Chapter 311

Olivia

“Wait, Olivia! Please, don’t leave.” Nathan’s voice cracked as he jumped up from the bed.

“What choice do I have, Nathan? I can’t be here, like this, if you can’t even look at me.” My hands trembled as I reached for my bag, trying to shove my things inside.

“Is it that easy for you? To just walk away?” He sounded exasperated, his brows knitted together in a frown that I hadn’t seen in a long time.

“Easy? You think this is easy for me?” I snapped, zipping up my bag with more force than necessary. “I thought we were past all this, past the accusations and the doubt.”

“We are! Olivia, we are past it. It’s just… complicated.”

“Complicated? Really, Nathan? What’s so complicated about wanting to be close to your mate? Or is it just me that’s the issue? Do you wish that I wasn’t your mate? All because of a mistake?”

“Don’t say that. It’s not you. It’s me.”

“Ugh! Don’t give me that cliche line,” I hissed. “You’ve been holding back, treating me like a stranger, Nathan. And I can’t tell if it's because you’re still holding everything against me or because you’re just bottling up your true emotions.”

He ran his fingers through his hair, pacing the floor like a caged animal. “I don't know how to explain it, Liv. But it’s not what you think.”

“Then what is it? Enlighten me, please.”

“Can we just sit down and talk? I’m not good at this.” His soft eyes met mine, filled with a vulnerability that made my heart ache despite my anger.

“Oh, so now you want to talk?” I sighed, my frustration hitting a boiling point. “Nathan, you can’t wine and dine me, bring me to this luxurious hotel, plan this romantic getaway, and then not even want to be near me. What’s the point?”

“I do want to be near you, Liv. You have to know that.” His voice was soft, almost a whisper, as if he was afraid to break the fragile atmosphere that had settled between us.

“How can I? Every time we get close, something pulls you away. And I can’t tell anymore if it’s the witch, the past, or your own unwillingness to move forward.”

“Olivia, I—”

“Just say it, Nathan. Whatever it is, just say it.”

He looked down, his jaw clenched tight as if he were fighting some internal battle. Finally, he exhaled, a deep, shuddering breath that seemed to carry the weight of untold secrets.

“Okay. I have a confession to make,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. “Please sit down.”

I hesitated, my bag still in my hands. Could I sit? Did I want to hear what he had to say? After a moment’s consideration, I relented, setting my bag down and taking a seat on the plush armchair.

Nathan took the seat across from me, and as he looked into my eyes, I saw a glimmer of that old Nathan, the one who would tell me stories by the fire, the one who seemed like an open book. But the man sitting in front of me now was like a mystery, a puzzle I couldn’t solve no matter how hard I tried.

“Okay, I’m listening,” I said softly, offering him that small olive branch. A sign that despite everything, I was still willing to listen, still willing to try.

He nodded, swallowing hard as he mustered the courage to speak. “When I was a kid, my father once abandoned me in the woods for three days…”

My eyes widened at Nathan’s words. “He… What?” I murmured, a wry chuckle escaping my lips. “You’re not serious.”

“Dead serious,” he said, his blue-green eyes meeting mine, filled with a pain that I had never seen before. “Where do I even begin?” His voice trembled, and I could tell this was hard for him. It was a vulnerability I’d rarely seen in him.

“Just… start from the beginning,” I encouraged, my hand reaching out to rest on his knee.

He sighed and started speaking. “You know how sometimes, kids do naughty things, not necessarily bad but just mischievous kid stuff?”

I nodded. “Yeah, that’s just part of growing up.”

"Well, when I was about seven, I did something like that. I can’t even remember what it was—probably didn’t clean my room the right way or got into the cookie jar or something. You know, normal kid stuff. Anyway, my dad got really mad. Like… really mad.”

I frowned. Colin had always been overly stern ever since we were kids, and I could only imagine what he had done back then. “What did he do, exactly?”

“He took me for a drive. Said we were going on a father-son trip, but I could tell he was angry, you know?” Nathan’s voice was heavy with emotion, each word drawn from a well of memories he’d clearly kept sealed for years. “He drove me out far, really far, into the middle of nowhere. And then he told me to get out of the car.”

“He just left you there?” My voice rose, incredulous and filled with horror.

Nathan nodded, his eyes far away. “He told me to find my own way home. And then he drove off.”

“Nathan, that’s—”

“It was terrifying,” he cut me off, his voice finally breaking. “I was just a kid. A little kid. I didn’t know what to do. I was stranded in an unfamiliar forest, alone, and frightened out of my mind.”

My chest tightened at the thought of a young Nathan, lost and alone. I could picture him now, with his cute little squishy cheeks, standing alone in the middle of the forest. “What did you do?”

“Honestly, I’m not sure how I did it. But I had no idea where I was, no way to get back home. I survived by eating small animals. Squirrels mostly.” He grimaced at the memory.

My stomach churned, not from disgust but from a deep, searing anger. “How could he do that to you?”

Nathan shook his head. “I don’t know. But after three days, I finally stumbled upon a road. It looked vaguely familiar, so I followed it until I reached home.”

“God, Nathan, that’s awful.”

“You have no idea. When I got home, I was so thirsty, I downed a gallon of water. It made me throw up instantly. I was exhausted, crying, my hands and feet were bloody, but do you know what my dad said?”

I shook my head, afraid to hear the answer but needing to know.

“He said I should have learned my lesson by now. And my mom? She stayed quiet. She didn’t want to go against my dad.” Anger flared in his eyes, but it was laced with so much pain that it made my heart ache.

“I can’t believe it. That’s…that’s not discipline, Nathan. That’s abuse.”

He looked down, grappling with the words as if saying them out loud made them more real. “I never told anyone, Olivia. But that experience, it scarred me. I vowed then and there, no matter what happened, I would never abandon my future children. I’d never put them through something like that.”