The Price of Letting Go

Nathan Cole had been overseas on business for two weeks.

The night he came back, he kept me in bed until well past midnight.

Afterward, I could barely lift an arm. It took a while before I noticed the empty box on the nightstand. The last one.

I reached for my phone to order more condoms. I always bought them. Nathan never bothered with it.

This time, just as I was about to pay, he took the phone out of my hand.

“Don't order them yet.”

I paused.

He offered no explanation. Leaning back against the headboard, he opened my shipping information, deleted the default address, and typed in one I didn't recognize. Right in front of me.

I stared at the screen for a few seconds.

“Where's that?”

“Ethan Mercer's place.”

He said it casually, as though there were nothing strange about it.

For a moment, I couldn't make sense of what he meant.

“Why would I have them sent there?”

He looked down at me and smiled.

“Claire Bennett, how long have you been with me?”

My fingers curled slightly against the sheet.

“Four years.”

“That long, huh?” He gave another little laugh, as if he'd just realized how long he'd been using something.

“Then it's about time you had someone new.”

——————————

Something sank in my chest.

Before I could speak, Nathan tossed his own phone in front of me.

The screen was still lit. A text conversation was open.

Ethan: You can have the Westside development deal. Let me have some fun with Claire Bennett.

Nathan: Deal.

Two short messages.

I stared at them until the screen went dark.

“Don't look like that.” Nathan glanced at me. “Ethan's not going to eat you alive.”

My throat tightened. “Why me?”

“He asked for you.”

“I mean…” My voice grew quieter. “Why did you agree?”

Nathan looked as though I'd asked something absurd. He lounged against the headboard, as casually indifferent as ever.

“One woman for a forty-five-million-dollar project. I'm coming out ahead any way you look at it. Why wouldn't I agree?”

That was all it took to destroy the last excuse I'd been making for him.

Suddenly, I was cold.

Minutes earlier, this man had been holding me, whispering Claire into my ear. Now he could hand me over to someone else without a second thought.

He hadn't even considered asking me.

Perhaps, to Nathan, I had never been someone whose opinion mattered. I was something he owned. Something to keep while he enjoyed it, then trade for something more valuable when he got bored.

I slowly sat up.

When I put my feet on the carpet, I brushed against the shopping bag beside the bed. A velvet box sat inside it.

I'd ordered those cuff links for Nathan two weeks ago. Silver-gray. The kind he always wore.

Before his trip, he'd mentioned that the finish on his old pair was wearing off. I'd remembered. It had taken a long search and a favor from someone I knew to find the right ones.

I'd planned to give them to him tonight.

There was no point now.

I bent down, picked up the bag, and tucked the velvet box back inside.

“All right.”

Nathan frowned instead of looking satisfied. “That's it?”

I looked up. “What else should I say? You've made your decision, Mr. Cole. Do I have another option?”

His smile faded for a moment. He probably wasn't used to hearing that tone from me.

For years, I'd done whatever he wanted. He didn't like questions about his schedule, so I stopped asking. He didn't want me mentioning our relationship in public, so I acted like a stranger when other people were around.

If he called drunk at two in the morning, I'd cross the entire city to get him. If his stomach acted up, I'd stay beside him all night.

When he was pleased with me, he'd pull me close and murmur my name. When he wasn't, he'd tell me to get out.

I'd never held those swings against him.

Four years earlier, Nathan had paid the outstanding bill for my mother's final surgery. It hadn't saved her. But at twenty, I'd still thought of him as the person who'd come to my rescue.

Then that debt had turned into something else.

“Can't pay me back? Then be with me.”

So I had. For four years.

No official relationship. No promises.

Nathan always said he hated women who made things complicated. I'd worked hard to be the one who never did.

Eventually, even his family had acknowledged the difference. Other women around Nathan were pretty and agreeable, good to look at but not much use beyond that.

I could handle hostile investors. Smooth things over at business dinners. Even his friends joked that I was less a kept woman than the partner holding everything together behind the scenes.

Apparently, being useful didn't keep you from getting traded once he'd had you long enough.

Nathan studied me for a few seconds, then smiled again.

“Come on. Enough with the attitude.” He held out a hand. “Come here.”

Every other time, I would have gone to him.

This time, I stayed where I was.

His hand remained suspended between us. The smile slowly left his face.

“Claire, don't sulk.” After a pause, his voice softened into something almost coaxing. “It's already settled. We might as well enjoy what little time we have left together.”

I looked at him. “I'm not sulking.”

I picked up my clothes from the floor and put them on, one piece at a time.

Nathan's frown deepened.

I finished fastening the last tie before looking at him again.

“Since you've decided I belong to Mr. Mercer now, you shouldn't touch me anymore, Mr. Cole.”

Every trace of amusement disappeared from his eyes.

“You're certainly settling into the role fast.”

I watched him quietly. After a moment, I said, “I had a good teacher.”