Unraveling

Nate’s Pov

The blood stains on the sheets stayed with me for months.

It's been months since Avery left, six months and I still see it. Dark red blood against the white sheet, something I took when I had no right to take anything from her.

I took those sheets off and burned them myself. I couldn't let the staff know I just slept with my wife of fourteen months. But the image remained, seared in my mind like a brand.

The first two months after she left had been fine, good even. Celeste and I got engaged, planning our future we once dreamed about. For a while, I convinced my self this was what happiness looked like.

By the third month, things changed. Small things at first. I would wake up reaching for someone who wasn't there. I see her face in crowds, and I hear her quiet voice in an empty room.

By the fourth month, it got worse and Celeste noticed. She started asking questions I had no answer to. I blamed work, stress, anything but the truth.

Five to six months were worse. Constant argument. Fights started. Nothing I did was right and nothing she said made anything better.

Then there was my father. His coldness didn't help things either. He hadn’t looked at me since the divorce. When business brings us together at Sterling industries, his disappointment was present, heavy and suffocating.

Now, I sat in my office, staring at the contract I can’t absorb. The words blur together, they become meaningless. Everything felt meaningless lately.

My chest felt hollow, like something had been scraped out and left empty.

Guilt crawled under my skin. Not just guilt about that night, though that was there too. The way I had behaved to her during those months, the way I accused her of carrying someone else's child, the way I yanked her out of my room when she caught me in bed with Celeste, the way I saw every part of her then letting her walk away like it meant nothing.

Where was she now? Was she safe? Did she hate me enough to disappear forever?

The question never stopped. They live in my head constantly and tortuously.

I tried finding her once, hired investigators even, called the penthouse, and watched her bank account. Nothing, like she vanished like she never existed and somehow that hurt more than anything else.

My office door flew open.

Celeste stood there with her phone in one hand, wedding binder in the other. Her face was flushed.

“The Plaza.” She said, voice shaking. “We’re losing the venue. They need final confirmation and fifty thousand dollars by five o’clock today.”

I looked up. “Can’t you just handle it?”

“It needs both our signatures.” She slammed the binder on my desk. “And you’ve been dodging my calls all week.”

“I’ve been busy.”

“Busy.” She laughed bitterly. “Too busy to show up to the florist last Tuesday? I sat there alone for an hour, Nate. The wedding planner called yesterday asking if we’re still getting married because you haven’t answered a single email in two months..”

I had forgotten completely.

“I’ll respond, Celeste, it’s just that work has been intense.” I lied

“Work.” Her voice dropped. “You cancelled my mother’s birthday dinner for work, you forgot our anniversary last week, you haven’t touched me in over a month! What kind of work does that?”

“Celeste...”

“Nate! Do you know what it feels like planning our wedding alone while my fiancé doesn’t care at all?”

She grabbed the binder, shoved it at me. “Pick one. Right now. Orchids or roses! One decision now Nate.”

I stared at the pages, they all looked the same to me.

“I don’t care about flowers.”

Her face went pale at first, then red.

“You don’t care.” She repeated slowly. “You don’t care about the flowers, the venue, the honeymoon. What do you care about, Nate? Because it’s clearly not this wedding.”

“I care about you.”

“Do you?” She stared at me. “Because it feels like I am begging for crumbs! It feels to me you are not interested at all! It's like you’re somewhere else!”

She moved toward the door.

“The deposit is due at five. If you can’t be there to sign, then maybe we shouldn’t be getting married at all.”

“Wait.” I stood. “I’ll be there, I won’t cancel this time.”

She looked back , eyes tired “You’ve said that before.”

She walked out and the door closed quietly.

I stood there, staring at the wedding binder on my desk.

She was right. I had checked out.

I needed to stop this, stop thinking about Avery, stop letting her ghost ruin what I had now. I had Celeste now, the woman I have been in love with since I was twenty. I had my life back, I had everything I’d wanted.

I grabbed my phone and left my office, headed down the hall toward the elevator. My father’s office was on the same floor, the door usually closed.

But today it was slightly opened. I heard his voice loud and angry.

I wanted to keep walking, mind my own business but I moved closer to the door.

“What do you mean you can't control your feelings?” My father's voice thundered through the door. “That wasn't our plan.”

I stood frozen. What plan?

“She has been through a lot already!” my father’s voice cracked. “Because of this family, because of what he did, because of what we did!”

Who is she? We? This family? What the fuck did we do to someone to make my father this angry?

“I trusted you!” The pain in his voice was raw and real now. "I asked you to watch over her, not to fall in love with her!”

“Do you understand what this means?” My father continued. “What happens if he finds out? If she finds out who you really are?”

“You’ve complicated everything!”His voice rose again, now desperate. “Everything I’ve done! Everything I have sacrificed for her to keep her safe from them!”

Them. There is it again, them.

“Listen to me carefully.” My father’s tone dropped, cold and final. “You stay away from her! You hear me?”

Is he…?

“You weren't supposed to fall in love with her!” His voice rose, echoing down the hallway, broken.

Is he…talking about…Avery?