Chapter 3 - The Broken Ring
By midnight, the main house was dead silent. The valet had cleared all the luxury cars from the driveway, and the expensive floral arrangements sat abandoned on the tables.
Inside the grand library, the argument had been raging for two hours.
"I have a status to maintain, Nathan!" Brooke yelled, pacing across the Persian rug, her perfect hair finally coming undone. "My family name is on the line! You humiliated me in front of the most influential people in the city over a maid and her brat!"
Nathan sat behind his desk, his hands clasped tightly together. He looked at the woman he had asked to marry him, and for the first time, the blinders were completely off. He didn't see a beautiful, polished partner anymore. He saw a shallow, cruel stranger.
"She wasn't lying, was she?" Nathan asked quietly. "Ellie. Children don't invent specific phrases like 'ugly shoes' or 'charity cases.' You’ve been mistreating them the moment my back was turned."
Brooke laughed bitterly, tossing her head back. "Mistreating them? I was managing them! You're a billionaire, Nathan. You run empires. You're supposed to marry someone who elevates your status, not someone who runs a halfway house for pathetic single mothers. Your mother's sentimentality was a weakness, and you're inheriting it."
Nathan looked down at his desk. He thought about his mother, Eleanor, who had built their family fortune alongside his father but never forgot the name of a single person who worked for them. He thought about Ellie, waving at him through the kitchen window, and the quiet, flawless dedication Sarah brought to his life every single day without ever asking for praise.
"My mother's kindness wasn't a weakness, Brooke," Nathan said, his voice dangerously calm. "It was the only thing keeping this cold house human. And I almost let you destroy it."
He stood up, walked around the desk, and stopped inches away from her. He looked down at the massive diamond ring on her finger.
"Take it off," he said.
Brooke froze, her eyes widening in disbelief. "What?"
"The engagement is over. Pack your things. I want you out of this house by sunrise."
"You can't do this!" Brooke shrieked, her voice cracking with desperation. "The magazines... the invitations have already been sent! My father will pull his banks from your logistics merger!"
"Let him," Nathan said, walking over to the library door and opening it wide. "I can build another merger. I can't build another soul. Goodbye, Brooke."
Realizing she had lost, Brooke’s face twisted into an expression of pure malice. She ripped the diamond ring off her finger and threw it violently at his chest. It bounced off his shirt and clattered onto the hardwood floor.
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"You're an idiot, Nathan," she hissed as she stormed past him. "You're going to end up alone in this giant museum."
Nathan didn't answer. He watched her walk away, feeling an immense, sudden weight lifting from his chest. He looked out the window toward the dark backyard, where the small light of the guest cottage was still burning.
