Chapter 12 - THE TRAP NATHAN WALKED INTO
Melissa immediately made three copies of the recording.
One went to another attorney.
One was uploaded to encrypted storage.
One stayed with us.
“Now,” she said, “we stop reacting.”
I looked at her.
“What do we do?”
“We let Nathan believe you’re still frightened.”
The plan was simple.
I would text Nathan.
Tell him I wanted the divorce finished.
Ask to meet in a public restaurant.
Melissa would be nearby.
So would an investigator from her firm.
More importantly, she had already contacted the university’s legal department and an outside attorney connected to the Harlan Foundation board.
Not everyone at the foundation knew what Charles and Victoria were doing.
Several board members had apparently been questioning financial irregularities for months.
Nathan thought he was dealing with one exhausted wife.
He was about to walk into a room full of people who wanted answers.
I sent the message.
I’LL SIGN. 7 PM. HARRISON HOTEL LOBBY.
Nathan responded in thirty seconds.
THANK YOU.
No apology.
No emotion.
Just relief.
At 6:58, he walked into the hotel wearing a navy suit.
He looked handsome.
Confident.
Exactly like the man I had once loved.
He sat across from me and placed the papers on the table.
“I’m glad you’re being reasonable.”
I almost smiled.
“Were you ever going to tell me about Victoria?”
Nathan froze.
Only for a second.
Then he leaned back.
“So Daniel did tell you.”
“Enough.”
He sighed.
“Emily, Victoria and I understand each other in a way you and I don’t anymore.”
“How long?”
“That doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me.”
Nathan’s expression hardened.
“What do you want?”
There it was.
The real Nathan.
Not guilty.
Not ashamed.
Annoyed.
I looked at the papers.
“You want me to waive every financial claim.”
“You don’t have one.”
“I paid your tuition.”
His eyes flickered.
“You helped with living expenses.”
“Your tuition was covered.”
Silence.
Then Nathan whispered, “You need to be careful.”
“Why?”
“Because you don’t understand what you’re looking at.”
“Then explain the joint account.”
His face drained of color.
For the first time, I saw fear.
“Who showed you that?”
I didn’t answer.
Nathan leaned forward.
“If Rachel contacted you, she’s unstable.”
That sentence told me everything.
He knew Rachel was back.
Before I could respond, the elevator doors opened.
Three people stepped out.
Melissa.
Professor Carter.
And a man I recognized from the foundation website.
Thomas Reed.
Vice chairman of the Harlan Medical Foundation.
Nathan stood so fast his chair scraped backward.
Thomas placed a folder on the table.
“Nathan Cole?”
Nathan stared at him.
Thomas continued.
“The board voted forty minutes ago to suspend all Harlan-funded residency grants associated with Project Northstar pending investigation.”
Nathan’s face collapsed.
Then Thomas looked at me.
“And Emily, there’s something else.”
He opened the folder.
Inside was a letter addressed to me.
It concerned the scholarship I had supposedly rejected six years earlier.
The foundation had reviewed my original academic record.
May you like
And they were offering me something I never imagined I would see again.
Reinstatement to medical school.
