Page 112 of Bossy Wicked Prince

Her eyes widen, and I can see her anger diluted with hope, fear, and anticipation. “You found him?”

I cringe before I can stop myself. “Maybe we should talk about this another time. Some of what my team found was inconclusive. You’re already upset, and I don’t want to?—”

“No, Nate.Tell me.If you care about me at all, you’ll tell me the truth now. What happened to him?”

My stomach roils. The idea of telling her makes me sick. I can still remember how I felt the day I found out about my father’s second family. The betrayal left scars so deep, I’m still finding damage from them all these years later. I don’t want to hurt her like that.

But she has a right to know. It’s my own damn fault for digging into Patrick without her permission. I have no one to blame for her pain but myself.

“I found him.”

She sucks in a breath. “Is he alive?”

“Yes.”

For a second, she breaks into a watery smile so relieved, it’ll burn into my memory forever. But when she sees the look on my face, that light in her eyes goes dim.

“There’s more,” she says.

“He got clean three years ago. He was able to join a program that took him in during his treatment, and when he graduated, he found work installing solar panels.”

Cat frowns, obviously confused. I brace myself for the story’s end. “He remarried two years ago, to a woman he met online. They have a one-year-old daughter named Hannah.”

Cat’s face is pale-white. She presses a hand to her stomach like she’s about to be sick.

“He never called,” she mutters. “Never tried to reach out. Why…why wouldn’t he…”

She looks so upset, I can’t stand to see it. I stride over to her, ready to pull her into my arms.

She darts away, holding her hands up defensively.

“Don’t touch me!” she cries. “Leave me alone. I know you’re used to using your money to get everything you want, but I’m not just somethingyou can buy or control. I’m a person. I have the right to my fucking privacy, and I get to decide how I deal with my family.”

“I know that,” I rasp, my throat tightening. I don’t have any defense for the rest of it—I know how fucked up I am. All the videos, all the stalking, it was me trying to have control. But she has to know that she’s more than an object to me.

She’s everything.

Cat just shakes her head. “I knew this was a bad idea. I knewyouwere a bad idea, Nate. I should have known better than to think you were the real thing.”

A sharp pain rips through my chest. It’s like my body wants to tear itself apart for what I’ve made Cat feel. I wrack my brain,trying to find a way I can fix this. Ihaveto fix this. I can’t go back to a world without Cat’s warmth.

I come up empty. I just stare at her, drinking in every detail of her beautiful face, in case this is the last time I get to look at her. There will be no more watching her through security cameras. I won’t violate her privacy anymore, not when she’s renounced every claim I might have on her.

She shakes her head. “In case it wasn’t clear, I quit.”

And her words are the final nail in the coffin, sealing me back into a world without a sun.

With her head high, she strolls out of my office. I listen to the faint echoes of her footsteps until the elevator door closes behind her.

It’s like all the strength goes out of me then. I stumble into the living room, where I see Cat’s black coat thrown over the back of the couch. The one I bought her in Paris. I crumple in the seat, holding the coat to my face. For the first time since I can remember, I feel the pressure of tears in my eyes.

I don’t know whether I should blink them away or let them fall.

Part of me is still raging against reality. I’m plagued with visions of chasing her down and kissing her, worshiping her body until she has no choice but to forgive me. Showing her with my actions because I don’t know how to explain it in words.

Another part of me is itching to go right back to my office. I know all the camera shortcuts by heart now—I can follow her path home, making sure nobody else fucking touches her. So far, I haven’t taken advantage of the security cameras inside her building lobby, but I could access them now and stare at her door all night.

I know how fucked up that is, wishing I could go do all the things that made me lose her.