Page 91 of Wrecked
“Well,” Ellie pants. “We are back to being cold and wet.” I know she is just trying to mask her fear, but I laugh anyway.
“Who areyoutelling? I don’t have a shirt anymore,” I throw back in jest.
“Dammit. I’m sorry, Nate. That was a really stupid thing to do, and it put us both in danger. I wasn’t even thinking. I just needed to get away. I needed a minute alone.”
We stare at each other for several seconds.
“I’m not in love with Katie,” I tell her.
“I don’t regret loving you,” she says at the same time. She waits a few seconds before adding, “Then why did you stay with her? Even after Nathaniel died…you stayed with her.”
“I care about Katie, Pip. She’s important to me. I have never beenin lovewith her, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love her. When Nathaniel died, I had already won. He wanted me to be like him so badly, he never considered I could be better than him.” My lips curve to one side at the fond memory. Besting Nathaniel Westin was a pipe dream at one point, but I had finally done it.
“What did you do?” she probes.
“I dug…and I found out that my father had his hands in a lot of criminal activity. I had enough evidence that I finally had leverage of my own. Leverage I could use to finally escape his hold on me. When I was on my way to confront him, I got the phone call that Emmy had found a donor.”
“God, Nate. I’m so happy she is okay. I had no idea she wasso sick.” Ellie gives me a sad smile. Her affection for Emmy is still apparent after all this time.
“Thank you. I am too. After that phone call, I realized that not only did I haveeverythingon him, but he no longer hadanythingon me. The day I went to confront him was the day I was going to talk to Katie and tell her the truth. But she surprised me first, telling me she wanted me to meet her family.” I pause, hating the memory of this day. “I was fucking sick, Ellie, when I saw you standing there.”
I take a shuddering breath. I still remember the look on her face that day.
Vividly.
Complete and utter devastation. It was our first time coming face-to-face since my senior prom…and I was holding the hand of her sister.
“Nathaniel fucking won,” I continue. “I didn’t know how you could ever forgive me, but I was still going to try. When I met with him later that night, he was enraged that I had evidence against him. Even pissed to learn that Emmy had a donor. So that’s when he told me that he had incriminating videos that might change my mind. If I ended things with Katie, he would release them. He didn’t know that I already knew about them.”
“What kind of videos, Nate?” The underlying sadness in her voice tugs at my heart.
“I think he was blackmailing Katie, Pip. I…I think he was using you to do it, but I don’t know the details. I couldn’t let anything happen to her. Especially because I was the reason she’d gotten involved with Nathaniel to begin with. He mentioned hisliving willthat night. He said unless I married Katie, the estate went to the bank. I didn’t give a shit about the money, but his will also gave instructions to release the videos if we didn’t get married. It was his insurance card. To make sure nothing happened to him, while also continuing to fuck withmy life. Even in death, his name meant everything to him.” I scoff.
Nathaniel, a tried-and-true narcissist.
“He died that night, Nate. He died the night Katie introduced you to us. I remember that.” She scrunches her nose, trying to make sense of it.
“He did.” I stare at her, waiting for her to ask. She stares at me a few moments before giving me a tiny nod, acknowledging what we won’t say out loud. “I’ve spent the last six months fighting the courts, but I had already found a way to win before he died. I bested him, and he knew it. I just needed to go through the legal channels. The courts signed off on his estate, giving me ownership of those videos, the day I told you I wasn’t walking down the aisle.”
Ellie takes a deep breath, absorbing even more life-changing information. She furrows her brows, deep in thought. “Why did he make you propose?”
I sigh, ready to tell her the rest. “He realized?—”
“No…wait,” she says, stopping me from continuing the story. I stare at her, a question in my eyes. “I don’t want to hear anymore tonight. God,maybe ever. I’ve heard enough.”
I nod my head. This is it. She’s going to tell me she can’t forgive me for my role in all this. She’s going to truly end us before we even have a chance to start, and it’s all my fault.
“I’m… Fuck!” I yell out, unable to control my emotions. I’ll accept anything she tells me, but I’ll never accept that we are over. I will spend the rest of my life making up for my mistakes. “I’m so sorry this happened to us, Pip.” Everything she endured since the night I left her was my fault. “I’m so sorry that I failed you, that my actions disappointed you.”
“I…I don’t want to think about that anymore, Nate. I don’t want it tohurtanymore.” She breathes deeply, masking her pain with something a little lighter. “Plus, I’m the reason you don’t have a shirt right now.”
I let out a rough laugh. “Oh yeah, Pip. We’re even, I guess.”
“I was thinking you could take mine,” she says, staring into my eyes. She looks serious, not even a hint of humor in her words.
I raise my brow and grin. “I think your shirt might be a little too small for me.”
“I was thinking you could take mine…off.”
