Page 99 of Wrecked
Hearing about her sister makes what I’m going to do even harder. My actions don’t just hurt Katie. They will hurt a family who loves her. A family that was excited for her. A sister who probably looks up to her.
At least she will have someone to help her move on.
Katie (28 years old)
Nathan Westin has capturedmy heart in a way that I’ll never have his. I know this is true, but I can’t force myself to walkaway. I glance down at the large diamond sitting on my ring finger. It glistens in the sunlight, mocking my thoughts of leaving.
I’m standing on Nathan’s balcony, waiting to leave for a dinner I have no interest in attending. But I’ll go for him because he would go for me, despite the distant relationship we’ve had for so long.
The man I fell in love with is only a small part of the man I know lives deep within him. I’m not in love with the carefree-life-of-the-party persona he puts on. I’m in love with the man I met at my favorite picnic table, reading a smutty romance that he called me out on. The man I get glimpses of when he forgets to bury him down deep.
The man who sucked a splinter out of my finger with gentle concern. The man who brought me soup and a cool washcloth, rubbing my head until I fell asleep when I had the flu. The man who loves his sister so much that his search history is filled with research on kidney cancer. The man who feels intensely and cares for people so genuinely.
Until he knows I’m watching.
He’s hiding himself, but I don’t understand why. I know he loves me, and it’s nearly impossible not to love him. But I don’t know if he’ll ever bein lovewith me. As pathetic as it sounds, I’m willing to settle for the sweet love he offers. Because it’s far better than anything else a man has ever given me. Beginning at a young age with my stepfather, all the way up to the very day I met Nathan, men have continuously hurt me over and over again.
Ten years from now, I might look back at this desperate girl and laugh. Maybe it’ll be laughter filled with happiness, or maybe it’ll be laughter filled with tears. The one thing I know is that it will never be filled with regret.
Nathan Westin changed me. He took a shy, broken girl and turned her into a strong, confident woman. He doesn’t knowabout the thoughts that plagued my mind the day we met. He doesn’t know that his kind, playful approach stopped me from making a decision that would ruin my life.
He doesn’t know he helped me fashion a mask just like his.
To everyone around me, I’m a shark in the courtroom. The self-assured, poised, it-girl. Loud and unforgiving, selfish to the core. They don’t realize that she doesn’t exist behind the mask. Up until a year ago, she didn’t exist at all.
But no one has been in my life long enough to know that.
Except for Dimitri…and Els.
Ellie has known me her whole life, yet she still doesn’t see the façade. I went away to school, and she thinks I came back the woman I am now. The woman I pretend to be. The woman I created to protect myself from my past.
Nathan and I are just two strangers, giving each other peeks of our true selves, while hiding who we really are from the world. We are both broken. We are both damaged. The difference is…he fixes my broken pieces. He heals parts of me that I thought would never be able to trust a man.
I don’t heal him, though.
I guess with Nathan, qualities of that masked woman really do exist. Iamselfish when it comes to our relationship. I’ll fight to the death for the love he gives me. Even if someone else could give him more, could heal the parts of him that need healing. He’s mine. I won’t…I can’t give him up. I’m not stupid. I know there is a woman he loves more than me. I know that he is settling for me because he can’t have her. Call it what you want, woman’s intuition, a hunch…whatever it is, I know that I’m right. I just pray she never finds her way back to him.
I feel his presence before I feel his arms wrap around my shoulders from behind. He kisses my neck, and I melt back into him.
“My father is here,” he murmurs in my ear. I turn my head to the side and capture his lips, leaving a red lipstick stain behind.He smiles against my lips, and I pull back, seeing nothing but love in his eyes. Just not the same kind of love that is reflected back at him.
“I’ll grab my coat,” I say back, wiping the red smudge from his mouth. I’m not looking forward to an entire evening with Nathaniel Westin. The first time I met him, he took me to the side and asked me not to introduce Nathan to my family. He rudely announced that it wouldn’t be beneficial for his upcoming campaign.
I wanted to tell him that a black eye wouldn’t be beneficial either.
He told me that the right time would come for introductions, but this wasn’t that time. Nathan and I were hardly serious, but I wanted to introduce him to my family just to spite Nathaniel. I was sick and tired of men telling me how to live my life. But his request started to sound more like a threat, and Nathaniel Westin was not the type of man I wanted to cross.
After we got engaged, he called and told me it was the perfect time for family introductions. I feel like I’m missing something, like he is moving pieces on a chessboard…and I’m one of those pieces.
I walk inside and see Nathaniel waiting in the small living room. His face is a picture of disgust, like he can’t fathom why his son isn’t living in a mansion as he attends law school.
I seriously hate him.
“Shit,” Nathan cusses behind me. I turn around to see the sympathetic look on his face as he stares down at his phone. “The firm just sent me a text. New evidence came up on that case I’m helping with. They want everyone in tonight.”
Chills creep up my spine. He isnotleaving me alone with his father. “Can’t you go after dinner? They’ll have to understand you haven’t eaten yet.”
“Nonsense,” Nathaniel chimes in. “This is the life of a lawyer, you know that, Kate. We will have dinner without you, Nathan.”
