Page 36 of His Fake Wife

Her heels clicked on the hardwood as she scurried away. Beth pushed her chair back and threw her napkin down. She glanced at me questioningly. “Uh...should I go after her?”

“Someone should.” I didn’t want her witnessing the angry words that were about to be tossed around anyway. She gave me another confused look and went after Mom.

No one spoke again until Beth disappeared.

“Nice going, Nate. Throwing your paternity in Mom’s face was a dick move.”

“I didn’t mean any harm to her.” Angry green eyes threw daggers at me. “I had to remind you why I don’t want anything to do with your precious family business.”

“Nathaniel, you are family,” Henry pointed out, shoving a hand through his thinning gray hair.

“Sure, that’s why you treated me like scum for most of my childhood.”

“You can’t blame me for being angry at first. I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t handle things in the best way but I’ve tried to make amends more times than I can count.”

“He’s always been too wrapped up in himself to realize,” I muttered. “Dad tried to include you in everything and you know it.”

Nate sat back, folded his arms, and eyed us with cool amusement. He’d always been a cold bastard, nothing like me. If we didn’t have a resemblance to our mother, I’d think we weren’t related at all.

“Come on, we all know that at the end of the day, everything was meant for you, Golden Boy.”

“Ah, so your assholish ways toward this family has always been about jealousy.”

“There’s no bigger asshole here than you. You’ve always been a spoiled, condescending?”

“Enough!” Henry roared. He stood up. “Since you’re sticking around Nate, perhaps when we all calm down, we can talk.”

Dad glared at me when I snorted. When we tried to act like a normal family, it never ended well. Having a civilized family chat was laughable. Dad sighed and walked away, leaving the two of us.

I didn’t hate my brother?he was still my blood?but I couldn’t stand the sulky, selfish ass. He was all cold and emotionless...except when he was flirting with Beth. That thought made me send him a loathing glare.

“Now that it’s just the two of us, do you want to tell me what you’re really doing back in Denver?”

Nate’s smug smile grated on my nerves. “I just bought out Steele Enterprise. It makes sense that I stay close to my new acquisition.”

He was the anonymous buyer of one of my target companies? I was making moves to add it to my growing empire and had been shocked to discover it had been snatched from my grasp.

Jaws clenched in an effort to hide my surprise and grudging respect, I spat out, “Well, it would seem you’re not the failure I thought you to be.”

Nate played with the stem of his glass, wearing an arrogant smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “It’s funny how you and Henry assumed I’d come running back begging for a cut of the family business. Instead, I launched out and created an empire to rival yours.”

“Congratulations. What’s funny is that you kept the Thorne name.” It was a low blow. He’d been raised as a Thorne. It wasn’t his fault it was discovered later on that Henry wasn’t his biological father.

“Might as well,” he shrugged. “It’ll make for much more interesting competition between us, don’t you think?” He pushed his chair back and stood up. “I’ll be seeing you around. Oh, and tell Beth it was really good to see her and we’ll catch up over lunch sometime.”

Just the sound of Beth’s name made me see red. “You’ll stay the fuck away from her, that’s what you’ll do.” I was on my feet, ready to plant my fist in his face.

Shock registered on Nate’s face. “Wait, are you two really a thing?”

“We’re married!” I threw my hands out in frustration. “So, yeah, that does make us a thing.”

“Huh, here I assumed the whole thing was just another Thorne PR stunt.” His lips quirked upward. “I know how you all operate and Beth is much too sweet for the likes of you.”

Hot, raging fury nearly consumed me. He’d hit too close to the truth and I wanted to punch him.

“Maybe you shouldn’t make assumptions,” I bit out. “Stay away from Beth.” My newfound possessiveness and jealous nature couldn’t handle the thought of her anywhere near my brother.

Amusement flickered across his face as he hummed, “I never thought I’d see the day.” He sauntered off with a sickeningly satisfied grin.

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