"I want to be your first,
your last,
and everything in between."
"But only if you’re ready."
I looked at him,
truly looked at him,
and for the first time in my life,
the panic didn't come.
The fear of being used,
of being just another transaction,
was gone.
May you like
"I’m ready, Nathan,"
I whispered.
