Chapter 15
I nodded. “Yes. I’m done with this marriage. I want what’s rightfully mine. You can keep your apologies, Nathan. They don’t matter anymore.”
For a moment, he froze, as if trying to comprehend the sudden shift in me. Then, slowly, he nodded, his voice broken. “Okay… I promise. I’ll give it back.”
I knew Nathan held a grudge against both me and my mother.
He had always believed that my mother had only kept him around because of his talent, let him run our pack, which is weak because of our father’s departure and our lack of alpha. He would laugh bitterly sometimes, calling himself the dog my mother had raised to do her bidding. She held the leash, and he resented her for it.
The truth, however, was far more painful. When my parents had divorced, my father had been too wrapped up in his new lover to care about our family. He didn’t want anything to do with me, and he had outright refused to raise Nathan, abandoning us both. My mother had done her best to keep us together, but Nathan never saw that..
Nathan had always misunderstood. My father was the one who abandoned him, leaving him with nothing, but Nathan believed it was my mother and I who tore him and Sienna apart. That misconception festered in him for years, coloring every interaction we had.
Despite this, I had to admit, Nathan was brilliant in business. A wizard, truly. The company that was on the brink of bankruptcy under our management had turned into something extraordinary under his control. Each day it grew stronger, more successful. He was smart, capable, and effortlessly charming. People praised him everywhere he went, calling him a gentleman, a visionary. That’s why my mother had no hesitation leaving me in his care
Later, things changed when Nathan found his real parents–the Johnsons, a wealthy and powerful pack. They welcomed him back with open arms, and he inherited their vast fortune. The moment he became a Johnson, he folded my family’s company into the Johnson Group, as if it were the natural course of events. At the time, I didn’t object. We were married, after all, and it seemed like a logical decision to manage the businesses
– together.
“Giving Up My First Love For Secret Research: Second Chance at Happiness
18.8%
But now, with divorce looming, everything had to be accounted for. The problem was that our families‘ interests had become so entangled over the years that separating them felt impossible. Still, it needed to be done.
Lately, I’d spent more time at Johnson Group than I ever had before. Once upon a time, I would’ve struggled to even get past the front door, but now I walked into Nathan’s office as easily as if it were my own.
♡
